Flux Theatre Ensemble

Should Cotton, playing Rene, tell the story of Justin and her honey hand?
Yes, yes she should.
What's that you say? Hankering for the picture of a rainbow-neck deer? Hanker no longer.

We smiled for the camera...and closed the party down.

For pics from past Have Anothers, click here, and here, and here, and here, and here, and here. And if you were there, share your thoughts in the comments below!
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Is Crocker Dial good or evil? Well, he's an agent of change, shall we say...and right now, he's pouring some change in Tiggy's dreaming ear.
In Kristen Palmer's Sacrifice, teenage Emmie makes a play to change the world with the (very) willing help of a smitten Montgomery.
In Denny and Lila, con artist Lila may be making some headway with the good doctor Marcus.
Her con artist partner Denny is hitting it off with Lucia, much to Jabber's approval.
What would a Have Another pictoral round up be without the magical program-plus-drink shot? For pics from past Have Anothers, click here, and here, and here, and here, and here. And if you were there, share your thoughts in the comments below! Read the full story

Much like an elephant, I won't soon forget our 7th Food:Soul of Miss Lilly Gets Boned. Please leave your thoughts on the play and the event itself in the comment field below. To whet your mindblade, I offer up these pictures from photogenie Isaiah Tanenbaum.






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About the play:
Miss Lilly, a Sunday school teacher, has been waiting patiently for God to drop a man in her lap. When a new student disturbs the harmony of her classroom and his father disturbs the harmony of her heart, Miss Lilly is forced to re-examine her own sense of faith and self. Right or wrong, sinful or holy - a natural force is at work in Miss Lilly's classroom where her hymns are accompanied by the rumble of angry elephants and her prayers are answered by a stranger to her god.

About the playwright:
Bekah Brunstetter's plays include A LONG AND HAPPY LIFE (Naked Angels, Spring 2011), OOHRAH! (The Atlantic Theater) and HOUSE OF HOME (Williamstown Theater festival.) She is a member of the Primary Stages writer's group, a Playwright's Realm Fellow, and resident playwright of the Finborough Theater, London, where MISS LILLY received its debut in the Summer of 2010. MISS LILLY has also been developed with the Lark, Luna Stage the Babel Theater Project. MFA, The New School. www.bekahbrunstetter.com Read the full story

Ken Glickfeld to the rescue!

With our usual Flux Sunday spaces occupied, Ken rode to our rescue, allowing our theatre-making momentum to continue. I had thought we'd only be able to read scripts, but he was willing for us to stage scenes, and though that shift led to a time miscalculation on my part, some lovely work happened.

Playwrights: Katherine Burger (Ever Ever), Fengar Gael (Devil Dog Six), Brian Pracht (Unplugged In), August Schulenburg (The Hand That Moves)

Directors: Heather Cohn, Katherine, Brian, August

Actors: Jane Taylor, Kimberly Klein, David Crommett, Ken Glickfeld, Lynn Kenny, Alisha Spielmann, Ryan Andes, Kathleen Wise, Chudney Sykes, Damon Kinard, Candice Holdorf, Leila Okafur

Highlights:
-Um, holy crap, Lynn Kenny. Evidently, she had a big bowlful of Acting for breakfast. Not only did she ably navigate Lois' tricky future-vision scene in The Hand That Moves, but her performance as Leah in Unplugged In was high strung as Christmas lights on the top of the tree. Yeah, that metaphor may have failed, but how would you describe that awesomeness?
-The many hats of the day award went to impressive newcomer Chudney Sykes, who rocked out a lovestruck do-gooder, a Jamaican nurse, and outraged slacker dude, respectively.
-Strong direction from both Heather and Brian sharing the end of Unplugged In, with Lynn's scene above matched by go-for-broke turns in the blinding scene from Candice as Zero and Leila Okafur as Leah.
-Ryan Andes's playing of Jean-Pierre in Devil Dog Six - he was as French as a baguette made out of berets (metaphor failure again?).
-Kathleen Wise and Alisha "Paint It Black" Spielmann making some invisible/banana children feel all too real.

If you were there, what did you remember before the Feud benefit made you forget? Read the full story

Our second Sunday at Judson Memorial Church was also our first with audience members from their congregation - exciting! And they were certainly treated to a wide variety of um, entertainments, shall we say?

