Flux Theatre Ensemble

Post by August Schulenburg
Food:Soul is back this Wednesday, October 5th! And we are thrilled/ecstatic/super-psyched to be returning with Liz Duffy Adams' (of Dog Act glory) play Wet, or Isabella the Pirate Queen Enters the Horse Latitudes.

Not only does this Food:Soul features the return of Liz' mighty pen to Flux territory, but Dog Act-ers Becky Byers and Julian Stetkevych and director Kelly O'Donnell return, as well. Throw in Members Tiffany, Isaiah and Matt, Food:Soul veteran Elise Link and old friend Daren Taylor, and you have the recipe for a souffle of awesome. And as always, Food:Soul features free food and even freer theatre.

Here are the deets:

WET OR, ISABELLA THE PIRATE QUEEN ENTERS THE HORSE LATITUDES
by Liz Duffy Adams
Directed by Kelly O'Donnell

See you there, matey? Read the full story

It was a great to take a moment and look through these photos from the keen-eyed Isaiah Tanenbaum; thanks to the work of our designers, actors and tech help, this really turned out a visually beautiful production (saying so myself, of course). If you haven't seen the show yet, hopefully these pics will inspire, and you can nab them by clicking here.
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Our next installment of Have Another is Wednesday the 6th from 7PM-10PM. We'll be returning to the friendly confines of Jimmy's #43, located downstairs at 43 East 7th Street between 2nd and 3rd Ave. There is no cover, just some of our favorite scenes from Flux Sunday shared over drinks with friends.

I'm especially excited that we've been able to make this Have Another happen. Our partnership with Judson Memorial Church's Bailout Theatre has really jumpstarted our Food:Soul program, but Have Another has often fallen by the wayside, and there have been some years where we've only had one (which is sadly ironic, given the programs title).

Members Isaiah Tanenbaum (picture to the left is his) and Matthew Archambault have taken up the reins of this Have Another, and that gives me great hope that this program will resume the more regular schedule that our Flux Sunday artists deserve.

The line-up!

Why is this line up a must see? Because Have Another gives you a chance to see the plays that Flux is developing at Flux Sundays, all the while tipping back a beer or two and enjoying Jimmy's great locally inspired food (local theatre pairs well with local food, no?) It's one of our ways of sharing our development process with you.

And this particular line up of scenes features horse racing, neuroscience, crumbling regimes, animal souls, cyborgs and corpse puppetry. It features Fengar Gael's second Have Another (after the wonders of Opaline) and Member Isaiah Tanenbaum's first as a playwright. Regulars like Matthews Murumba and Archambault team up with awesome first timers Paco Tolson and Damon Kinard.

So many good reasons to join us and Have Another... Read the full story

(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

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(What is Flux Sunday?)

Playwrights: Fengar Gael (The Spell Caster), Brian Pracht (The Misogynist, Unplugged In), August Schulenburg (Where It Comes and Where It Goes, Symbolic Gestures, Carrin Beginning)

Actors: Candice Holdorf, Richard Watson, Kari Swenson Riely, David Crommett, Gretchen Poulos, Anthony Wills Jr, Jason Howard, Ken Glickfeld, Kelly O'Donnell, Alisha Spielmann, Isaiah Tanenbaum, Heather Cohn, Matthew Archambault, Tiffany Clementi, Ryan Andes, Lynn Kenny

An actor heavy Flux Sunday made for three lucky playwrights and an upbeat three hours. We heard the next installment of The Spell Caster, Brian brought in a rewritten ending for The Misogynist and a rewritten beginning for Unplugged In, and I brought in two new shorts and the first (good) play I ever wrote, Carrin Beginning, nearly 12 years after its original production.

