Flux Theatre Ensemble

(Photo: Isaiah Tanenbaum. Pictured: Tiffany Clementi, August Schulenburg, Christina Shipp, Cotton Wright)

WET OR, ISABELLA THE PIRATE QUEEN ENTERS THE HORSE LATITUDES
by Liz Duffy Adams
Directed by Kelly O'Donnell

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

(What is Flux Sunday?)

Well, this was an unusual Flux Sunday. Due to a perfect storm of summer vacations and busy playwrights, yours truly was the only contributor of pages to this particular Flux Sunday. Luckily, I had a lot of them!

Playwrights: August Schulenburg (Dream Walker, Deinde)

Actors: Johnna Adams, Greg Waller, Scott Barnhardt, Elise Link, Ken Glickfeld, Isaiah Tanenbaum, Tiffany Clementi, Brian Pracht, Heather Cohn, Kari Swenson Reily, Debargo Senyal, Matthew Archambault

Highlights included:
-This lucky playwright getting to hear the entire second act of Dream Walker all at a go, a day after finishing it!
-Elise Link having a fantastic Sunday as both Dawn in Dream Walker and Mindy in Deinde
- Debargo and Brian spinning a beautiful rhapsody of brothers dreaming at the close of Dream Walker

While I was grateful to hear my 60+ pages, I was very glad when the next Flux Sunday featured the return of some of our playwrights! But more on that past Sunday in the very near future... Read the full story

(This is not a picture of playwright Erin Browne, which alas I could not find. This is a picture of Elise Link, who so memorably played Belle Walker in Trying.)

This last Sunday we finished reading through Erin Browne's beautiful and sad play Trying, and due to my own chaotic running of the day, we did not have time to discuss it. And it is a play people should be talking about!

The plot is straightforward and simple: two sisters, Lena (19) and Chels (21) are left by their parents after something horrible happens. Fending for themselves is made more difficult by their poverty, and Chels' pregnancy. This hardship draws them together, even as Lena the younger struggles to find her own identity independent of her family.

After a fight of sorts, Lena goes to buy a book, her current means of escape. But the nature of the book she purchases prompts the clerk, Belle Walker, to ask Lena out on a date. Flustered and flattered, Lean eventually accepts.

And eventually tells her sister, who at first views her sister's relationship with a woman with confusion, then hopeful amusement. As Walker and Lena's relationship deepens into something more than a fling, however; Chels recognizes that her sister may be leaving her just when she needs her most. The conflicting pulls of love and family, desire and duty, play subtly out at Lena tries to have them both, and realizing she can't, decides between the two.

The first play of Erin's Flux worked through on our Sunday's was Narrator 1, a fascinating, theatrical exploration of how the inner life of characters in novels was mirrored in real life by that of their novelists. In that play, Erin mined great comic and ironic power from the theatricalization (word?) of that subtext.

In Trying, however, that subtext is buried more traditionally beneath the words, causing the ironic power to become heartbreakingly sincere. Each of the scenes is so simple: a girl buys a book and gets out asked on a date; a dinner to meet the family is thrown; lovers talk about their scars and are accepted in spite or because of them; people knit and nervously eat fast food and try to ignore each other while reading; but through it all, a simple question begins to grow, until it becomes almost unbearable - can Lena be there for her sister and for her new love? And then that question becomes something even more difficult - is it even possible for Lena to have a different kind of life than the one she grew up with? And if so, does it mean leaving that good parts of the life she grew up with behind? These questions of identity become so powerful because they are so deeply rooted in incompatible relationships of love.

And the process of working through this play was particularly exciting because it featured the strengths of the Flux Sunday structure: we were able to see different directors and different actors takes on the roles while simultaneously seeing certain artists return to the play every week. Elise Link's Walker, Anja Braanstorm's Chels, Hannah Rose Peck's Lena and Cotton Wright's work in both roles and as a director brought a growing understanding to their work on the play every week; and that work culminated in the final two beautiful scenes last Sunday (and I must also mention Gretchen Polous' work as a lovely first time Lena!)

