Flux Theatre Ensemble

Patrick Lee at Just Shows To Go You named Vince Nappo's performance in our Other Bodies as one of the Twelve Freshest Faces on 2008! It is very exciting to see Vince's excellent work in that extremely demanding role being recognized.

You can read the whole thing here.

And while you're at it, why not check out Patrick's full Best of 2008 list? It is an inspiring list that finds excellence everywhere from crowd pleasing big budget musicals to challenging Indie theatre plays. Read the full story

BLACK AND WHITE AND BLUE
Our last Flux Sunday of 2008 was the most intimate we'd had in a while, and that combined with Michael's delicious cookies gave the day a relaxed holiday air. We read a bunch of pages from Rob Ackerman's Volleygirls and my 60's play, and three delicious pages from Johnna Adam's Lickspittles, Button Holers and Damned Pernicious Go-Betweens.

1966
We read through most of the newly revised 60's play, up through 1966 and the Black and White ball. Highlights were Jason Pardine's Bobby, Michael Davis' George, and Kelly O Donnell's Tegan. The play is really coming now, and soon the challenge will be honing in on the heart of a play with ten equal parts. I suspect the play my finally live between Anisa and Tegan, but Marie becomes more and more interesting every year, and there's nobody I want to listen to more then Martha.

LITTLE SPITTLE
Though we only read a few pages of Johnn'a hexameter comedy, it was enough to give all of us the holiday treat of Brian Pracht's ridiculously divine Peder the Lickspittle.

VOLLEYGIRLS
We closed Flux Sundays in 2008 by reading through the end (almost) of Rob Ackerman's Volleygirls. It was a perfect note to end on, as the Coach and his players pulled out a victory of the classic against all odds variety.

And that was the end of Flux Sundays in the year of Aught Eight. Read the full story

ETUDES AND ATTITUDES

Our post trilogy return to Flux Sunday was marked by stabs at virtuosity, some made, some missed. The first attempt was my own hope of staging the EIGHT scenes on our list all in three hours, an attempt that fell utterly short. But many others succeeded in honoring the patron saint of this Flux Sunday, Franz Liszt.

THE TRANSCENDENTAL TANENBAUM
Member Isaiah Tanenbaum brought his work as a playwright to an exciting new place with the first two scenes of his play, The Transcendental Etudes. A play inspired by a fraud surrounding the nearly impossible to play Liszt composition, The Transcendental Etudes is written in a highly formal stylized poetry that makes even the simplest question and answer an opportunity for flights of fancy. Jane Taylor and Cotton Wright were able to root these soaring words in two deeply felt readings.

OUR TALKING IS BURNING
On a different wavelength of virtuosity, Aaron Michael Zook's We are Burning continued it's unique mash-up of grand myth and crumbs on the cafe table; this scene featured a lengthy monologue for lead lost soul Will, which read like a run across a smooth floor covered in marbles without falling. Another, very different, opportunity for verbal virtuosity.

DIVING ASIDES
A comic virtuosity emerged from Rob Ackerman's Volleygirls; as his deeply funny use of asides to the audience even in the midst of a dive for a ball lends this play tremendous staging opportunities for actors and directors. We just read this scene, but even reading these scenes you feel like diving for something.

KINGDOM OF GRAIN
A newly revised first scene from the 60's play aka Ten Black Boxes aka Kingdom of Grain gave director Heather Cohn another opportunity to wrestle with the unique challenges of the simultaneous scenes; and gave David Crommett a chance to mash-up John F Kennedy and Frederico Garcia Lorca.

CLUBBED BY THE CLUB
The second scene from Corey Ann Haydu's Club brought us into the most grueling virtuosity of all, the busy restaurant. Marnie Schulenburg brought a empathetic goodness to new waitress June as she was assaulted on all sides by Cotton Wright as a nasty customer and nastier waitress, with only David Renwanz's bartender (and yay for the return of David!) as a source of dubious help.

We also heard the first scene of Jeremy Basescu's The Syndrome Syndrome, and in a wonderful visit to memory lane, read a newly revised scene from Katherine Burger's Legends of Batvia, one of the first plays we finished workshopping in 2008. Read the full story

Looking for some post-Christmas literary fun? Flux Sunday regular playwright Katherine Burger (Texas Toast, Legends of Batvia, Way Deep) is a contributor to Stray Stories, a night of readings. Check it out here! Read the full story

You may have already seen this on our website or read this in our December newsletter, but the good people at nytheatre.com have selected Flux Theatre Ensemble as one of their People of the Year for 2008.

This is an honor for several reasons, first and foremost because it comes from nytheatre.com. Their generosity of spirit and expansiveness of reach has made them so essential it is hard to imagine New York theatre without them.

It is secondly exciting to share this honor with so many interesting artists, some we know, some we don't; and it is my hope that this award can also serve as the beginning of a relationship with many of the other lauded artists and companies.

Finally, it is exciting to follow in the footsteps of past winners, including companies like Electric Pear, Partial Comfort Productions, and Impetuous Theatre Group.

To learn more, go here.

And to hear a great podcast about the award, go here. Read the full story

This was the last Flux Sunday before the trilogy began, and again, it was a full three hours, with scenes from Rob Ackerman's Volley Girls, Johnna Adam's Lickspittles, Buttonholers and Damn Pernicious Go Betweens, Jeremy Basescu's The Will, Mary Fengar Gail's Beggar At The Feast, and my own 60's play.

Over two months later, I remember Jason Paradine's hilarious Coach in Volleygirls, Brian Pracht's deliciously self-satisfied smirk as Peder in Lickspittles, a fierce turn by Mary as Eleanor in The Will, and Johnna Adam's lyrical read of Martha in my 60's play.

Then everything was put on hold as we watched a family through three generations try to bring back mankind's lost beauty and grace in the horns so long lost and almost forgotten. Read the full story

Yes, I've been a wee bit derelict in posting about our Flux Sunday activities - trilogies will do that to you. And I know that somewhere in the first half of the year, a Flux Sunday went unreported on this blog, a victim to this swiftly tilting 2008. Sometimes this blog feels like the Buendia home and the flood of work we do Macondo's assault, but I try as best I can to keep all smelling like basil, even months after the fact.

Still with me? All right then. Our final Flux before the Trilogy went out with a good-sized bang, featuring new scenes from Aaron Michael Zook's We Are Burning, Jeremy Basescu's The Will, Johnna Adam's Lickspittles, Buttonholers, and Damned Pernicious Go-Betweens, Rob Ackerman's Volleygirls; and the first scenes from new plays by Corey Ann Haydu and Mary Fengar Gail.

Highlights included Ingrid Nordstrom's continued beautiful work as Lucy in We Are Burning; Christina Shipp channeling every long night serving cocktails as a waitress gone mad in Club; Anthony Willis Jr's nuanced playwright charmer in Beggar At The Feast; Richard Watson's hexameter sputtering Stub in Lickspittles, Aaron's hilarious portrayal of sad-sack simpleton Victor in The Will; and the shortest volleyball team ever in Volleygirls.

I could say more about this particularly jam packed Flux Sunday, but there is only so much time left in 2008 to look back. Read the full story