Flux Theatre Ensemble

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

To begin, I apologize for the title of this blog post. I've been staring at a computer for so long when I go to the bathroom I click on the doorknob.

To continue, it's time for some shout-outs for deserving plays getting published!

James Comtois' play, Infectious Opportunity, is being published by the good folks at Original Works. You might remember this play from our series, Exploding Moments; and we're thrilled for James and his deserving play.

Speaking of published plays, have you picked up your copies of the Angel Eaters Trilogy yet?

And I am not even going to ask if you've purchased your copies of Out of Time & Place, which features plays from past Flux collaborators like Crystal Skillman, Bekah Brunstetter, Andrea Thome, and Christine Evans; of course you have.

I know what you're thinking: that's all well and good, but what about the New York Theater Review and it's impending publication of The Lesser Seductions Of History and Erin Browne's Flux-developed play Trying? One word, one number: October 15th. That's when you can see the cast from Lesser Seductions read from the play as part of the book launch at New Georges' The Room. See you there? Read the full story

So our ForePlay series Divine Reckonings continues this Monday the 5th at the Irondale Center, 85 South Oxford St in Brooklyn, at 7:30PM.

Check out this line-up of ForePlay vets:

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There are some good vibrations going on in the blogosphere towards Flux these days:

• Isaac Butler and Tim Bauer have kindly takes on the absurdly short amount of time (@62 days!) Flux has to take Jacob's House from first draft to full production. After finishing a 3rd draft on Sunday, we had a production meeting that gave me hope the crazy staging gauntlet I tossed down at the end of the play will be ably taken up by Jason, Kelly, and company.
• Bekah Brunstetter, recently profiled ForePlay playwright, gives a shout out here for ForePlay, and talks about her own process in participating.
• Marc Vogl of the goodly Hewlett Foundation, writes about the Grantmakers in the Arts 2009 Conference, and references our Managing Director Heather Cohn's take on the open source philosophy you'll find here at the Flux blog.

Thanks to Marc, Bekah, Isaac, and Tim - you're giving us excitations. Read the full story

What is Jacob's House?
What is ForePlay: Divine Reckonings?


Bekah Brunstetter
Playwright, ForePlay

Previous Flux Experience: This is my 3rd year doing foreplay: I wrote Pretty Pretty and the Asshead McGee for the production of Midsummer, right? And Old People, Making Out for Pretty Theft.

Do you have a favorite Bible character?

Definitely Esther. Why, I even had an Esther action figure growing up! Not only was she beautiful, she was also very smart and brave.

Are you blessed?

Um, YES.

If you were wrestling an angel, what moves would you use?

Bribery, via baked goods.

What would you do for more life?

shave head?

What's the weirdest thing in your parents' attic?

N/A, no attic that I know of? Or is this a metaphor?

What is your prior experience with the Old Testament?

I went to baptist sunday school my whole life, and still go to church with my parents when I'm home. I LOVE the stories in the Old Testament, and love write plays which modernize the stories, even! I love juxtaposing The Then and The Now.

If you believe in a deity or deities, what kind do you believe in?

le God.

Bio: Bekah Brunstetter’s plays include Oohrah! (The Atlantic Theater), Miss Lilly Gets Boned (Lark Playwright’s Week) and You May Go Now (Finborough Theater, London .) She is currently working on commissions for Ars Nova, Naked Angels, and the Roundabout Underground. Member: The Women’s Project Lab and the Primary Stages Writer’s group. www.bekahbrunstetter.com

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I just finished a read through of Rami Metal's lovely play, Lullabye (thank you Mark, Polly, Matt, Lynn, Marnie and Christina) and was reminded of just how many good plays are out there that need doing here in NYC. The idea that most new plays are bad may be true, but it is more true that there are way too many great new plays that aren't being done in NYC, or at all.

Well, Flux can't do them all. So here is a completely subjective but passionately felt list of plays that your company should be producing now.

Please add to this list in the comments section, and while you're at it, why not send those plays to me at gus@fluxtheatre.org? Here's the kind of plays I like.

So...what plays do you need and want to see in NYC now? Here's me:

Lydia by Octavio Solis: This play has been done at Denver Center Theater Company, The Mark Taper Forum and Yale Rep, was featured in the December 2008 American Theatre magazine, and yet somehow has not graced an NYC stage. The ending of the first act is haunting; the end of the second, corrosively beautiful. I want to live in a city that does this kind of play first, not last; get on it, bigger NYC theatres!

Sans Merci by Johnna Adams: If you've seen the various readings, you know why I'm so crazy about this play. The mother and lover of a political activist meet to sort out the meaning of her violent death. It is sweet and hopeful, brutal and sad - the scene where they decide who gets to keep her last things is unforgettable.

Incendiary by Adam Szymkowicz: This play about a pyromaniac fire chief manages to be both screamingly funny and oddly moving; it combines the humor, speed and style of Hearts Like Fists with some of the awkward longing of Pretty Theft; this is the kind of play that could be a break out hit for any company smart enough produce it.