Playwrights: Katherine Burger (Ever Ever), Fengar Gael (The Spell Caster), Kristen Palmer (Untitled), Brian Pracht (Wendell Wants), August Schulenburg (Presents, Denny and Lila), Daren Taylor (Porn Makes Jesus Cry)

Directors: Ryan Andes, Matthew Archambault, Katherine Burger, Heather Cohn

Actors: Elise Link, Alisha Spielmann, Antoinette Broderick, Gretchen Poulos, Susan Ferrara, David Crommett, Mariam Habib, Amy Staats, Ken Glickfeld, Brent Rose, Jane Taylor

Highlights included:
-Susan gracefully making the tempo gear shift in her cold read of the sad end of my monologue Presents ( lovely to hear 5 different actresses take a crack at Keely), not to mention her chill/shiver inducing turn as Janet in Kristen's play dealing with a violent act long planned and suddenly done
-Elise's lovely moment as Lila reaching out to child Denny as Jabber remembers walking behind them when they were young, and hand in hand (and is it weird that watching Gatz I thought that Denny and Lila bore a strange resemblance to The Great Gatsby?)
-Brian Pracht is a merrier (so far) mood in his Wilderesque comedy of growing up, Wendell Wants
-Alisha rocking another one of Kristen's ladies as Emily in a funny/tense scene with Isaiah
-Jane as a love-struck middle-aged Wendy still in awe of Peter in Katherine's Ever Ever
-Matt Archambault's high stakes staging of Daren's Porn Makes Jesus Cry
-Heather's transformation into soul-sucking snake in The Spell Caster!

This was a Flux Sunday where we finished two plays, Denny and Lila and The Spell Caster; and began several new ones, and so it goes for as long as we can keep going.

What were your favorite highlights? Read the full story

Flux Sunday has gone through several significant evolutions, and on October 17th, we took the next good-sized step forward. It was our first Flux Sunday hosted by Judson Memorial Church, and it was an auspicious beginning to that hopefully long-lived partnership.

It was our first day back on our feet staging things since leaving NYR Studios, and it was good to be moving again. The difference between a cold read and an audience engaging with an hour's worth of staging is all the difference in the world.

It was our first day with an audience member for the last hour - Jonny Goodman and Joe Powell joined us, and we hope to have more Judsonites engage with the work in the future.

It was the first day for the amazing Amy Staats of Hearts Like Fists fame, and one of the first days someone took advantage of our new guest policy (thank you, Mr. Szymkowicz; welcome, Mr. Rose).

AND...it was the first time we ever had a baby in the Flux Sunday house! Kira and Joe's beautiful daughter Dylan was exposed to some high levels of theatre, and we soaked in the cute. On a day when Flux took a big step forward in our mission to building a creative home, Dylan's presence seemed right.

Oh, and we worked plays, too. Here are the peeps and the highlights:

Playwright: Kira Blaskovich (Untitled), Katherine Burger (Legends of Batvia, Ever Ever), Zack Calhoon (Untitled), Brian Pracht (Unplugged In), August Schulenburg (Denny and Lila)

Actors: Ryan Andes, Amy Staats, Gretchen Poulos, Mariam Habib, Kari Swenson Riely, David Crommett, Anthony Wills Jr, Alisha Spielmann, Ken Glickfeld, Marnie Schulenburg, Tiffany Clementi, Brent Rose, Isaiah Tanenbaum, Nora Hummel

Directors: Kira, Katherine, Ken, Tiffany

Highlights included:
- Kira's debut as a playwright AND director with Flux (we've known her primarily as an actor); with her nuanced, deeply felt scene between two old lovers, feeling each other out; and a vital staging of the madcap tragic climax of Denny and Lila (we made it to the cliff, and are about to jump)
-Marnie and Tiffany playing a pair of bad news rich girls in Zack's new play; so hung over they can barely text, they still made the scene snap with laughs and a textured friendship - who knew the line "you're not fat" could have so many comic layers?
-Alisha's LEAH in Unplugged In was somehow both terrifyingly manic and movingly vulnerable; though after two straight shout outs for the actors playing LEAH, I'm beginning to suspect Brian's rewrite of her may have something to do with it, too
-Katherine's new play Ever Ever, about Peter, Wendy and the Lost Boys some 40 years later, still trapped in their boyish Never Land. Its whimsical surface hides a white knuckled anxiety that was a joy to play.

If you were there for Flux and Judson's big Sunday...what did you walk away with? Read the full story

(What is Flux Sunday?)

After 3 weeks off for our 5th Annual Retreat (aka, Flux Sunday all day long), we returned to action with a high spirited Flux Sunday.