We're still figuring out how to make these Sundays run better; and I regret we didn't have a chance to talk about the play as a company; but I encourage all who read this blog and loved the play to leave a comment or start a discussion about something I missed in this lovely work. And it is my hope to continue to use this blog as a shared memory of our three hours of weekly work. Thanks to everyone and to Erin for Trying! Read the full story

Hey guys, it's Jason. You may remember me from such blog posts as this one, or perhaps even this one. Here's the deal though - unlike Joe, in his post - I neglected to identify myself as 'not Gus'.

I couldn't help but notice even though Gus is by far the superior Flux-blogger, his profile is far less informative than mine or Joe's. Except to say that he's in the accounting industry and lives in Afghanistan... and those are LIES! Kinda makes you question everything you've read here on our little corner of the internet, doesn't it? Next thing you know he'll be trying to claim this. Although admittedly, that would be pretty cool.

Anyway, as I was saying - I'm not Gus. I'm also not Dave. (ask your favorite Flux-er to explain that joke... although be warned, once you ask, we'll know who your favorite is.)

I know what your thinking, "But Jason... Gus' posts are informative and keep me abreast of what fun and exciting things Flux has been up to! Even Joe's post, although a little wordy, talked about Marisa Tomei. What's the point of your post?"

First off, I would also like to congratulate your thoughts on the appropriate use of the possessive apostrophe there. Way to go. And I'm getting to the point.

I mentioned this briefly at Flux Sunday today, however I'm sure some of you weren't there. (and at Flux Sunday I couldn't provide you with nifty hyperlinks). Last night I went to go see frequent Flux Sunday participant (and Food:Soul vet) Elise Link in Damnée Manon, Sacrée Sandra at Theatre Row, presented by Beyond the Wall Productions. Sorry, I should have said I went to see Elise Link in the show. (you see what I did there? Link? ...taps imaginary microphone... Is this thing on?)

Damnée Manon, Sacrée Sandra reveals the obsessions and desires of it's two title characters, Manon and Sandra, through a series of intertwining monologues -- no doubt a daunting project for all involved (and certainly actor Carlton Tanis and director Danya Nardi deserve to be commended for their work as well). However the night's most heartbreaking, chilling (and often hilarious) moments belong to Elise. We see the heartfelt rigor of Manon's passion and how that which drives her could ultimately destroy her. There were several moments I felt I wasn't given proper time to digest the power of a monologue as the play pushed forward. Very riveting performance.

I'm floored every week by the talent of people that come out on Flux Sundays; writers, directors and actors. It was great to see an actor that I normally see take quick stabs at cold readings and super-quickly staged scenes (and most Flux Sunday participants fall into this category for me) - really shine in a full-staged production. It really excites me to see what everyone can do with our season.

Fortunately I went early in the run of the show, thereby giving all you folks plenty of time to go see it yourself. You have until February 1st -- although not too many nights of performances --and you can get your tickets here. Consider yourself encouraged to do so.

We now return to your regularly scheduled posts of Gus, King of Dogs.

Now why, you may ask, does this post begin with a picture of Candice Holdorf as Chuck in my play Rue holding triumphantly aloft a zuchinni? I'm glad you asked. A picture being a thousand or so words and all, I thought his particular one might speak eloquently of the zeal Candice brings to each and every role, and that was especially true at our last Flux Sunday.

Some actors think, "Cold table reading, better play it cool." Candice thinks, "How can I spontaneously transform into a were-panther whilst sitting here at this table and reading these lines for the first time?" It's all about the zuchinni, ladies and gentleman.

We began by reading scenes from my play Honey Fist, continuing through Katherine Burger's Legends of Batvia and Rob Ackerman's Icarus of Ohio, and read a scene from Johnna's 8 Little Antichrists. The highlights most certainly included Candice's previously mentioned lycanthropic transformation, but it was also the absolutely funniest Batvia scene yet (including a book beating scene that I wish we had staged); and Icarus' reached an exciting climax that has all of us eager for the final pages.

This was also a good Flux for Zack Robidas, who played a doddering English lord, a stoned charismatic kidnapper, an eccentric inventor, and an immortal angel of evil all in three hours. The immortal angel of evil was in the second scene of Johnna's 8LA, and featured Candice as his angel/demon partner. Their good cop/bad cop chemistry as they tortured a helpless mortal was one of the most exciting surprises of the day.

We also continued staging Erin Browne's new play Trying, which featured for the second week in a row an incandescent performance by Elise Link as Walker, a love-struck woman with a heart of high metabolism.