Ajax In Iraq by Ellen McLaughlin: You've already heard me rave about this play; so what are you waiting for, theatre-company-with-greater-resources?

Narrator One, by Erin Browne: Read all about it here. Erin's play is the kind of romantic comedy that's actually both romantic and funny. It also has a bitter undertow and some sparkling meta-theatrics to make your mind as well as your heart buzz and burn.

This Storm Is What We Call Progress, by Jason Grote: Speaking of making your mind buzz and burn, Jason's dizzying dagger of a play looks at both the need and the cost of power. Read the take on our Food:Soul here, then read about Rorschach Theatre's well-recieved DC production here. Then get producin'.

Lullabye, by Rami Metal: This rhythmic and lyrical play weaves three generations of a haunted family as they attempt to let go of various ghosts. The language of the play is both raw and poetic, and will need a brave and capable company of actors to make its moving heart sing. We just put together a joyous read-through of it, and maybe you should, too.

Miss Lily Gets Boned, by Bekah Brunstetter: A play about elephants, people and how loss and loneliness makes both species run a little mad; try to see it at The Lark, though I think the reading's got a wait list yards long. It is a wild and funny piece of bewildered wanting.

Texas Toast, by Katherine Burger: Oh man I love this play! A loving liberal couple falls apart when the husband brings back a statue of Kali from Thailand along with the guilt of an irreconcilable secret. Their disintegration is hastened by the vitality and hunger of a charismatic and destructive Texan couple that befriends them. There are five beautiful roles in this unsettling and funny play for any company tough enough to take them on.

Blue Beard, by Matthew Freeman: This haunting and spare look at the classic myth of the Red Door has that rare gift some plays have of making an entirely new world seem real; it is a beautiful and brutal nightmare of a play that the right company could knock out of the park.

Of course, I could go on (and will later), but that's a good start for now. Please put in the comments section plays unproduced in NYC that you want to see. Read the full story

During the retreat, Flux was blown away reading Ellen McLaughlin's Ajax In Iraq, a play written for the ART grad program. On Sunday the 6th, Heather and I saw Aftermath at New York Theatre Workshop; last night we saw Bekah Brunstetter's Oohrah! at the Atlantic. 3 plays over 2 weeks that dealt, in one way or another, with the war in Iraq.

The short version is both Aftermath and Oohrah! are well worth seeing, and Ajax in Iraq desperately needs to be produced in New York City.

The longer version is both Aftermath and Oohrah! are in previews, so I shouldn't say too much; but Aftermath is notable for the extraordinary intimacy created by the simplicity of the staging, the engaging honesty of the actors, and the human decency of the stories gathered and shaped by co-creators Erik Jensen and Jessica Blank. This is not a play about war, nor even really a play about its aftermath; this is a play about the lives of these 9 Iraqis, and it is a great compliment to the play that their stories before the invasion have stayed with me as much as their stories after (maskmaking, dermatology, love it!) Perhaps because of the documentary nature of the play, all 9 characters are presented as wholly good people who heroically endure a tragedy - but given the media saturation of Iraqis as a violent people, and the debt our country owes them for the depth of that tragedy, a wholly positive charge may be necessary. There is also a beautiful story about the nature of God making something out of nothing told by the imam Abdul-Aliyy (the wonderful Demosthenes Chrysan) that alone is worth the (on Sunday nights very reasonably priced) admission.

Oohrah! is a mirror image of Aftermath - it follows a soldier (Ron) and his family after he returns from his fourth tour in Iraq. This is a fascinating play for many reasons, but primarily because it looks at lives that don't come together, connections that don't quite happen, dreams left unfulfilled; and so it is constantly undermining your dramatic expectations. SPOILER ALERT (don't keep reading if you haven't seen it) the violence you expect doesn't happen; the secrets you long for are not earth-shattering; all epiphanies are dodged and the play ends on a note of confused longing; Bekah's infinitely quick and corrosive wit is still here, but it now lives in a mostly naturalistic world (naturalistic the way The Cherry Orchard is), and you are left feeling the way the characters do, that some promise was made and left unfulfilled. For the characters, that promise is the heroic promise of service; that those meant to serve this country will be able to do so, and come home to a life equal to that service. A particularly stunning scene unfolds between a barely teenage girl drawn to the military and a Marine with secrets; both find themselves on the outside of that military dream; and there is a heat and longing in that scene that is the heart of what I loved best about this play - go see it!