Playwrights: Johnna Adams (Nurture), Fengar Gael (The Spell Caster), August Schulenburg (Denny and Lila, The Refrigerator Hums)

Actors: Isaiah Tanenbaum, David Crommett, Alisha Spielmann, Richard Watson, Candice Holdorf, Nancy Franklin, Matthew Archambault, Tiffany Clementi

Highlights:
-David Crommett as Doug reading a litany of comforting, loving words in his near-oblivious effort to win over Cheryl in Johnna Adams' Nurture. It's been so exciting to watch him get more of this role every time!
-Finally getting to share Isaiah Tanenbaum's work on Marcus in Denny and Lila - we'd worked on it at the retreat, but ran out of time to share some of the scenes.
-Mary's super-theatrical mirror-maze scene in The Spell Caster - the carnies chasing each other through the distorting maze, and through Mayra's strange powers of perception - I'd love to see this scene on stage
-Nancy Franklin as the Italian conjurer of self, Louisa, in The Spell Caster - when she speaks as this character, we all look around and smile at how good she is in the role
-Our post Flux Sunday impromptu hang out w/Candice, Tiffany, Alisha, Heather and I...sometimes, you're not quite ready for Flux Sundays to be over (hence the incoming innovation of Speak Easy - more on that anon!)

If you were there, what highlights or discoveries did I miss? Read the full story

What is Flux Sunday?

Yes, I know, I owe you reports from from 7/11 and 7/18. But I'd like to start a new trend of blogging about Flux Sunday immediately afterwards, so all those who atteneded can chime in with thoughts, before time steals them.

Playwrights: Johnna Adams (Nurture), Zack Calhoon (Obamaville), James Comtois (McTeague), Kristen Palmer (The Stray Dog), Brian Pracht (The Mysoginist), Adam Szymkowicz (Curently Untitled), August Schulenburg (What Is Outside)

Actors: Isaiah Tanenbaum, Jane Taylor, David Crommett, Alisha Spielmann, Christina Shipp, Nancy Franklin, Matthew Archambault, Ken Glickfeld

Yup, we had a bevy of playwrights (a quill of playwrights?) and a whole bunch of pages. It was a solid three hour sandwhich of theatre, and I left full.

Highlights included:

-Johnna Adams's new play, Nurture. The tyrannical mother Cheryl and her obliviously smitten suitor Doug bond over their strange dancing daughters in a scene of shocking comic vitality. I'm not sure we quite got the the tone of this one - I have a hunch it is quicker and more deadpan - but it seems like an exciting new style for Johnna, and I can't wait to see where it goes.

-The scene between 'best friends' Jim and the dying Matt in Adam's new play; Jim's completely insincere attempt at empathy has all of us appalled and laughing

-Things getting ugly in The Mysoginist, with a particularly unsettling scene between Matt Archambault's Ethan and Alisha Spielmann's Libby (Alisha turned in several strong performances)

-The air of mystique pervading the first scene of Kristen's new play, tentatively called The Stray Dog. Curiosity, piqued.

-Ken Glickfeld as Curtis and David Crommett as James going toe to toe in Zack's Obamaville; things don't end well for this Tea Party; but even sitting round an office table, they weren't afraid to blow things up.

-Ken again in the shyly lovely courtship scene between Grannis and Nancy Franklin's Miss Baker in James' McTeague. Aww. And we needed some awww...it was a Sunday made up mostly of blackest comedy and violent drama.

It was great to have so many playwrights bringing pages that seemed to be pushing in new directions; or further in old ones; and I look forward to the next round.

SO...if you were there, lay down some cool wisdom in the comments field, y'here? Read the full story

(What is Flux Sunday?)

Playwrights: Johnna Adams (The Anguisher), James Comtois (McTeague), Mary Fengar Gael (The Gallerist), Kristen Palmer (Sacrifice), Adam Szymkowicz (My Base and Scurvy Heart)

Directors: Heather Cohn, MFG, August Schulenburg

Actors: Amy Fitts, Brian Pracht, Alisha Spielmann, Isaiah Tanenbaum, Richard Watson, Nancy Franklin, Paula Roman, Ryan Andes, Cotton Wright, Becky Kelly

And then, after two Flux Sundays that pushed the time limit of 3 hours, we somehow how fit our best Flux Sunday in some time into 2 hours (there was a last minute space issue). Woosh!

Part of it was the quality of material - all the plays were strong. Part of it was directors and actors making good choices quickly. And part of it was that weird alchemy that sometimes is kind enough to bubble up mysteriously from the work.

Highlights included:
- Alisha Spielmann's spirited turn as the hyper intelligent teen Emmie in Kristen's Sacrifice
- James Comtois' creep-inducing turn as the scarred but hungry Henry in Johnna's The Anguisher
- Amy Fitts somehow completely believable channeling of a monkey in Mary's The Gallerists
- Nancy Franklin's adorably smitten Miss Baker in James' McTeague - when will she and Old Grannis get together, damn it?!?
- Adam's deliriously funny opening scene of his new pirate play, My Base and Scurvy Heart; which thankfully had Johnna as one of the fierce pirate lasses

Artists who attended, what were your favorite moments? Read the full story