Highlights included:
-One of Tiffany's best Flux Sundays ever, with a feisty Maxine a-gabbin' in The Spell Caster; one of my favorite line readings ever as Libby in The Misogynist ("Um..YES!"); and a revelatory read of Leah in Unplugged In (had always seen this role very differently, but she brought a fascinating maturity-gap/power-dynamic to Leah's relationship with Chris).
-Kelly O'Donnell, Anthony Wills Jr, and Gretchen Poulos finding the perfect balance of comedy in heartbreak in my little Living Wage short, Symbolic Gestures.
-Ryan's sultry stage directions, which turned the sex-role-playing scene of The Misogynist up a few degrees
-Ken's brief but memorable turn as Scaramanga in Unplugged In
-Richard's unsettling/charming delivery of Turlough in Carrin Beginning

What were your thoughts? Did you like a happy ending Misogynist? And what do you think will happen in the power struggle between Mayra and Louisa in The Spell Caster? Read the full story

Flux is thrilled to announce our fourth season!

Our fourth season explores the cost of a society remaining always vigilant. In our see something, say something world, what happens to empathy when we're always on guard?
What is our responsibility to those keeping watch?
And what happens when our defenses are breached?

Information on the plays:

Dog Act: A theatrical, post-apocalyptic dark comedy, Dog Act follows Zetta Stone, a traveling performer, and her companion Dog (a young man undergoing a voluntary species demotion) as they walk through the wilderness of the former U.S.A with their little troupe. They are heading toward a gig in China, if they can find it…and if a secret in Dog's past doesn't undo them.

"[A] delightful dark comedy…. It’s a bright dystopian blend of pop and high culture… peppered with astonishing and exhilarating eruptions of storytelling and wondrous plays within the play…. Adams’ vaudeville routines are each a stroke of genius…. The monologues by each of the performers are near classics of their kind. Best of all is ‘The Mortality Play...’ a blissfully eclectic history of humanity… Dog, as they say, has legs.” –Robert Hurwitt, San Francisco Chronicle

Ajax in Iraq: Past and present collide in Ellen McLaughlin's mash-up of Sophocles' tragedy Ajax and the Iraq War. The play follows the intertwining paths of the Greek hero Ajax and A.J., a female soldier in Iraq, both undone by the betrayal of a commanding officer. The atrocities they commit as a result of those betrayals force us to look at our culpability in the actions of those keeping us safe.

Developed over 16 months in 2009 with the graduate acting students at A.R.T., Ajax in Iraq weaves together Sophocles' play with material based on interviews with veterans. Says McLaughlin, "[Ajax's] pain, however much we wish to turn from it, compels our attention and our empathy. Looking at this play in the light of our times, his agony suddenly seems terribly modern. His voice can be heard in the voices of veterans speaking now about their experiences in Iraq. I came to feel that this disturbing and impossible play might be the means of grappling with this disturbing and impossible war."

Menders: Corey and Aimes are new recruits mending the wall that guards their city from an unnamed threat. But as their teacher Drew tells them stories of the world outside, they begin to wonder at the real purpose of the wall. His subversive tales also unlock personal desires, until an unexpected act of passion tears the menders apart. Inspired by Robert Frost's poem, Mending Wall, Menders is a hauntingly lyrical look at what we're walling out.

Menders continues our development of Erin Browne's work. After developing plays like Trying and Return at Flux Sundays, and giving her Narrator One a Food:Soul, we knew it was time to share her work at the level of full production. We'll be developing this play with Erin over the next year, so stay tuned for updates from that process.

We are thrilled to be bringing you these three plays, that for all their differences, speak to a common question. We'll be talking a lot more about these plays over the next months, and the fascinating ways they work individually and together. We very much hope you will join us for our Season 4: Don't Look Away. Read the full story

(Ed. note: Ridiculously late, but this interview completes the set! Thanks to all the Jacob's House and Divine Reckonings artists that participated)
What is Jacob's House?
What is ForePlay: Divine Reckonings?

Kelly O'Donnell
Director, Jacob's House

Previous Flux Experience: co-founder of Flux. Played Tegan in The Lesser Seductions of History. Directed Rue, Riding the Bull, Life is a Dream and 8 Little Antichrists. Directed Food:Soul This Storm is What we Call Progress.