While both Aftermath and Oohrah! are about the effects of the war, Ajax in Iraq is summons the war itself: its panic and confusion, its heroism and sacrifice, its horror and madness. Even reading the play, we all felt how visceral and shocking it would be played on stage. It is also the most wholly empathetic to our veterans - while Oohrah! looks at the longing to go to war, and Aftermath explores the civilian consequences, Ajax in Iraq gives witness to the consequences for the veterans themselves. It is also the most inventively theatrical of the plays, juxtaposing Greek myth with naturalistic scenes of soldiers playing cards, Maori war dances, direct address from veteran interviews, invocations to Kali, and a haunting service for a fallen soldier. This play needs to be done in New York now.

The sum of these 3 plays proves that not all of our artists are ignoring the huge shadow cast over our civic life by the War in Iraq; but wrestling with it to create beautiful, meaningful theatre. I hope these plays have long lives. Thank you to the artists and to the companies - now go see and produce these plays!

Comment time: if you are familiar with any of these plays, what did you think?
And are there other strong plays out there you would recommend about the war in Iraq? I know David Ian Lee's Sleeper deals beautifully with Afghanistan... Read the full story

And speaking of discipline, a shout-out to five bloggers who have been on fire lately:

Adam Szymkowicz: is on a tear interviewing all sorts of interesting playwrights

Sean Williams: the multi-faceted Gideon producer is rocking production posts, reactions to shows, and in-depth thinking on larger issues confronting the field; all with candor and warmth

Leonard Jacobs: Twitter tells me Leonard's posted SIX (count 'em!) new posts this morning, including two reviews, a report on the Democracy Restoration Act, and an example of a theatre weathering the recession. Economics, politics, aesthetics - Clyde Fitch is expanding the frame of what arts journalism means in exciting ways.

Createquity: Each post from Ian David Moss needs four additional posts to unpack all the rigorous thinking contained; the business of the arts, from the detailed to the conceptual, he's been bringing it

Bekah Brunstetter: On the other end of the spectrum, the world of Bekah's blog feels a lot like the world of her plays - funny, warm, surprising, strange (oh, and the Atlantic? Awesome)
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What is the Imagination Compact?
And how can I support it while partying with Flux?

Bekah Brunsetter
Playwright, Bottom, May 19th

Flux History: Previously dazzled Flux with her play I Used to Write on Walls

Favorite Shakespeare Play: Titus Andronicus -
I think it's like a
weird contemporary fairy tale -
of DEATH. Muahhh.
Favorite Line of Text: From Sonnet 29 I think:
...For thy sweet love remembered such wealth brings
That I scorn to change my state with kings.'
Does Shakespeare influence your writing?
When I was a really profound seventh grader,
writing really profound unrequited love poems,
I was a big fan of reading his sonnets by pen
light. I think what every writer learns from
Shakespeare is the the power of universal truth -
it's crazy how timely his plays remain to
be, because he is always so truthful.
If you could date any of the Midsummer Characters,
who would it be and why?
Definitely Puck. He is that emo waifish hipster
every gal secretly wants to have a moment with
in some dark corner of Barcade.

Bio
Bekah Brunstetter hails from North Carolina. She received her BA in
Theater with an Honors Thesis in Fiction Writing from UNC Chapel Hill
in 2004. As of May, she proudly holds an MFA in Dramatic Writing from
The New School for Drama. Her Plays have been read and staged by The
Rattlestick Playwright’s theater, Centenary Stage, NYU’s HotINK
Festival of New Plays, Canada’s NEXTFEST, The Alliance Theater, SPF,
The Emerging Artists’ Theatre, Boston Theater Works, Working Mans
Clothes Productions, Manhattan Theatre Source, the Kennedy Center
American College Theater Festival, Old Vic New Voices, the Soho Think
tank, and in venues such as the Ohio Theater, the Atlantic, and
Galapagos Art Space.  Her works have been honored by the Cherry Lane
Mentorship Program (nominee), The Jane Chambers Student Playwriting
Award, The Tennessee Williams New Orleans Literary Festival, KCACTF,
Actor’s Theater of Louisville, and the Alliance Theater. Her play To
Nineveh received Six New York Innovative Theatre Awards in September
2006, including Best New Full Length Play. Her play Sick won the 2006
Samuel French Short Play Competition.  Most recently, she was honored
as a finalist for the Alliance Theater’s Kendeda graduate
playwriting award for her play Green. She was a semi-finalist for the
2007 O’Neill Playwright’s Conference, and the 2007 Princess Grace
Award. A founding member of Working Man’s Clothes Productions, she
currently serves as its Director of New Play Development. Her plays
are published by Playscripts, Inc;, Samuel French, United Stages and
Smith & Krauss. She is a contributing member of Working Man’s
Clothes Productions, Old Vic New Voices. the Dramatist’s Guild and
the Playwright’s Center. She is proudly the most recent addition to
the Ars Nova Play Group. Brunstetter is currently working on a self-
commissioned commission for Brunstetter, Inc. about Elephant
violence. For a ‘living,’ she inspects furnished apartments and
fixes temperamental microwaves. She lives in Williamsburg with her
bikes, Roberta and Tony, and her cat, the Baby Kitty.

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