Flux Theatre Ensemble

(What is Flux Sunday?)

If the previous Sunday was the Flux of the actors, this Sunday was the Flux of the playwrights - as many strong pages as we've seen in a long time, and despite my best attempts, we simply could not stage them all.

Playwrights: Johnna Adams (The Anguisher), Fengar Gael (The Cat Vandal), Larry Kunofsky (So Retarded), Kitty Lindsay (Life is a Dream House), Kristen Palmer (Bridgeport), Brian Pracht (Unplugged In), August Schulenburg (Jane the Plain), Adam Szymkowicz (The Note)

Directors: Pete Boisvert, Kristy Dodson, Heather Cohn

Actors: Isaiah Tanenbaum, Jason Howard, Alisha Spielmann, Melissa Herion, Drew Valins, Tiffany Clementi, Cotton Wright, Ken Glickfeld, Kersti Bryan, David Crommett

Highlights included:
-Well, it's not everyday one gets to play a fundamentalist possessed by the spirit of a cat - so that was certainly a personal highlight.
-Working on Brian's Unplugged In - we've seen many incarnations of this play (and first scene), and while Flux Sundays are used less frequently for longer term development, it's always exciting when it happens
-Cotton and Jason as the tormented Karbie and Ben dolls - they found the slightly askew physicality that made those parts pop
-Reading through So Retarded allowed us to do two big scenes that play off each other...and boy, did they ever, and the second scene really highlighted Kersti Bryan's Flux Sunday debut

Now I had to leave early, so...did I miss anything that should be forever recorded in the annals of time? Read the full story

(What is Flux Sunday?)

Our first Flux Sunday back from the retreat had a smaller turn out, but that allowed us to do an exciting thing. We staged and shared four plays: two in the first hour and a half, and two in the second. This led to a bunch of rushed choices, but all together the experience was, well, a rush. It's not everyday, after all, that one is able to play a rolling Oedipus, a cop fighting organ theft, and a political activist clown in three hours.

Playwrights: Larry Kunofsky (Tragedy on Ecstasy), Kristen Palmer (Bridgeport), August Schulenburg (Jane the Plain), Adam Szymkowicz (Market)

Directors: Heather Cohn, Marielle Duke, Leigh Hile

Actors: Carissa Cordes, Kitty Lindsay, Anna Lamadrid, Alisha Spielmann, Melissa Herion, Kathryn Lawson, Isaiah Tanenbaum

Highlights included:

-Anna tearing it up as Donna in Kristen's Bridgeport, not to mention the thrill of Larry's spellcasting. I'm very excited to see how these fanciful and gritty threads weave together.
-The whole Tragedy on Ecstasy cast, which embodied the Flux Sunday spirit of "let's just go for it."
-Melissa's chilling Clarissa, and Carissa as her hapless (puppet) victim in Adam's Market. I also loved Heather's use of the space (and Ann's scene changing shakers!)
-Kristen Palmer as Scotty the Hotty. 'Nuff said.

If you were there, what did you walk away with?

Read the full story

Is Crocker Dial good or evil? Well, he's an agent of change, shall we say...and right now, he's pouring some change in Tiggy's dreaming ear.
In Kristen Palmer's Sacrifice, teenage Emmie makes a play to change the world with the (very) willing help of a smitten Montgomery.
In Denny and Lila, con artist Lila may be making some headway with the good doctor Marcus.
Her con artist partner Denny is hitting it off with Lucia, much to Jabber's approval.
What would a Have Another pictoral round up be without the magical program-plus-drink shot? For pics from past Have Anothers, click here, and here, and here, and here, and here. And if you were there, share your thoughts in the comments below! Read the full story

Those words are part of Kristen Palmer's Sacrifice, her contribution to our Have Another #5 tonight, and touch not only the themes of the three plays, but also echoed my thoughts on the tragedy of Tucson. I was moved by them last night, and asked if I could share them with you here, and she kindly said yes, though of course, you'll hear them better in a room full of people born on the breath of an actor.

