Flux Theater Ensemble To Produce 3 Plays In 2009/10 Season

Following the success of their last season where they were named one of nytheatre.com's "People of the Year", Flux Theatre Ensemble will produce 3 plays in its 2009/10 season. Last year, Flux's A Midsummer Night's Dream was a Backstage Magazine "pick" and was called "immediately accessible and thematically adventurous" by Theatermania. For their New York Fringe production of Other Bodies, Heather Cohn won a Fringe Excellence Award for Outstanding Direction and Flux's ambitious Angel Eaters Trilogy received accolades from critics for being "wildly ambitious", "a veritable festival of theatre" and "a model for other brave artists and production companies."

Pretty Theft
Previews April 23, runs April 24 - May 17th
Access Theater, 380 Broadway (at White Street) 4th floor
Written by Adam Szymkowicz
Directed by Angela Astle

After losing her father, Allegra falls under the wing of bad-girl Suzy, only to find an unexpected friendship with Joe, an autistic savant obsessed with ballerinas. When things between them take a violent turn, Allegra and Suzy escape cross-country and befriend Marco, a mysterious thief who claims he cannot be caught. Newest Flux member Angela Astle stages this unsettling comedy by the critically acclaimed playwright of Nerve, Food for Fish and Incendiary. The play will be produced at Access Theater's Gallery space, a non-traditional theater space which will highlight the element of dance seen throughout the play.

The Lesser Seductions of History
Fall, 2009
Written by August Schulenburg
Directed by Heather Cohn

The playwright of last year's New York Fringe Festival success, Other Bodies, teams up with New York Fringe award-winning director Heather Cohn. The world premiere play, currently under development, is written specifically for the actors of Flux Theatre Ensemble and follows ten characters through each year of the 1960's. The Lesser Seductions of History explores the fracture points of Vietnam, Civil Rights and Free Love through the transformation of ten ordinary lives.

J.B.
Winter, 2010
Written by Archibald MacLeish
Directed by Kelly O'Donnell

Flux's final play of their 2009/10 Season is a modern adaptation of the biblical story of Job, exploring human suffering and the conflict of faith. Set in present day New York City, Job is a wealthy business executive who loses everything: his money, his home and his entire family and is forced to come face-to-face with his creator. When J.B. opened on Broadway in 1959, it was a huge success. Nominated for 5 Tony Awards and winning 2, it ultimately won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama. This rarely-produced play will be directed by Flux's Kelly O'Donnell, the director of Riding the Bull and Life is a Dream and will feature mask, movement and puppetry.

ADAM SZYMKOWICZ, Playwright, Pretty Theft Adam's plays Food For Fish and Nerve were called "fabulously weird and weirdly fabulous" and "sweet, sexy, neurotic friendly", respectively, by the New York Times. His work has been produced throughout the U.S., and in Canada, England, The Netherlands and Lithuania. Adam's plays have been presented or developed at such places as MCC Theater, Ars Nova, South Coast Rep, Playwright Horizons, LAByrinth Theater Company, The Lark, Julliard, Manhattan Theatre Source, Clubbed Thumb, Theatre of Note and Studio Dante, among others. Plays include Deflowering Waldo, Open Minds, Anne, The Art Machine, Food For Fish, Hearts like Fists, Herbie, Incendiary, Bee Eater, Temporary Everything, Susan Gets Some Play and Nerve. Adam's plays have been published by Dramatists Play Service, The New York Theater Review and in various Smith and Kraus anthologies. Adam is a two-time Lecomte du Nouy Prize winner, a member of the Dramatists Guild, the MCC Playwright's Coalition and was a founding member of Ars Nova Play Group. Adam received his playwriting MFA from Columbia University where he was the Dean's Fellow and, subsequently, received a Playwright's Diploma from the Julliard School.

ANGELA ASTLE, Director, Pretty Theft, Angela came to New York from Denver, Colorado in August 2007. She was the Venue Director for the New York International Fringe Festival 2008 where she first met Flux Theatre Ensemble. She was invited to be the associate director for Flux's A Midsummer Night's Dream while also associate producing Lysistrata at Gallery Players. Past directing credits include Dead Man Walking (Tim Robbins' play based on the movie and book of the same name) and Waffles by Martha Garvey as part of the Estrogenius Festival 2008 at Manhattan Theatre Source. Waffles was selected for encore performances during the "Best of Estro Week". Other recent directing credits include A Place for Owls by Fiona Jones, and What We Planned For by Jen Thatcher. Angela is currently the Associate Producer at New Perspectives Theatre Company.

AUGUST SCHULENBURG, Playwright, The Lesser Seductions of History August's most recent play, Other Bodies, was called "one of the most intelligent and perceptive works to have taken the indie theatre stage this year" by nytheatre.com. His plays have been produced at the Chelsea Playhouse, Theater for the New City, NYC Fringe Festival, Dayton Playhouse and the Pennsylvania Shakespeare Festival, published by Stage and Screen and the New York Theater Review, and developed by The Lark, the Bay Area Playwrights Festival, Contemporary Stage Company and many others.

HEATHER COHN, Director, The Lesser Seductions of History Heather's recent work on Flux's Other Bodies at the NY International Fringe Festival won her a Fringe Excellence Award for Outstanding Direction. She serves as Flux's Managing & Development Director. Heather is a member of the Women's Project Producers LAB (2008-2010). She serves as treasurer of the Board of Directors of the Equus Projects and has also worked with New York Theatre Workshop, Theatre Communications Group, The Pearl Theatre Company, Fourth Arts Block (FAB), Cornerstone Theater Company, Red Bull Theater, Cherry Lane Theatre, the Striking Viking Story Pirates and Repertorio Español. Heather is a graduate of Vassar College.

KELLY O'DONNELL, Director, J.B. Kelly recently directed Johnna Adams' 8 Little Antichrists, part of the Angel Eaters Trilogy, which was named a "pick of the week" by nytheatre.com. With Flux, she directed August Schulenburg's Riding the Bull, which won the New York Fringe Festival's Village Voice Audience Favorite Award, Life is a Dream, which was named a "pick" by Backstage, and Rue. Kelly has worked at the Pennsylvania, Orlando and Utah Shakespeare Festivals, the Walnut Street Theatre, Arden Theatre, Alchemy Theatre, the Cape Playhouse and the Orlando Fringe Festival. She serves as Flux's Marketing and Executive Director and is a current employee of Google, Inc. Kelly graduated from DeSales University's theatre program.

FLUX THEATRE ENSEMBLE Flux is an ensemble of 12 multi-faceted theatre artists developing plays through its quarterly Food:Soul play development series, weekly Flux Sunday workshops and its annual week-long retreat. In 2008, the New York Press called Flux "The Most Underappreciated Indie Theatre Whose Work You Should Get Your Ass To" and nytheatre.com made Flux one of their "People of the Year" for 2008.

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