Flux Theatre Ensemble

(What is Flux Sunday?)

We were thankful to return to Judson for our last Flux Sunday before Thanksgiving!

Playwrights: Kira Blaskovich, Fengar Gael (Devil Dog Six), August Schulenburg (The Hand That Moves, The Temptation Show)

Directors: Kira, Amy Staats

Actors: Candice Holdorf, Kimberly Klein, Isaiah Tanenbaum, Ken Glickfeld, Jane Taylor, Kari Riely, Stacey Jenson, Matthew Archambault, Corey Allen

Highlights included:
-Amy's daring direction of The Hand That Moves towards a more abstracted, dreamlike quality than I'd intended - it's always exciting to see directors take unexpected risks with your work!
-Getting a chance to take the emotional slalom of Kira's two-hander along with Stacey Jenson - the vocabulary between former lovers is always fun to negotiate
-But the field this day belonged to Fengar's Devil Dog Six, with Corey Allen and Isaiah Tanenbaum turning in especially focused performances in these raucous series of scenes

If you were there, what memory from it did you lovingly fold to keep in your back pocket? 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

Thanks to everyone (around 100!) who came out for our sixth Food:Soul, Adam Szymkowicz's Hearts Like Fists. This was a special Food:Soul for us, as our first Food:Soul was Adam's Pretty Theft. It was also our second partnering with Judson Memorial Church's Bailout Theater series, a relationship we're hoping to deepen.

(*Remiss in our first posting was including a thank you to the businesses that provided food, including John's Pizzeria of Bleecker Street, NoHo Deli and Juice Bar, and Norwich Meadows Farms, provider of the Judson Church Community Supported Agriculture program.)

It was also our first event after our 5th Annual Retreat, and so was the first chance to test out our newly articulated Core/Aesthetic Values and Mission in action. Part of that mission is to treat our audience as partners in our process, so if you were there, PLEASE share with us your thoughts in the comments section below. What were you favorite parts in the play? What worked at the event, and what could we do better?

To inspire you, here are some beautiful shots of the reading, all courtesy of Isaiah Tanenbaum.


Thanks again to everyone who made this possible - now share your thoughts in the comments below! Read the full story