I hear such things differently on the day we honor the legacy of Martin Luther King, and I'm taking part of today to listen to his galvanizing words, and think about how I can echo in my own actions. Today, it was these words from his Nobel prize acceptance speech that struck me the most deeply:

Change The Story. And tonight, at around the same time we're lifting our glasses to celebrate the plays and artists of Have Another, the Public Theater will host an encore benefit performance of Being Harold Pinter to support Belarus Free Theater.

At around the same time, a few blocks down from us, The Horse Trade Theatre is hosting a panel on Diversity in Contemporary Theatre as part of The Fire This Time Festival. I wish I could be at all three events (I'm making appearances at two), but I'm thrilled tonight to end up at our Have Another, helping the community of artists I love make the new stories.

(Photo: Tyler G. Hicks-Wright. Pictured: Michael Davis, Jake Alexander, Matthew Archambault in THE LESSER SEDUCTIONS OF HISTORY, year 1963, before the "I Have A Dream" speech takes over the characters)

Read the full story

When we choose seasons, we pay special attention to the ways the plays speak to each other. But when choosing scenes for Have Another, we focus more on who the playwrights are, and which Flux Sunday scenes struck the strongest chords.

But while hosting the rehearsals for Have Another #5 this weekend, I noticed an interesting shared theme about adolescence and consequences. Growing up is above all taking responsibility for the consequences of your actions; of realizing things don't often work out exactly the way you expected; of making plans that prepare for the uncertain world; of owning the messes you make.

Under this definition, I feel our country has regressed again towards a kind of adolescence: putting off passing necessary environmental legislation; pretending it's possible to spend more, cut taxes, and somehow reduce the deficit; entering into wars without exit plans; and then acting with a childish denial of responsibility when obvious consequences come home to roost. I say this knowing my own actions still sometimes follow this adolescent pattern, despite my best intentions.

All three plays for this Have Another explore this theme in fascinating ways. In Kristen Palmer's Sacrifice, teenage Emmie looks around at a town where family farms have been devoured and manufacturing jobs have dried up; where the adults of her life have betrayed her or let her down; where she feels she has to take the responsibility the adults have abandoned and change things in dramatic fashion.

In Katherine Burger's Ever Ever, Peter Pan and Lost Boys have left NeverLand for an apartment in Manhattan but still haven't grown up. Now in their sixties, the boys and Wendy have their suspended adolescence upended by the "agent of change" Crocker Dial, a reptilian figure of mystery who one by one, brings the consequences of time and age to these defiantly childish adults. Ever Ever indulges in the pleasures of being a child while at the same time reckoning with it's limits.

In my play Denny and Lila, we meet that most bewitching form of American adolescent, the con artist. We've all met that charmer with the childlike vitality that admits no limits, who believes the night has no end. These charmers and con artists are almost irresistible, but they always leave someone else to clean up their mess. In some ways, contemporary America is the ultimate con artist, peddling a dream that everyone can have everything they want in a world of scarcity and loss.

As you might expect, none of these plays end well for the characters, though they have a great deal of fun as they fiddle and burn. Hopefully you'll see what I mean tomorrow night! Read the full story

It's back! Our next installment of Have Another is this Monday the 17th from 7PM-9PM. 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.



2011 comes in with a roar - check out this must-see Monday 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 con artists, grown up Lost Boys, Neruda, plays within plays, crocodiles, and teenagers who will save the world! Doors open at 7PM, with scenes beginning at 7:30PM and running through 9PM.

Shall we lift a glass together? RSVP on the Facebook event! Read the full story

Our second Sunday at Judson Memorial Church was also our first with audience members from their congregation - exciting! And they were certainly treated to a wide variety of um, entertainments, shall we say?

