Flux Theatre Ensemble

For many reasons, I have been a little derelict with the Flux blog lately. Part of this is due to my blogging elsewhere, part is trying to keep up with my own writing, and a big year in my life, and greater responsibilities at work, and preparing to direct Ajax in Iraq, and so on to the forth.

Part of it, however, is the feeling that blogging (for me) was in part a communal brainstorming, some of which was inwardly directed towards Flux, but much of which was outward, wrestling with challenges that affect the field as a whole. And from that brainstorming came two ideas I am proud of: Indie Theatre Rep and The Homing Project.

My actual progress on those two ideas? Virtually nil. And so it seems to me the slivers of spare time that occasionally shine on my long-distance sprint of a life should be spent actualizing the ideas I've already had, not blogging towards new thoughts to abandon. But that's probably too absolute a plank to walk; and so, I'm going to try to get back in the saddle again.

I've also been increasingly aware that while these ideas are batted back and forth across our net in the light, the systems that govern how actual power is held and opportunity distributed are made (in large part) elsewhere. So I will also try to point the blog towards advocacy that may affect those systems, believing that those sometimes boring incremental changes can cumulatively make all the difference.

Which is a very long way of introducing three advocacy opportunities! Two are from the Performing Arts Alliance, an organization helped rally the support that sustained much of the FY11 funding for the NEA. That fraught victory was in some ways a rehearsal for the fight over the FY12 budget, and so now is a good time to thank (or berate) your Senators and Representative for their support (or lack thereof) of both the NEA and the Arts in Education Program. Both those links lead to customizable emails that take very little time to complete (and you should add yourself to the PAA email alerts, if you can take another email in your inbox).

The second is from A.R.T./NY. As you may know, the Mayor's Preliminary FY12 budget includes multiple cuts to the DCA that constitute a 32.5% cut to the Agency (learn more here). That link includes a letter template to send to Mayor Bloomberg and other city officials to reconsider those cuts.

So there we go; back in the ring. Stay tuned for some updates on the production process, and an announcement of the cast of Ajax in Iraq.

Flux receives support from NYSCA, which has received support from the NEA, so indirectly, we've been supported by this besieged agency (and while the grant amount may seem small, to us it truly is essential).

But the impact of the NEA on Flux is more profound than that. It was on an NEA-sponsored Shakespeare tour at Theater at Monmouth that I met Flux co-founder Jason Paradine. Flux would literally not exist without Jason - it was Jason who (inadvertently) named Flux (not to mention, Jason who provided essential leadership and production heroism in these first years). There might be a theatre company, but it wouldn't be called Flux, and it probably wouldn't feel much like Flux, either.

I believe the NEA's real impact is like that: nearly invisible to the millions of lives that it has touched. If the NEA met an angel named Clarence, we wouldn't like the look of Pottersville. I believe that every theatre artist has been touched by the NEA even if they don't know it. Like the work it funds, that impact is as deep and profound as it is hard to see; there are no new highways built by NEA funding, but the road I'm on is paved with its support.

This battle is as old as the Federal Theatre Project, but as Hallie Flanagan said:

“Here is one necessity for our theatre—that it help reshape our American life. Nor do we work, hereafter, alone. We work not in isolated centers, but in a nationwide Federal Theatre. From that union we should gain tremendous strength….Through it we shall mutually create a theatre which need not be just the frosting on the cake. It may be the yeast which makes the bread rise."

The NEA has helped reshape my life; and if the work of Flux matters to you, than it has touched yours. Don't let any worthy criticisms of the NEA obscure the profound impact this agency has had on our country's life; now is the time to live up to Hallie's vision of a nationwide union of theatres with tremendous strength; contact your representatives, and share your stories of how the NEA has impacted you life and community here, there, on your own blogs, and on Twitter with #NEA365.