Do you have a favorite Bible character?
Jesus. Like most of my childhood friends, I don't talk to him anymore.

Are you blessed?
As a verb, no. As a 2-syllable adjective, absolutely.

If you were wrestling an angel, what moves would you use?
The transmogrifying Irish whip.

What would you do for more life?
Anything - as long as it doesn't hurt or inconvenience anyone. Until someone creates a magic longevity pill, I'll stick with leafy greens, better sleep and I'll always wear a helmet.

What's the weirdest thing in your parents' attic?
My parents used to have this really creepy 3 x 4 1/2-foot painting of a sad clown in our attic. I don't think it's there anymore but it still haunts all of us who saw it.

What is your prior experience with the Old Testament?
I went to Catholic School for my entire life so we studied it a lot. The nuns, however, made a point to ensure that we understood that it was the "old" testament and what we really should focus on is the new one. I'm still waiting for the third testament to be published to see how it all wraps up. I always did very well in Religion class because I love stories.

If you believe in a deity or deities, what kind do you believe in?
I always imagine God to be like Ralph Richardson's portrayal of The Supreme Being in Terry Gilliam's Time Bandits. After a radiant entrance, he says "Oh I do hate appearing that way, it's an entirely noisy manifestation. Still, rather expected of one, I suppose."

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(What is Flux Sunday?)

So close to catching up with the Flux Sunday report! Due to the J.B. rights issue scramble, we had to cancel Flux Sunday on the 21st and 28th because I was writing (and then rewriting) Jacob's House.

But we returned with a bit of a good bang on the March 7th!

Playwrights: Rob Ackerman (Throwing Gumballs), Johnna Adams (The Anguisher), Katherine Burger (The Guest), Fengar Gael (The Gallerist), August Schulenburg (Denny and Lila)

Directors: N/A (all table reads)

Actors: David Crommett, Brian Pracht, Ryan Andes, Ingrid Nordstrom, Ken Glickfeld, Carissa Cordes, Matt Archambault, Kari Riely, Anthony Wills Jr., Jennifer Stuckert, Alisha Spielmann, Isaiah Tanenbaum, Jane Taylor, Kelly O'Donnell

Highlights included:
- Brian entering into the "Who Can Play Rob" arena with a great read in Throwing Gumballs
- A scene of compassion from Johnna's The Anguisher, with moving performances from Jane and Ken. The diner waitress doing her best to be a good Christian to the enigmatic and horribly scarred drifter is a very promising start to this play...
- Johnna then put on her acting cap for a virtuoso turn as Jabber, the conniving and linguistically gifted con artist side kick of Denny and Lila. I know whose voice I'll be hearing as I continue writing this play!
- But the major highlight of the day was Katherine Burger's The Guest. Because we were reading instead of staging, we were able to tackle the entire second act of this delirious menage a trois of friendship, regret, and desire. Actors took turns playing the three roles: the solid provider Dennis, his allegedly traditional wife Joan, and the object of their mutual desire, the charismatic disaster Amelia. My favorite scene featured Kelly as Joan, David as Dennis, and first timer Kari Riely as Amelia, in the dinner table reveal of just who is sleeping with who. The verbal energy of this scene verges on farce, but the emotional cost of the fall out is never diminished, and the unusual but inevitable denouement was very satisfying.

Only one more Flux Sunday to enter into the annals of history...thanks to everyone who made this one special. Any highlights I missed? Read the full story

In a way, we asked for it...

After all, when you name your season the Season of Give and Take, something will be taken as sure as given.

And due to rights issues, Flux will not be able to produce Archibald MacLeish's play, J.B. We will truly miss the chance the stage that beautiful play, especially because we had an exciting cast, design team, and staging concept already in motion. But you know us...

In its place, Flux will be staging a play inspired by the loss of J.B. - the world premiere of August Schulenburg's* Jacob's House!

