Flux Theatre Ensemble

ALL THE LITTLE BREAK THROUGHS
While much of the dialogue in the theatrosphere justly involves revolutionary change, it is often little incremental break throughs that give me the most pleasure. Flux Sunday regularly reveals such break throughs - the right actor, the right director, the right role - and some new unconsidered possibility opens up. The picture here is Brian Pracht from our 2007 retreat at Little Pond, working on his play The Misogynist. And at this last Flux Sunday, he gave a performance in Dog Show that revealed possibilities new to me - of Brian as a performer, of David Ian Lee as a writer, Jeremy Basescu as a director, and of that strange pride we sometimes have in our biggest mistakes.

CALLING CQ:
We began with Jeremy's new comedy, Calling CQ, about a President who is obsessed, perhaps justifiably, with an imminent Martian invasion. Highlights of this round table reading included Richard Watson's right wing reporter Storm and Jane Taylor's no nonsense paper editor Ruth.

BIRD HOUSE:
We then had the pleasure of returning to Kate Marks antic comedy Bird House. One thing we have learned about this wildly inventive play - if you think too much about it, the play sags; but if you just live absolutely in each individual moment, the audience will follow you down the strangest journeys. Returning to the play was reigning Bird House champion Nancy Franklin as Rita, with a comically committed performance by Felicia Hudson as the militant Myra. The best line reading of the day, however, belonged to Katherine Burger's "breakfast is so cruel and I never want to have it again".

DOG SHOW:
We continued through the second half of the second scene of Dog Show, where husband and wife team Candice and Frank are seducing, encouraging and/or destroying Frank's high school buddy, Edward. This scene featured the aforementioned Brian's reveal that he may have raped a girl in college; and the nuances of disgust, denial, power and pride ran beautifully through his subtle performance.

DEAR CHINA:
As a welcome appetizer to the upcoming Imagination Compact, Joe Mathers staged Rob Ackerman's riff on Quince, Dear China. This hilarious and tender portrayal of 3 techies building a window display for a hardware store is lit up by the characters' shared love of stories; and Ken Glickfeld found the touching human heart as Quince, a playwright who gets a little embarrassed by how much he loves writing plays.

TEXAS TOAST:
Andrew and Claire's marriage has been falling under increasing distress due to dislocation, childlessness, but above all, Andrew's indiscretion with a prostitute in Thailand. The secret of that indiscretion is gleefully revealed by Sally, the wife of Andrew's boss. Spurned as a friend by the high-minded Claire, Sally's revenge plunges their marriage into literal darkness. Kate's delicate direction and Kelly O'Donnell's gleeful Saly were among the highlights of this dark patch in this beautiful play.

Only one more Sunday before we break for Midsummer! Read the full story

OR, FELICIA IS A CAMERA

Well, not exactly, but at our Flux Sunday on the 20th, she did some acting worth a thousand words. In the staging of the final scene from Rob Ackerman's Icarus of Ohio, Felicia Hudson (picturing here) played Maggie, our protagonist's poetically pushy girlfriend. After a buoyantly happy ending where protagonist Jay outwits the government forces intending to abuse his creation of human-powered flight, Maggie reads the melancholy concluding lines of Ovid's Icarus, and Felicia nailed the sad beauty of the end of this play. Though Icarus died, and Jay lives, something has changed forever from their flight to close to the sun.
One of the sad pleasures of these Flux Sundays is coming to the end of a play we've worked through week after week, and that was especially true for Rob's theatrical tale of flight and the things that keep us grounded. I have two additional regrets: that audition/workshop rescheduling kept Flux from attending Rob's reading at hotInk, and that we didn't have a chance as a community to discuss our work on this beautiful play. As per Felicia's suggestion, we will now offer the opportunity for the community to discuss our work on play's when a full-length has been completed.
Also in this picture is fellow member Joe Mathers, who added a note of hilarity to the scene as a star-struck friend and former foe of Jay's.

FENDELL ON MARRIAGE, OR THE RETURN OF EURO-KITTY
We also read a new scene from Melissa Fendell's as yet untitled play, with a bunch of 20 somethings skewering the institution of marriage, featuring the triumphant return of Flux Sunday veteran Kitty Lindsay from her tour in Germany. And what better way to welcome an actress back than give her a vibrant page long rant against institutionalized monogamy?

NO SLEEP TILL HARTKE
Casting is 90% of directing unless you're casting Katie Hartke and Jane Taylor, in which case it's 190%. In David Ian Lee's pressure cooker political thriller Sleeper, I had the joy of unleashing these two talents on each other in a scene between liberal activist and grieving widow Teri (Katie) and right-wing attack dog Rachel (Jane) who made her name breaking the story of Teri's husband's capture by terrorists. It was thrilling to watch these two actresses try to win a scene with everything at stake. And to make matters even better, Gretchen Poulos played the stunned TV page filming the entire debacle, and her reactions were the perfect comic counterpoint to the serious game being played.

TRYING NOT TO LOVE TOO MUCH
We continued through two scenes of Erin Browne's Trying, her play about two young sisters trying to make it after being abandoned by their parents, and the love affair that threatens to break up their house. That description is far too purple for Erin's subtle play of guilt, love, and duty; and it was given excellent life by Caitlin Kinsella and Cotton Wright as our two Lena's, Anja Brannstorm as Chels, and Elise Link once again as the irresistible Belle Walker.

Very different plays at this Flux: a tale of flight ending, a battle of political wills made personal, a Shaw like attack on marriage, and the simple story of how hard and sweet love can be, all in a mere three hours. Read the full story

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

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