Flux Theatre Ensemble

SOMETIMES, things get a little messy. And so it was with our participation in Battle of the Bards, Partial Comfort Productions fund-raiser that pitted us against 6 other companies (PCP included) to write a short play based on a TV remote control.

The event was structured a little like an Elizabethan playhouse - the VIPs and celebrities sat in a separate section with a bouncer, while the only place to sit for us groundlings was the bathroom (which were fine and private places). The mics broke in and out, the audience mushed and moshed, and the Harvard Sailing Team valiantly strove against all obstacles to bring the funny.

And Flux did all right! Our little play managed to be the audience's second favorite, thanks in large part to our wonderful community of artists and audience who came out in force. I was thrilled by the response to the play, especially the show-stopping laugh Tiffany Clementi landed as the Avatar of Radio; though we ended up feeling a bit like we brought a knife to a bludgeon party.

Congratulations are in order for Ma-Yi, who took the hot button issue of radicalism in gay politics and pushed that button until the audience exploded - their applause was bone-shaking. They not only won the audience favorite, but came in second for critic's favorite (though I'm uncertain how our poor celeb/critics were able to see/hear anything - they were so far away they might as well have been at the Oscars).

And nabbing their first critics favorite award was the home town team, Partial Comfort Productions! Their absurdist-meta skit featured an opening from last year's Battle, a Christian Bale spoof, and then a clever rap about, well, how they were going to beat the other teams. My favorite bit was the rhyme of "panacking'" and "manequin". Oh, did I mention they had a tuba and someone dressed as a remote control? Yup, they pulled out all the stops and deserved the victory. Congratulations Ma-Yi and Partial Comfort!

But the highlight of the evening, at least for us, was the bizarre tribal dance circle that somehow happened after the plays were over. It started with a few purses placed in the middle of our circle, and ended with shirts, bras, phones, programs and even a miraculously removed pair of underwear; all piled higher and higher as Fluxers and then strangers gathered round our circle to dance. We brought a play about the Gods of TV, Internet and the Radio, but we ended the night getting down to a more pagan god entirely. There are more pictures...but this is a respectable blog.

A deepheart felt thanks to everyone who braved the chairless, deafening environment to cheer us on; to the cast and Heather for making my tricky play sing; to Becca Doyle, Susan Melissa Dahl, and Jason ??? for making the tech and the performance run so smoothly; to Electric Pear, Youngblood, Naked Angels, Fire Department, PCP and Ma-Yi for the dancing, singing, Vidyasagaring, electro-schocking, mocking, name-dropping, shit-talking, hip-hopping, pant-dropping, remote-control-sodomozing evening of theatre; and most of all, to Molly and Chad, our hosts at Partial Comfort Productions, for giving us a chance to jump in the mosh pit. From all of us at Flux we say thank you as we drop our pants and dance a jig.