Have you ever seen the trick where a magician pulls a sheet out from under a bunch of glasses without disturbing a single one? Well, I took the themes, style, design elements, staging concept, and cast of our production of J.B., and used them as inspiration to write my own riff on the story of Jacob wrestling the Angel.

And because we just got the bad news, I did it in two days. Now we have two months to get this very brand new play ready for production - can we do it?

You know there's only one way to find out.

*aka, Me. Read the full story

Fractured Atlas' Emily Bowles interviewed our Kelly O'Donnell about Flux - check out the interview here. I'm especially psyched with how clearly Kelly outlined our development/ audience engagement programs.

And then our Heather Cohn, along with Fratcured Atlas' visionary founder Adam Forest Huttler, participated in the 4th day of Grant Makers In The Arts Conference, on a panel called New Models, New Artists, New Leaders. Ian David Moss at Createquity reports on the highlights of that panel here.

Just a little Sunday reading for your enjoyment... Read the full story

Our first Flux Sunday at NYR Studios, where Flux is a resident company, was everything we'd been hoping for. We had room to move! Each of our three scenes had a comfortable space to work in, and the results were undeniable. There was a burst of energy and productivity that has me hoping this relationship with NYR will last (remember to mention Flux if you rent there!)

But to the nitty and then to the gritty...

THE SLEEPING WORLD
First, Kelly O'Donnell staged the first scene of Crystal Skillman's The Sleeping World, a melancholy-funny look at playwrights gathering to read the newly discovered last script of their recently passed friend. Once close, the three friends clumsily fall back into the push and pull of their painful-sweet old intimacy. Their friend's script, as it turns out, is a thinly veiled portrait of them, and brings to the light all the old wounds and longings they'd kept in the dark.
Kelly O'Donnell did a lovely job of staging this - I watched the run before the shared run, and with a few small adjustments to blocking, she brought out the story beautifully. A special shout-out goes to the triumphant returns of Gretchen Poulos and Kitty Lindsay, who brought Sam and Angie to a subtle, detailed life. Crystal is bringing back scene 2 next week, and we're all excited for more.

DARK MATTER
Then, Heather Cohn staged the next two scenes of my play, Dark Matter. (For plot and character, check out last week's entry). Jimmy (Nancy Franklin) and Winny (Jane Taylor) battled it out over Jimmy's dreams (Winny is now a Jungian analyst, after reading that great article about Jung's Red Book in NYT Mag) and dementia; followed by Maxine (Carissa Cordes) confronting her mentor Nicolay (Isaiah Tanenbaum) about approving funding for a project from rival physicist Afruz Sen. These scenes were a nice contrast to the elliptical loveliness of Crystal's scene - these were jugular collisions between formidable opponents. I especially loved the staging and playing of Jimmy luring Winny back with the promise of his truly disturbing dream, and the moment where Nikoly kindly but firmly exiled Maxine from his office, her realizing too late she'd gone too far.

LION CREEK
Speaking of triumphant returns, auteur Jeremy Basescu's back from the wilds of summer with a brand new joint. Lion Creek follows two couples, one seemingly thriving, one falling apart, navigating an awkward night of wine and Wii. There were notes of darker twists than twenty-something malaise, however; hints of secrets, hints of spies, hints of the mystery of Lion Creek sneak their way through the banter. Special shout outs to an icy-sweet Lynn Kenny as Tess and
goofy-charming Ryan Andes as Drake.

Yup, Flux Sunday and NYR are a good fit. Here's to many more.

And for those of you there, what were your favorite moments? What did you think of the new space? Read the full story

What is Poetic Larceny?

And how can I learn more about Flux's upcoming production of Pretty Theft?

KELLY O'DONNELL

Director, May 11th

Previous Flux stuff: Kelly directed the full productions of Riding the Bull, Rue, Life Is A Dream, and 8 Little Antichrists. She is directing our upcoming production of J.B. She also directed the Food:Soul of This Storm Is What We Call Progress, and acted in the F:S of Pretty Theft. She is also playing Tegan in the upcoming production of The Lesser Seductions of History.

