Emerging playwright Christina Ham is building up some steam in 2012. In January, she contributed a playlet on Martin Luther King, Jr., to "1968," the History Theatre's successful stage anthology about that turbulent year. In March, her full-length play, "The Tiny Soldier," had an oversubscribed workshop reading at the Playwrights' Center, where out-of-town directors came to check it out and are considering her work. This Friday, Ham's savagely funny new drama, "Crash Test Dummies," premieres at Red Eye Theater in Minneapolis. The California native, who earned a master's of fine arts degree in playwriting from UCLA, takes a look at the impact of the economic downturn on one family in "Dummies." The drama, which was commissioned by Red Eye, centers on the Kirkpatricks, the last family that is occupying a home in an unnamed upper class neighborhood that is full of foreclosed houses. The Kirkpatricks try to make their own utopia amid the economic wreckage. The cast includes KBEM jazz announcer Ed Jones as patriarch Emmett; Red Eye honcho Miriam Must as his sister, Mallory; Ryan Lindberg as Emmett's son, Cooper, a laid-off General Motors engineer; and Amanda Whisner as daughter-in-law, Grace. Steve Busa directs. "The inspiration came from some articles I read in the L.A. Times about how people were coping with the economic meltdown," said Ham, who moved to the Twin Cities in 2005 on a Jerome Foundation fellowship and is now a core member of the Playwrights Center. "Some people were squatting in these houses with swimming pools and what not. So, I wanted to tell that type of story, but not from the economic group that we're used to seeing from Tracy Letts or Sam Shepard. I wanted to focus on a John Guare-style middle-class family." Ham, who is African-American, has written a play where, at least in this premiere, all the characters are played by white actors. "But they can be any race," she said. "I wanted the main focus to be on the economics, not race." She also had a practical reason for such casting, she quickly added. Red Eye is a non-union house "and nearly all the African-American actors in town are [members of the Actors] Equity [union]." "This is a longer discussion about opportunities, about how theater is made in America and about the life of a playwright," she continued. "But I'm glad to have the opportunity to write this play." "Crash Test Dummies" opens at 8 p.m. Fri., Red Eye, 15 W 14th St., Mpls. $20-$25. 612-870-0309 or online.