And we reached a climatic scene is Adam Szymkowicz's newly retitled Open Hearts. Angela Astle staged a wild romp of a comic stage battle, with performances from Felicia Hudson, Katrina Foy, Brian Pracht and Katherine Burger (as the evil Dr X.) as highlights.

Comic book heroes, angels of doom, metabolic hearts and lyncathropy...not a bad way to spend a Sunday. Read the full story

Our last Sunday of 2007 began with this quote from Trevor Nunn in the preface of Playing Shakespeare (originally a television series) and his experience with the Royal Shakespeare Company:
"The Company is founded on continuity. It is surely unique that a television series can field a cast of internationally and nationally famous performers who are present precisely because they feel themselves to be members of a theatre company, and who have shared the experience of trying to communicate the ambiguities and complexities of the greatest of all dramatists."
Two things struck me about this quote:
1.) Belonging to a theatre company can be a lifelong force of continuity in an artist's life, regardless of what measure of traditional success they do or do not achieve, and;
2.) Why are there not more companies committed to the "shared experience of trying to communicate the ambiguities and complexities of" living playwrights?

And this second thought has stuck with me. Certainly, actors and directors become known as premiere interpreters of this playwright or that; and companies frequently begin life as vehicles for a certain playwright and director. But the sustained commitment to a playwright's voice that exists in Shakespeare companies seems to me, for the living playwright, exceptionally rare.

But when such a continuity exists, in can yield things like Mamet's Atlantic, Brecht's Berliner, Chekhov with Moscow Art, etc. Yet the idea of providing a living playwright with the lifetime of connection with a specific group of artists necessary to fully achieve their work of "ambiguity and complexity"...well, it seems very difficult to realize.

Is Flux this company for me, and could it be for the other playwright gradually joining our community? I don't know. But it sure is fun to think about.

Anyway...our last Flux Sunday was a good one, and at the very least, the most relaxing session I can remember. We began by reading through the latest scene in David Ian Lee's Sleeper, and the staging scenes from Adam Szymkowicz's Open Hearts, Erin Browne's Trying, and Katherine Burger's Legends of Batvia.

Highlights included Christina and Jason finding the right balance of comic strip humor and human reality as Lisa and Peter in Adam's scene (and with an assist from first time director Jake Alexander); I will not soon forget Jason's heroic doctor ripping-off-the-glasses move.

In Trying, Kay Mitchell brought out the hills and valleys of the difficult love between two struggling sisters, and then the thrill of attraction in a second scene that featured Elise Link showing her range in a very different role as an aggressive yet vulnerable love-struck book store employee. It was exciting to be introduced to this new play of Erin's!

Finally, we settled into the delightful feast of language that is Katherine's Batvia. Highlights here included Jane Taylor's Irish Scotsman, as she tossed Katherine's aria paragraphs effortlessly into the air; and Candice's Anthea showing us the meaning of brisk haste.

And all I had to do was stroll from room to room and watch the action, and think big thoughts, and laugh at little things, and enjoy all these wonderful people. Read the full story

"And so I go on to suppose that the shock-receiving capacity is what makes me a writer.... I feel that I have had a blow; but it is not, as I thought as a child, simply a blow from an enemy hidden behind the cotton wool of daily life; it is or will become a revelation of some order; it is a token of some real thing behind appearances; and I make it real by putting it into words. It is only by putting it into words that I make it whole; this wholeness means that it has lost its power to hurt me; it gives me, perhaps because by doing so I take away the pain, a great delight to put the severed parts together. Perhaps this is the strongest pleasure known to me. It is the rapture I get when in writing I seem to be discovering what belongs to what; making a scene come right; making a character come together. From this I reach what I might call a philosophy; at any rate it is a constant idea of mine; that behind the cotton wool is hidden a pattern; that we - I mean all human beings - are connected with this; that the whole world is a work of art; that we are parts of the work of art. Hamlet or a Beethoven quartet is the truth about this vast mass that we call the world. But there is no Shakespeare, there is no Beethoven; certainly and emphatically there is no God; we are the words, we are the music, we are the thing itself. And I see this when I have a shock".

