Flux Theatre Ensemble

On November 26, 2007, in our 6th post on the Flux Blog, I explained Flux Sundays, our then year old weekly workshop process. This process has undergone a subtle but important evolution, and it seems therefore important to post a revised explanation of just what, exactly, a Flux Sunday is and does.

Flux Sunday is a weekly workshop process that brings 10-30 actors, playwrights and directors together to read and lightly stage 3-8 scenes. Directors have an hour and a half to two hours to lightly stage the scenes, and then we gather together for the last hour to share them. Flux Sundays are almost always on Sunday (natch) from 4 to 7PM at our new home, Judson Memorial Church.

The goals of Flux Sunday are:

• To build a creative home for Members and Friends of Flux through the sustained, long term collaboration of making theatre on a weekly basis
• To develop new plays with the intention of moving them into Have Anothers, Food:Souls and full production.
• To explore relationships with new playwrights, actors and directors beyond the hit-and-run of auditions/interviews.
• To empower Members and Friends of Flux to shape Flux's destiny by inviting new artists to Flux Sunday through our new Guest Policy.

This new Guest Policy allows any permanent invitee of Flux Sunday to invite any artist to attend any Flux Sunday they attend themselves. This not only brings new talent to Flux, but allows our core community an active role in shaping Flux's work. The exception is playwrights, who should still submit plays through fluxplaysubmission@gmail.com. This policy difference reflects the profound impact playwrights have on the Flux Sunday experience.

While these workshops were previously closed to audience, our revised Mission Statement and Core Values seek to blur the divisions between artists and audience in building a creative home. To that end, we're continuing to extend the audience's role in our developmental work, and as Flux Sunday is the heart of that work, it makes sense to open it up. Therefore, the last hour of Flux Sunday (usually 6PM) is now open to members of Judson and Flux's wider community. Look for the next scheduled Flux Sunday in our Up Next section, and email me at gus at fluxtheatre dot org if you'd like to attend.

Furthermore, our last audition process has convinced me that we need a better way of meeting new artists. Not only did we end up seeing less than 10% of those who submitted, but the audition process itself is antithetical to the collaborative process of making theatre, and it is very easy to mistake an average artist who is a great auditioner for a great artist who is an average auditioner. The warm, collaborative spirit of Flux Sunday seems a far better way to sound the true spirit of an artist. To that end, I'm hoping to soon announce a new way of joining us for Flux Sundays - please stay tuned for that.

Flux Sunday was one of the first programmatic decisions the Ensemble made after our founding, and it remains the cornerstone and catalyst of everything we do. Hopefully, this new evolution will make us even stronger.