We asked the amazing artists of our upcoming staged reading series Poetic Larceny to answer some questions about stealing, beauty, and consequences. Read on for their answers!

Question #1: What is the worst thing you've ever stolen?

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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

We are deep into production meetings now, and rapidly approaching the beginning of rehearsals, for our upcoming production of Johnna Adam's trilogy, Angel Eaters. Our team of designers and directors are now trying to figure out how to incarnate three wildly different plays (in repertory!) into one space. For those of you who want to mark your calendars now (and please do, though tix are not yet on sale) read on for the dates and some teaser information about the plays!

Angel Eaters

Directed by Jessi D. Hill

Joann, a slow girl growing up poor in 1930's Oklahoma, claims to talk to angels and raise animals from the dead. But when her father dies, and her sister gets pregnant, the angel's message takes a darker turn. As her mother hires a pair of carnies to raise her dead husband; Joann struggles to understand if her growing power is good or evil, and whether she should fight God to bring her father back. This fiercely comic and cosmic drama of good versus evil plays out through one family struggling to survive the death and loss of the Dust Bowl.

Featuring: Tiffany Clementi, Ken Glickfeld*, Catherine Porter*, Marnie Schulenburg, Isaiah Tanenabum, Gregory Waller*, Cotton Wright*

Preview: Monday, November 3rd 8PM
Opening: Thursday, November 6th, 8PM
Runs: Saturday, Nov 8th, 15th and 22nd at 1PM; Sunday Nov 9th, Wednesday Nov 12th, Tuesday Nov 18th at 8PM; Friday Nov 14th at 9:30PM; Sunday Nov 16th at 4PM; Friday Nov 21st at 7PM

Rattlers

Directed by Jerry Ruiz

The second play leaps forward to the children of the survivors of Angel Eaters in 1970's Texas. Unwilling to accept her sister Kate's death, Ernelle kidnaps Osley, her ex-lover and heir to the power of the Angel Eaters. Osley, gone over to God, refuses to raise Kate, forcing Ernelle and her rattler-wrangling lover Snake to darker methods of persuasion. Kate's mother Mattie, believing her daughter was murdered, seeks revenge through Shane, a teenage boy who adores her. Meanwhile, the two men who may have killed her, Shane's brother Ted and Kate's husband Everett, share cigarettes and memories of the woman they loved. All three stories collide in this hauntingly intimate play of how love can drive good people to acts of unspeakable violence.

Featuring: Matthew Crosby, David Jackson, Jason Paradine, Amy Lynn Stewart*, Jane Taylor*, Richard B. Watson*, Scott Drummond*, Becky Kelly

Preview: Tuesday, November 4th 8PM
Opening: Friday, November 7th, 7PM
Runs: Saturday, Nov 8th, 15th and 22nd at 4PM; Sunday Nov 9th at 1PM; Monday Nov 10th, Thursday Nov 13th, Sunday Nov 16th, Wednesday Nov 19th at 8PM; Friday Nov 21st at 9:30PM

8 Little Antichrists

Directed by Kelly O'Donnell

Set twenty years in the future, the final play of the trilogy imagines a dystopia where Disney runs jails and Sony clones workers. One of the clone breeders, Mama, has made a literal deal with the devil to bear the 8 Little Antichrists so they can bring about the final war with God. But she needs to bring all 8 to term, and one by one they're dying. So Mama sends some dark angels to track down the last of the angel eaters’ blood, siblings Melanie and Jeremy, so they can raise her brood from the dead. But the siblings join forces with a rogue dark angel and one of Mama's own children to stop the apocalypse and save the world. This wildly imaginative comedy of the apocalypse is also a longing cry for a paradise lost; and the thrilling conclusion to a three play battle between good and evil, and love and loss.