I read a shorter version of this at the beginning of our Flux Sunday yesterday not only because it seems to have wrestled into my breath, so that whenever I pause a phrase from the paragraph above will suddenly reveal itself to me completely; and the pattern and shock she describes become my own; but also because I wanted to begin our Sundays with some shared centering moment. Our Flux Sundays tend to end well, but they begin with me frantically trying to figure out how all the parts fit together, with unexpected actors arriving and last minutes pages from playwrights and only three hours to squeeze it all in.

So, I thought the idea of this shared centering moment would either work, or be completely pretentious and silly; thereby giving people an opportunity to tell me I'm pretentious and silly, which would itself be a kind of centering moment.

But now to the heart of it: it was another solid Flux in spite of the residual stress from our director vote earlier in the day (more on that anon) and my own scattered self. We began with a read-through of Melissa Fendell's newest play, a brooding mysterious stranger sand-storm a-comin' and Momma wants me to fix the fence kind of tale, with proper teen rebellion from Felicia Hudson and brooding mystery provided by Gregory Waller.

Then, we lightly staged scenes from Rob Ackerman's Icarus of Ohio, Katherine Burger's Ah, Batvia!, and David Ian lee's Sleeper.

I ended up directing Katherine's Batvia, and mostly just got in the way as Candice continued her tour de force as the were-panther Anthea and Zack added the stodgy Lord Roderick as a new quirky/creepy old man to his Flux resume. Joe returned to the Scottish Inspector Cottage as Jake challenged Jason for widest-ranging Eastern European accent ever. Yay, Batvia!

Then we jumped into David's Sleeper, which benefited from the clarity of Melissa Fendell's direction sorting out the various plot twists and industry jargon, as well as the strong gender-blind casting of Cotton Wright, Marnie Schulenburg and Elise Link as three swaggering Masters of the Universe. We're all looking forward to seeing how the separate plot strands will be joined together.

We ended on the 'up note' (sorry) of Angela Astle's direction of Rob's Icarus of Ohio. Our protagonist Jay flies in a wonderfully theatrical sequence that fully captures the shock, terror, joy and humor of not only flying, but also really kissing someone you love. Tom DelPizzo once again nailed Jay's vulnerability and comic energy, and Angela filled the stage with some theatrical flourishes that made Rob' story come to vivid life.

Thanks again to everyone for a great Sunday. We are away for the holiday, but return on the 30th to find again whatever shocks and patterns we can. Read the full story

This past Sunday the 2nd, Flux held our first Food:Soul, a potluck play reading series. The food was provided by Flux, and the play was Adam Szymkowicz's Pretty Theft (Adam's pic to the left.) Heather Cohn directed, and the cast featured Tiffany Clementi, Charlotte Graham, Elise Link, Kelly O ' Donnell, Brian Pracht, Zack Robidas, Jane Taylor and Greg Waller, with stage directions read by Felicia Hudson. It ended up being a truly satisfying evening of food, theatre, and community.

The rehearsal process, while short, had that rare energy where everyone believes in the play, trusts each other, and has a good (while focused) time. Part of it was Heather's smart use of time (and passion for the play), and part of it was just the luck that comes from the right group of actors in the room together.

And the process revealed more fully the deceptive structure and full texture of this beautiful play. Pretty Theft follows Allegra (Charlotte Graham), a high school girl with little self-confidence and a dying father, as she develops an unusual relationship with Joe (Brian Pracht), an autistic young man obsessed with ballerinas at the group home she works at. It also follows her road trip adventure with Suzy (Tiffany Clementi), the high school's bad girl, and their encounter with Marco (Greg Waller), a mysterious thief trying to retire.

The play is about how beauty is stolen, and what survives the theft. Adam begins with the characters stealing little things- Joe stealing a pencil from Allegra, the supervisor (Kelly O'Donnell) taking Joe's thefts back, Suzy shoplifting lipstick - and then the theft escalates, literally and metaphorically, with Suzy stealing Allegra's boyfriend Bobby (Zack Robidas), death stealing her father, and Allegra dealing with those losses by stealing Joe's peace of mind with a kiss. These events lead the girls to steal a car to run from the funeral and Allegra's bitter mother (Elise Link), which leads them to Marco, and the most horrific theft of the play.

