Showing posts with label Aja Houston. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Aja Houston. Show all posts
, , , , , , , , , , , , ,

New World Iliads, Part Two and Three

Tuesday, July 5, 2011 0 comments

(Photo: Anna Lamadrid. Pictured: Jelena Stupljanin, Jason Howard)

New World Iliads was an interesting ForePlay series for Flux. On the one hand, our benefit that kicked off the series was well-attended, and represented a high water mark for quality in the series.

The two that followed were both strong artistically, but due to the overwhelming pressures of producing Ajax in Iraq, we weren't able to bring in large audiences, and that was a shame.

On the plus side, this marked our first ForePlay that featured a cross-discipline collaboration. Our partnership with Carrier Pigeon was really fruitful, and I hope we can build on that for future ForePlays and beyond.

It was also a wonderful opportunity to work with Flux vets we'd been itching to reunite with, like Lynn Kenny and Carissa Cordes; and a chance to develop new relationships with artists we admire, like J. Holtham and Jelena Stupljanin.

Still, how to manage this series at the same level of attention now that our Membership is the smallest it has ever been is a serious challenge, and I expect we'll be relying more on our excellent Friends of Flux moving forward.

What follows are some pics from the event courtesy of the wonderful Anna Lamadrid, and some images from the Carrier Pigeon artists that inspired the playwrights.
(Art by Kristy Caldwell)
June 12th, 2011: Afghanistan
CSV, Flamboyan Theater - 107 Suffolk St
The Plays:
The Labyrinth of Enduring Freedom by Aja Houston
The War Museum by EM Lewis
By the Victors by Isaiah Tanenbaum
NEO by Mac Rogers

Featuring: Carissa Cordes, Ken Glickfeld, Lynn Kenny, Rob Maitner, and Kathleen Wise
Directed by Jordana Williams
(Art by Bruce Waldman)
June 21st: Bosnia
CSV, Flamboyan Theater - 107 Suffolk St
The Plays:
Slobodan Život Šimpanza (The Wild Chimpanzees) by Will Ditterline
All Apologies (or Ana in the White City) by J. Holtham
A Footnote by Brian Pracht
Book of Memory by David Ian Lee

Featuring: Kira Blaskovich, Jason Howard, Joshua Koopman, Anna Lamadrid, Godfrey L. Simmons, Jr., and Jelena Stupljanin
Directed by Heather Cohn

(Photo: Anna Lamadrid. Pictured: Godfrey L. Simmons, Jr., Jason Howard)


(Photo: Anna Lamadrid. Pictured: Jelena Stupljanin)


(Photo: Anna Lamadrid. Pictured: Godfrey L. Simmons, Jr., Jason Howard)

Read the full story

 

, , , , , , , , , , ,

Flux Sunday, December 19th

Thursday, December 30, 2010 0 comments

(What is Flux Sunday?)

Playwrights: Katherine Burger (Ever, Ever), Aja Houston (Superwomen?), Brian Pracht (Wendell Wants), August Schulenburg (The Temptation Show)

Directors: Tiffany Clementi, Katherine, Isaiah, Kelly O'Donnell

Actors: Ken Glickfeld, Matthew Archambault, Carissa Cordes, Leila Okafur, Kathleen Wise, Matthew Murumba, Lynn Kenny, David Crommett, Damon Kinard, Alex Marshall-Brown, Tiffany, Chudney Sykes, Isaiah, Aja, Gus, Jaime Robert Carrillo

Yup, it was a jam-packed Flux Sunday for our last Sunday of 2010, and there was all sorts of good work going on.

Highlights:
-A hot Flux Sunday for Tiffany Clementi, with a turn as the foul-mouthed gorgeous Sadie in Wendell Wants, calculating therapist in Superwomen?, and then bringing a playful directorial focus to the 2nd scene of Aja's pageant play.
-The trifecta for Isaiah Tanenbaum, with funny turns as an actor (Wendell), director (1st scene in Viva Fidel) and as a playwright, the comic highlight of the day in the 2nd scene of Fidel, where Matthew Archambault played the (literally) puppet dictator in a ludicrously staged scene by Kelly O'Donnell.
-But the scene that stuck with me the most was Chudney Sykes monologue in the first scene of Superwomen?. Aja crafted a subtly troubling monologue for Cleopatra about dreams and body image that Chudney handled beautifully.
-Personally, any day that I can act in a Katherine Burger play with both David Crommett and Ken Glickfeld is a good day. And so it was, in Ever Ever (if not for ever ever).
-Matthew Murumba easily fitting into a role I may just be writing for him in mind (The Temptation Show).

If you were there, what do you remember (other, than of course, Archambault's brilliantly flailing limbs?) Read the full story

 

, , , , , , , , , ,

Flux Sunday, December 12th

Saturday, December 18, 2010 0 comments

(What is Flux Sunday?)

After two weeks off (one for Thanksgiving, one for NET's Micro-Fest), we returned to our trusty Flux Sunday back-up at 520 8th ave. That meant reads around the table, which, while not as fun as playing on our feet, does give us the opportunity to read more pages. And they were some solid pages, if I do so solid myself.

Playwrights: Fengar Gael (Devil Dog Six), Aja Houston (Superwomen?), Brian Pracht (Wendell Wants), August Schulenburg (One More Go Around The Darkness)

Actors: Will Lowry, Matthew Archambault, Alisha Spielmann, Jason Howard, Ken Glickfeld, Carissa Cordes, Isaiah Tanenbaum, Kathleen Wise, Ryan Andes, Ingrid Nordstrom, Heather Cohn, Garth McCardle, Regine Mont-Louis, Tiffany Clementi

Highlights:
-Aja's hilarious pageant play (wish we could have staged that second scene!) with a goofily lovable Grier from Regine and a fiercely focused Tiffany Clementi as Venus.
-Ken Glickfeld was ON this day: relaxed, nuanced, focused reads as Bernard in Devil Dog Six and Eliot in Wendell Wants.
-Watching our progression of Wendell's, from Isaiah's perfectly pitched younger Wendell to Garth's irony-laced teen Wendell to Jason's painfully present lover Wendell; it was a wide world of Wendell Wants.
-Ryan Andes dangerously funny cool kid. If you were there, you know what I mean.
-Ingrid Nordstrom taking my note of excitable and running with it as Charity in One More Go About The Darkness. I also appreciated Kathleen Wise's formidable Ellen.

What fireflies of the day did you catch in your bottle? Leave them in the comments below! Read the full story