Featuring: Jake Alexander, Candice Holdorf*, Felicia Hudson*, Nora Hummel *, Elise Link, Joe Mathers, Rebecca McHugh, Zack Robidas, August Schulenburg

Preview: Wednesday, November 5th 8PM
Opening: Friday, November 7th, 9:30PM
Runs: Saturday, Nov 8th, 15th and 22nd at 8PM; Sunday Nov 9th at 4PM; Tuesday Nov 11th, Monday Nov 17th, Thursday Nov 20th at 8PM; Friday Nov 14th at 7PM; Sunday Nov 16th at 1PM

The unusual start times is due to the rep nature of the trilogy. All three plays stand on their own, but each deepens the experience of the other. Come on Saturdays and see all 3 shows in order!

Read the full story

Here are some beautiful (and occasionally silly) pictures from our tech run of Other Bodies - what night are you coming? You can buy your tickets by clicking on the dates listed below:
Sun 10 @ NOON
Sat 16 @ 8:45
Sun 17 @ 4:15
Wed 20 @ 6:45
Fri 22 @ 3:45
VENUE #18: CSV Cultural and Educational Center - Flamboyan
107 Suffolk Street, (Rivington & Delancey Streets)
F train to Delancey Street or J, M to Essex Street

Read the full story

“A Klee painting named ‘Angelus Novus’ shows an angel looking as though he is about to move away from something he is fixedly contemplating. His eyes are staring, his mouth is open, his wings are spread. This is how one perceives the angel of history. His face is towards the past. Where we perceive a chain of events, he sees one catastrophe, which keeps piling wreckage upon wreckage and hurls it in front of his feet. The angel would like to stay, awaken the dead, and make whole what has been smashed. But a storm is blowing from Paradise; it has got caught in his wings with such violence that the angel can no longer close them. This storm irresistibly propels him into the future to which his back is turned, while the pile of debris before him grows skyward. This storm is what we call progress.”
-Walter Benjamin

Last Sunday, Flux had our second potluck play reading series, Food:Soul. The featured play was Jason Grote's This Storm Is What We Call Progress, directed by Kelly O'Donnell and featuring Flux Members Candice Holdorf (Rue, Sueno, upcoming Midsummer and 8 Little Antichrists) and Jake Alexander (Life is a Dream, Sueno, upcoming Midsummer and 8 Little Antichrists), as well as Jane Taylor (upcoming Rattlers), Will Ditterline (Rue, Riding the Bull, dir. Wake to Dream), and Ellen McLaughlin. It was a rare night of food, theatre and community.

I first encountered Jason's work by reading his play 1001, which overwhelmed me, and is now deservedly being produced all over, including last year's production at p73. Storm is the play he wrote before 1001, and carries some similarities, most notably in expanding the emotional life of a central relationship into wider social, political and religious power structures. In 1001, the attraction within the hate between East and West, the desire within the hegemony of Orientalism, the transformation of cultural narrative into actual history, the loss of self in
the consummation with the Other, the death in sex; all of these grand ideas are grounded in the relationship between Alan, a Jew from New Jersey, and Dahna, a Palestinian-American from Brooklyn. These themes all become linked to the choices of Alan and Dahna and their comic-mythic counterparts, Shahriyar and Scheherazade; so that when, at the end of the play, Alan is given the choice by a djinn to give up his relationship with Dahna in return for the thousands of lives just lost in a horrific terrorist attack; his personal choice cannot help but inexorably reverberate with meaning through those larger themes.

(And after a paragraph that heavy, it is important to note that all of the above is deftly kept alight by a vaudevillian delight in exposing every grand gesture as a theatrically comic trick.)

In Storm, the central relationship is between Adam (Jake Alexander), a half-Irish half-Jewish struggling New York actor in his 20's; and Lily (Candice Holdorf), a 30 year old former pet photographer studying Kabbalah with the mysterious Woman With Silver Skin (Ellen McLaughlin). The vaudeville here is literally supplied by Valter and Channah, Yiddish ghosts who may or may not be standing in for Walter Benjamin and Hannah Arendt.

