New Flint Theatre Guild hosts summer festival with 3 productions

FLINT, Michigan—A new local theatre company — launched just three months ago as the Flint Theatre Guild by Flint resident Shelly Hoffman — is staging a first-ever Summer Theatre Festival.

The festival will feature three, nearly consecutive productions starting this week with “The Real Inspector Hound,”  a Tom Stoppard classic that features local thespians in the show that bills itself the “absurdist comedy.” The entire Summer Theatre Festival will be housed in the Black Box Theatre at the University of Michigan-Flint.   

“We wanted to launch our inaugural season in a fun, yet meaningful, way and ‘Hound’ is just the right vehicle for that,” said Hoffman, Flint Theatre Guild’s founder and president. “While it is humorous, it also offers much to think about.”  

The festival’s premier production runs daily at 7 p.m. July 11-13 and 3 p.m. on July 14. 

It will be followed by Samuel D. Hunter’s “A Bright New Boise” with Guest Director Tomoko Y. Miller. This is a dark comedy containing harsh language and mature themes. It will be staged at 7 p.m. July 25, 8 p.m. July 26, 7 p.m. July 27, and 3 p.m. July 28. 

Closing out the summer festival is “Painting Churches” by Tina Howe, which also will be directed by Hoffman. An emotional and humorous look at a family dealing with dementia, “Painting Churches” will  run at 7 p.m. Aug. 8, 9, 10, 16, and 17 as well as 3 p.m. Aug. 18.

Tickets cost $15 and can be purchased at FlintTheatreGuild.Eventbrite.com or (810) 201-4802.