Playwrights: Katherine Burger (Ever Ever), Fengar Gael (The Spell Caster), Kristen Palmer (Untitled), Brian Pracht (Wendell Wants), August Schulenburg (Presents, Denny and Lila), Daren Taylor (Porn Makes Jesus Cry)

Directors: Ryan Andes, Matthew Archambault, Katherine Burger, Heather Cohn

Actors: Elise Link, Alisha Spielmann, Antoinette Broderick, Gretchen Poulos, Susan Ferrara, David Crommett, Mariam Habib, Amy Staats, Ken Glickfeld, Brent Rose, Jane Taylor

Highlights included:
-Susan gracefully making the tempo gear shift in her cold read of the sad end of my monologue Presents ( lovely to hear 5 different actresses take a crack at Keely), not to mention her chill/shiver inducing turn as Janet in Kristen's play dealing with a violent act long planned and suddenly done
-Elise's lovely moment as Lila reaching out to child Denny as Jabber remembers walking behind them when they were young, and hand in hand (and is it weird that watching Gatz I thought that Denny and Lila bore a strange resemblance to The Great Gatsby?)
-Brian Pracht is a merrier (so far) mood in his Wilderesque comedy of growing up, Wendell Wants
-Alisha rocking another one of Kristen's ladies as Emily in a funny/tense scene with Isaiah
-Jane as a love-struck middle-aged Wendy still in awe of Peter in Katherine's Ever Ever
-Matt Archambault's high stakes staging of Daren's Porn Makes Jesus Cry
-Heather's transformation into soul-sucking snake in The Spell Caster!

This was a Flux Sunday where we finished two plays, Denny and Lila and The Spell Caster; and began several new ones, and so it goes for as long as we can keep going.

What were your favorite highlights? Read the full story

(What is Flux Sunday?)

(Flux fire hydrant to the left discovered and captured through the power of photography in Brooklyn by Adam Szymkowicz)

Yup, on October 9th, we broke the fundamental laws of physics, and for the first time in three years, held a Flux Sunday on a SATURDAY. So far as I can tell, the universe did not (as many pundits feared it would) end, unless of course it did end and we live now in some eerily similar mirror universe.

Setting such lofty considerations aside, it went really well for a hastily assembled day. We had TONS of pages, and ran right up to the 7PM mark, but it felt quick, because the pages had some pop to them.

Playwrights: Johnna Adams, Fengar Gael, Kristen Palmer, Brian Pracht, August Schulenburg, Adam Szymkowicz

Actors: David Crommett, Ken Glickfeld, Isaiah Tanenbaum, Matt Archambault, Gretchen Poulos, Antoinette Broderick

Highlights included:

-A great Flux Sunday for Gretchen, who brought a casual loveliness to Adam's Josette (in the untitled French play), a subtly heightened feel to girl in Kristen's The Stray Dog, and a rough playfulness to the jade Cheat in Johnna's Pickpocks, Jades, and Swindlers, her second play in the style of Lickspittles, Buttonholers, and Damned Pernicious Go-Betweens (brace yourselves - it looks to be a trilogy).

-A smoking scene from Brian Pracht's Unplugged In, courtesy of some tight rewrites from Brian, a focused performance as Chris from Matt A, and a hilarious turn from Travis as Zero. This scene was popping!

-The debut of Antoinette Broderick, who played a con-artist, tattoo artist, and 18th century swindler with aplomb.

What were your impressions of the day? What did you think of the stylistic new ground Adam struck in the love affair between Matt and Josette in that untitled French play? Did you notice that I inadvertently included a Dr X speech pattern in the Denny and Lila scene? How did the end of Kristen's The Stray Dog land with you? Aren't Doug and Cheryl romantic? Isn't that picture Adam took of the fire hydrant kind of cool? And could you believe it when Mayra bit the frickin' head of that snake???

And for the record, this was the last Flux Sunday (er, Saturday) before we embarked to a potential new home...but more on that anon. Read the full story

What is Flux Sunday?