Marco has spent much of the play seemingly in a another story, a charming tale of a rogue thief settling down with a salty diner waitress (Jane Taylor). His tales of how to steal and never be caught seem to be thematic counterpoint to the main story. But when Allegra and Suzy break up their romance by walking into the diner, Adam's clever structure reveals itself, as Marco charms the girls back to his room, gives them drugged drinks, and takes pictures of their naked bodies. As Marco tells Allegra, "when you look at something beautiful, it takes a little piece of your soul...and when it takes from you, you have to take back."

Beauty manifests itself throughout this play in surprising ways. Joe is obsessed with ballerinas (and believes the clumsy Allegra to be one), and ballerinas frame the story, assuming secondary roles, leading dream sequences, and telling Joe's back story. Marco tells the waitress how if the theft can't be beautiful, you shouldn't do it all, saying "If you do not hear the music, do not proceed." Suzy is convinced Allegra is beautiful, and so steals her man. Joe makes Allegra feel beautiful, so she uses him in spite of her good intentions. The waitress lets Marco take the girls unhindered, knowing they may never be seen again, because their youth made her feel less beautiful. Beauty takes something from all the characters, and so they, like Marco in kind if not degree, take something back.

But the play is not half so dark or cerebral as this outline makes it out to be. Antic humor and wit laces through all the scenes, and the best comedy in the play comes from the darkest moments. After the kidnapping and the rape, when Marco says "Would you like to come with me?" and Suzy lashes back "I'm not going anywhere with you", Marco replies simply, "Not you." And even though he is a terrible man, that 'not you' hurts Suzy so badly that she breaks down, asking Allegra, "What's wrong with me?" This moment, heart breakingly played by Tiffany, got one of the biggest laughs of the show; and to get a laugh in such a troubling place lets you know just how complex, difficult and human Adam's comedy and characters are capable of being.

But the play doesn't end in either darkness or laughter. Rather, Allegra gives two gifts in spite of what's been done to her, showing that she is possessed of a true and lasting beauty (and all the more ironic that only the thief Marco and the autistic Joe could see it). As the girls see the polaroids that terrible man took of their naked, drugged bodies, Allegra tells Suzy how beautiful she looks, and they survive that moment. Then, after a slow stage ritual of burning the pictures, the play ends with Allegra returning to Joe in the group home, apologizing for what she did, and after an entire play of not being able to dance beautifully like the ballerinas; Allegra dances like a ballerina for Joe, and tells him not to look away, saying, "It's not wrong". Pretty things can take something from you, but there are kinds of beauty that give.

And Adam's play gives that kind of beauty.

Highlights include the clarity of Heather's direction; Kelly's grinning supervisor; Elise's terrifying Mom; Charlotte slowly revealing Allergra's fury at the disappointments of the world, and her capacity to overcome them; Zack's deadpan comedy as the hilariously selfish Bobby; Tiffany's bubbling and vulnerable Suzy; Jane's twist of the knife as her Waitress' loneliness became something dangerous; Greg's calmly ecstatic "music!" at the capture of Allegra; and Brian capturing the layers of strength and love within the rhythms of Joe's autistic speech.

Thanks to all the Fluxers who made such glorious food, including Candice's congnac balls, Christina's eggplant parmesan and my own humble twice-baked potatoes. And a very special thanks to all the people who came out to share this inaugural Food:Soul, including representatives from the Old Vic, Stages on the Sound, New York Theatre Workshop, Wild Child Productions, Kaliyuga Arts, Oracle Theatre Inc., Working Man's Clothes, Playful Substance Fractured Atlas, CORE Theatre, and Packawallop Productions. Food:Soul was created to share plays Flux Theatre Ensemble cares about with the wider NYC theatre community, and on Sunday December 2nd, we did. So thanks again to everyone.



Read the full story

After a brainstorming session with the Jake Alexander, Flux Theatre Ensemble's Bar series has been renamed, "Have Another". Here are some pictures from the very first "Have Another", courtesy of Angel Juice star, Marnie Schulenburg.



Here's Jimmy #43 stuffed to the very gills. Can you spot Flux Sunday regulars Daren Taylor, Erin Browne and Elise Link?
5 points for spotting the rare Kelly O'Donnell.







Director Angela Astle explains the finer points of directing Narrator 1 to some rapt fans.






Opens Minds director John Hurley and Flux core member Tiffany Clementi plot to take over the world. In fact, look around you...they already have.








Flux member Felicia Hudson can't hide from the eager eyes of the paparazzi. Read the full story