As with 1001, many larger themes regarding the culpability (and possibility) of individual freedom within larger totalitarian structures (in this case, messianic Judaism) and the impossibility of balancing the need for power against the cost of power, are incarnated in the human sweat, blood, and body odor of Adam and Lily's romance.

On the one hand, when Adam bursts in on Lily's Kabbalist training at the exact moment she is mentioning the messiah, Adam can be assumed to possibly be just that (as it turns out, he may just be the father of that. But that's a Sephirot for another time). But on the other, he is also simply a half-rate actor stumbling early into a recording session.

When the Woman describes sensing the blood rushing into Adam's penis when he sees Lily, she absolutely has divine powers of perception; and she also is a wise woman with her eyes open. When Adam and Lily have sex, his head becomes the sun and she unzips his chest and to reveal the sky; and, it is also the first time Adam's had sex with someone he loves. When Lily fears where there relationship will go, she fears it they way anyone fears new love; and she also fears leading Adam to ritual sacrifice.

In other words, the mundane and the divine co-exist in the every moment of this play because they are the same thing. Upon our little rituals of accommadation hang the rituals of power, unseen because we do not want to see them.

When Adam moves on from Lily to become the Woman's disciple, Lily's death is both real and also the loss of that first flush of love when that other person is the only world. Her resurrection is both literal magic and also the moving on of the relationship even after that first flush is gone.

When Woman rips out Adam's tongue to give him a new one, his gift to speak a new language is both raw divine power, and the shock any real teacher gives you when their ideas forever expand your world. His inability to communicate or function in the old world is both because he is separated by his new found power; and because he is simply a convert.

And finally, when Adam and Lily have the choice to slaughter each other; it is both a ritual act to bring about the messiah, and the lashing out of lovers falling out of love.

At the end of the play, Adam is given a lesson in power and love by Channah and Valter, who are both his grandparents, and also famous philosophers. Channah tells a story of her relationship with someone like Heidegger, the brilliant philosopher who fell under the Nazi spell. She says, although she never wanted to see him again, that he was redeemable. She refused to condemn him. She, who had been powerless, refused to use that power when it was finally hers. As Valter says, "Power is poison./But also not to have power is poison".

With that contradiction, they send him back to the moment of choosing whether or not to slaughter Lily. He chooses differently this time. This time, he neither goes mad nor rules the world with a cruel omnipotence. The disappointed lovers just go their separate ways.

There are two more rituals in this plays of rituals. First, Adam and Lily meet years later, and play out the little ritual of having moved on from someone who once meant so much. Then, Valter and Channah are reunited to dance, and Channah says "Only let us continue thinking, hard, together, unto eternity. Let us follow truth into her lair and coax her out and not domesticate her but let her make us more wild. Let us dance".

This Storm Is What We Call Progress is a play of truth that must be coaxed out, and once out, cannot be domesticated. It is a play where the renunciation of power means terrible disappointment, mediocrity, even death; it is also a play where the seizing of power means ecstasy, madness, and the murder of others. It is a play where the little rituals of life may be the way we survive the renunciation of power; and they may be the way true power is revealed to us; and they may also be the way we avoid taking responsibility for the power we have. It is a play about the terrible loss of a real teacher/parent; it is also a play about the danger of following a teacher/parent too closely. It is a play about the meaninglessness of thinking about life; it is also a play about how life is so powerfully shaped by thought.

It is a play where a boy who is also a book decides to kill the only woman he's ever loved; and it is also a play where he doesn't.

There is a fascinating quote by Susan Sontag regarding Walter Benjamin (thanks, wikipedia), one of the patron Yiddish ghosts of Storm. Writing on Benjamin's style, she says it is as if each sentence "had to say everything, before the inward gaze of total concentration dissolved the subject before his eyes", a style of writing Sontag called "freeze-frame baroque." Sontag writes that "his major essays seem to end just in time, before they self-destruct." Somehow, that feels like apt praise for This Storm Is What We Call Progress (if, in fact, it is a fit form of praise to examine the work of so allusive a playwright by alluding to another writer talking about another writer's work. Oh boy, that sentence just made my head tap dance like a Yiddish ghost...)