Yes, I know, I owe you reports from from 7/11 and 7/18. But I'd like to start a new trend of blogging about Flux Sunday immediately afterwards, so all those who atteneded can chime in with thoughts, before time steals them.

Playwrights: Johnna Adams (Nurture), Zack Calhoon (Obamaville), James Comtois (McTeague), Kristen Palmer (The Stray Dog), Brian Pracht (The Mysoginist), Adam Szymkowicz (Curently Untitled), August Schulenburg (What Is Outside)

Actors: Isaiah Tanenbaum, Jane Taylor, David Crommett, Alisha Spielmann, Christina Shipp, Nancy Franklin, Matthew Archambault, Ken Glickfeld

Yup, we had a bevy of playwrights (a quill of playwrights?) and a whole bunch of pages. It was a solid three hour sandwhich of theatre, and I left full.

Highlights included:

-Johnna Adams's new play, Nurture. The tyrannical mother Cheryl and her obliviously smitten suitor Doug bond over their strange dancing daughters in a scene of shocking comic vitality. I'm not sure we quite got the the tone of this one - I have a hunch it is quicker and more deadpan - but it seems like an exciting new style for Johnna, and I can't wait to see where it goes.

-The scene between 'best friends' Jim and the dying Matt in Adam's new play; Jim's completely insincere attempt at empathy has all of us appalled and laughing

-Things getting ugly in The Mysoginist, with a particularly unsettling scene between Matt Archambault's Ethan and Alisha Spielmann's Libby (Alisha turned in several strong performances)

-The air of mystique pervading the first scene of Kristen's new play, tentatively called The Stray Dog. Curiosity, piqued.

-Ken Glickfeld as Curtis and David Crommett as James going toe to toe in Zack's Obamaville; things don't end well for this Tea Party; but even sitting round an office table, they weren't afraid to blow things up.

-Ken again in the shyly lovely courtship scene between Grannis and Nancy Franklin's Miss Baker in James' McTeague. Aww. And we needed some awww...it was a Sunday made up mostly of blackest comedy and violent drama.

It was great to have so many playwrights bringing pages that seemed to be pushing in new directions; or further in old ones; and I look forward to the next round.

SO...if you were there, lay down some cool wisdom in the comments field, y'here? Read the full story

So our ForePlay series Divine Reckonings kicks off this Monday the 22nd at Judson Memorial Church, 243 Thomspon Street, at 7:30PM! To sweeten the honey pot further, we've added a kick-off party afterwards with an hour open bar at Down The Hatch, starting at 9PM. Monday is clearly the new Friday.

Here's the skinny:

Read the full story

(What is Flux Sunday?)

Still trying to play catch up on the Flux Sunday reports, and a rainy day does indeed help. So, cast your minds back to the far gone day of February 14th, where a last minute change of venue has us scrambling to a location where we can only read the plays, and not stage them.

And yet...as you might have hoped...some good work happened. Armenian verse dramas, girls possessed by monkeys, agribusiness, pirate love, and unexpected house guests all paid a visit to this Sunday's Flux.

Playwrights: Johnna Adams (Hripsime), Katherine Burger (The Guest), Fengar Gael (The Gallerist), Kristen Palmer (Sacrifice), Adam Szymkowicz (My Base and Scurvy Heart)

Actors: Paula Roman, Alisha Spielmann, Mariam Habib, Ingrid Nordstrom, Brian Pracht, Nancy Franklin, Michael Davis, David Crommett, Carissa Cordes, Ken Glickfeld, Anthony Wills Jr, Matthew Archambault

Highlights included:

- Mariam and Anthony's powerful showdown as Hripsime and the lusty king Tiridates in Hrispime. Stichomythia fans, it doesn't get better than this.
- Mary's exciting twist in The Gallerist that made Laura's attempt to exorcise the monkey possessing her friend a wee bit more complex.
- Alisha Spielmann's continued channeling of the precocious and mercurial Emmie in Sacrifice.
- David Crommett's perfect capture of Dennis' over-confidence and loneliness in The Guest.
- Johnna's heartbreakingly funny pirate-in-love in My Base And Scurvey Heart. Read the full story

(What is Flux Sunday?)