The performances were very exciting, especially given our limited rehearsal time. Ellen wore the power of the Woman with lightly, finding the humor and human tenderness in her almost facist grandeur. Jake nailed the particular rhythm of Adam (almost a vaudeville naturalism) and Candice found a guarded and vulnerable curiosity in Lily. Will and Jane gave the break-up scene between Valter and Channah a surprisingly resonant emotional punch. Michael Davis reading stage directions had a big a part as anyone (this was a very visual play) and brought a playful energy to the vivid imagery. Kelly's direction emphasized the clarity of story telling and human connection.

What I will remember most of all:

Jake's Beastie Boy answering message and American Shylock cowboy voice
Candice's 'no' when asked out on a date
Jane's relish of the text in her first monologue
Will's farewell to Channah
Ellen's "This time do it right!"
Gretchen's amazing contributions to the food!

And much more. Thanks to EVERYONE who took the time to join us for this exciting night of theatre, including the theatre companies who sent a friend or two: New York Theatre Workshop, Stages on the Sound, Core Theatre, Impetuous Theater Group, Packawallop, Coffee Cup, Intentional Theatre, Ateh Group, Blue Box, New Mummers, Crosstown Playwrights, and Godlight. Food:Soul is not only an opportunity for Flux to work on a play we're passionate about, but to share that work and break some bread with the wider New York theatre community.

Thanks to everyone for a wonderful night, and a special thanks to Jason for his play. For those in DC, be sure to check out Rorschach's production in June of this year! Read the full story

ON BIRDS AND BUNNIES
Our Flux workshop on Sunday the 23rd, aka 'Easter', was a blissfully smaller turnout of 14 people - about 12 less than our recent average - and I welcomed the intimate crowd.

ONEIDA, OR ISAIAH GOES SLEDDING
We continued through Johnna Adams' wonderful play about the utopian community in mid-1800's New York, Oneida, or Servants of Motion. Kate Marks directed three short scenes - in the first, founder Noyes and his favorite lover Tirzah discuss the unusual communal marriage structure even as Noyes tries to exempt her from it and claim her all for himself. In the second, Mary, she of last week's stillborn child, teaches her students the value of punctuality by burning a late girl's doll. In the third, the middle-aged Harriet teaches teen-age Pip the thrill and difficulty of sex with male continence, likening it to sledding. In all three scenes, the surprise of human need breaks through the unusual social structures, dropping hints of how this community may fall apart. Very strong performances were given by all: Ken Glickfeld and Katie Hartke in the first; Candice Holdorf and Kelly O'Donnell in the second, and Isaiah Tanenbaum and Kelly again in the third.

BIRD HOUSE, OR HEIDI'S PLAYHOUSE
Heidi Handelsman directed the latest scene in Kate's Bird House to delightful affect, with a comically tyrannical Myra-on-stilts by Charlotte Graham; a spirited Syl by Johnna; and a manically depressed and besieged Louisy by Heather Cohn. This was the closest we've come to bottling the elusive genii of Kate's play, and it was a basket full of perfect Peeps.

EGEUS, OR GUS GOES VERSING
My contribution to our upcoming Imagination Compact (more info soon) was our last play of the day, and was directed with great patience by Jeremy Basescu. I was literally writing as they were rehearsing, and I gave him two new pages every twenty minutes until this short play was done. It features Egeus and Demetrius from Midsummer, captured by Amazons after fighting alongside Theseus; and as they reminisce about what they left behind, a bond develops between them that puts the first scene of the play in an unusual light. After the fun I had writing in verse for Gideon's (now renamed) Blueprint project, I was very happy to return to all the little pleasure blank verse can give. David Douglas Smith and Brian Pracht did a great job steering the little ship of intention on this sea of words.

Sunday, bunny Sunday. Read the full story