Yup, I'm WAAAY behind in this and many other aspects of the blog. This is my good excuse. But I'm going to do my best to catch up, so hop in the Delorian with me and journey way back when to the early days of February, when the Olympics were just a looming dot on the horizon.

Playwrights: Zack Calhoon (Stolen), James Comtois (McTeague), Fengar Gael (The Gallerist), Kristen Palmer (Sacrifice), August Schulenburg (The Sea Concerto)

Directors: Rob Ackerman, ZC, Heather Cohn, AS

Actors: David Crommett, Anthony Wills Jr, Isaiah Tanenbaum, Nora Hummel, Ken Glickfeld, Matthew Archambault, Brian Pracht, Kelly O'Donnell, Richard Watson, Alisha Spielmann, Ingrid Nordstrom, Paula Roman, Catherine Porter, Travis York, Ryan Andes

A different time to accommodate the Super Bowl (1 to 4PM) allowed longtime invitees like Catherine Porter to finally attend! And though none of our highlights were nationally televised, they included:

-Paula Roman's sexy manipulation of Travis York as Petra (and Nick) in Zack's Stolen
-Rob Ackerman's hilariously frenzied direction of Kristen's Sacrifice, with Alisha and Isaiah channeling two idealistic teenagers staging the changing world with every bizarre prop we had in the room - ah, the soda can versus the water bottle!
-Nancy Franklin's heartrending breakdown in the very same play - a haunting read of a woman knowing something important is being lost but uncertain of what
-Ryan Andes' continued hilarity in the part of McTeague, as James' play turns merrily darker by the scene
-Speaking of those, how about when James' halting Arthur and Ryan's hopeful Bertram fell for each other in Mary's The Gallerist? This might have been my favorite moment ever, let alone this Sunday...
-David Crommett tearing up hurricane Jimmy's intrigues in The Sea Concerto - well hello, exit applause.

So, if any of your memories stretch back that far, Fluxers, what were your favorite moments from that Sunday, so long ago? Read the full story

(What is Flux Sunday?)

Playwrights: Johnna Adams (The Anguisher), James Comtois (McTeague), Mary Fengar Gael (The Gallerist), Kristen Palmer (Sacrifice), Adam Szymkowicz (My Base and Scurvy Heart)

Directors: Heather Cohn, MFG, August Schulenburg

Actors: Amy Fitts, Brian Pracht, Alisha Spielmann, Isaiah Tanenbaum, Richard Watson, Nancy Franklin, Paula Roman, Ryan Andes, Cotton Wright, Becky Kelly

And then, after two Flux Sundays that pushed the time limit of 3 hours, we somehow how fit our best Flux Sunday in some time into 2 hours (there was a last minute space issue). Woosh!

Part of it was the quality of material - all the plays were strong. Part of it was directors and actors making good choices quickly. And part of it was that weird alchemy that sometimes is kind enough to bubble up mysteriously from the work.

Highlights included:
- Alisha Spielmann's spirited turn as the hyper intelligent teen Emmie in Kristen's Sacrifice
- James Comtois' creep-inducing turn as the scarred but hungry Henry in Johnna's The Anguisher
- Amy Fitts somehow completely believable channeling of a monkey in Mary's The Gallerists
- Nancy Franklin's adorably smitten Miss Baker in James' McTeague - when will she and Old Grannis get together, damn it?!?
- Adam's deliriously funny opening scene of his new pirate play, My Base and Scurvy Heart; which thankfully had Johnna as one of the fierce pirate lasses

Artists who attended, what were your favorite moments? Read the full story

What is The Imagination Compact?

Read the full story