'The Angel Eaters Trilogy' to Begin Performances Nov. 3 at Flux Theatre

Flux Theatre Ensemble concludes its 2008 Season of Transformation with the world premiere of Johnna Adams' epic Angel Eaters Trilogy. The Trilogy follows three generations of a family cursed with the gift of raising people from the dead. The three plays of the Trilogy, Angel Eaters, Rattlers, and 8 Little Antichrists, will run in rep beginning November 3 at The Wings Theatre, 154 Christopher Street. The production will run through November 22. On Saturdays, intrepid audiences will be able to catch all three shows in chronological order.

In Angel Eaters (the first in the trilogy), 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, 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.

The cast of Angel Eaters is Tiffany Clementi, Ken Glickfeld*, Ian Heitzman, Catherine Porter*, Marnie Schulenburg, Isaiah Tanenbaum, Gregory Waller*, and Cotton Wright.*

Rattlers, set in the 1970's, follows the children of the survivors of Angel Eaters. Unwilling to accept her sister Kate's death, Ernelle kidnaps Osley, her ex-lover and uses dark methods of persuasion to convince him to raise Kate from the dead. Meanwhile, Kate and Ernelle's mother, believing her daughter was murdered, seeks revenge, while the two men who may have killed her share memories of the woman they loved. This hauntingly intimate play examines how love can drive good people to acts of unspeakable violence.

The cast of Rattlers is Matthew Crosby, David Jackson, Becky Kelly, Jason Paradine, Amy Stewart*, Jane Lincoln Taylor*, and Richard Watson.*

Set 20 years in the future, 8 Little Antichrists (the final play of the trilogy) imagines a dystopia where Disney Corporation runs jails and SONY clones workers. Skipping ahead two generations, 8 Little Antichrists follows Osley's (from Rattlers) grandchildren - Jeremy and Melanie - in their quest to stop the apocalypse and save the world from the antichrists. This story is the thrilling conclusion to a three play battle between good and evil, love and loss.

The cast of 8 Little Antichrists is Jake Alexander, Candice Holdorf*, Felicia Hudson*, Nora Hummel*, Elise Link, Joe Mathers, Rebecca McHugh, Zack Robidas, and August Schulenburg.

The scenic design for The Angel Eaters Trilogy is by Caleb Levengood; costume design is by Emily DeAngelis; lighting design is by Jennifer Rathbone; sound design is by Asa Wember; original composition is by Gerard Keenan; dramaturgy is by Kay Mitchell, and fight direction is by Shannon Michael Wamser.

Johnna Adams' play, Sans Merci, won the 2008 Reva Shiner Award and was a 2006 finalist for both the Princess Grace Award and the Abingdon Theater Company's Christopher Brian Wolk Award. This play was also a semifinalist for the O'Neill and Playlabs Festivals. She has twice won the OC Weekly's Best New Play Award (2006: The Sacred Geometry of S & M Porn, 2002: Cockfighters). Cockfighters won a silver medal in the 2003 Pinter Prize and was a finalist in the 2002 playwrights First Award.

Director Jessi D. Hill (Angel Eaters) was most recently Artistic Director of Stage Left Theatre Company in Chicago where she directed and/or produced over 40 world premiere new plays. While living in Chicago from 1997-2004, she worked at some of the city's finest theatres including About Face, A Red Orchid, Chicago Dramatists, Court, Factory, Famous Door, Irish Repertory, Live Bait, Lookingglass, Mary Arrchie, Organic, Shakespeare Rep., Steppenwolf and Victory Gardens. She recently served as a Director-in-Residence at The Ensemble Studio Theatre. Jessi received her MFA in Directing from Yale School of Drama.

Director Jerry Ruiz (Rattlers) recently directed Under the Skin at Theatre 54 and Chicano Sketches at Yale School of Drama. Other credits: (NYC) Bohemian Lights (Repertorio Español), Translation of Signs (HERE Arts Center), Perfectomundo (EST); (Regional) Blood Wedding, Labyrinth of Desire, Murder of Crows, 4h Club. Upcoming: Waiting for the Hearse (Mixed Blood). Jerry is a two-time recipient of the Van Lier Director's Fellowship and is a Directing Fellow at Second Stage. Jerry received his MFA in Directing from UC-San Diego.

Director Kelly O'Donnell (8 Little Antichrists) recently direcTed August Schulenburg's Riding the Bull which won the New York Fringe Festival's Village Voice Audience Favorite Award. With Flux, she has also directed Life is a Dream 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 is a graduate of DeSales University's theatre program.

Flux Theatre Ensemble, founded in 2006, has already proved to be a vital force in the New York Independent Theatre community. Flux's mission is to use the transformative power of theatre to re-imagine the boundaries of human connection. Through new, classical, and community-based work, Flux explores the surprising evolution of the human spirit. Its plays are character-driven, globally-engaged and uniquely theatrical. Through continuous collaboration, Flux will grow an ensemble of multi-faceted theatre professionals whose work will challenge, delight and transform its community.

Flux currently consists of seven core members, six associate members, and continues to expand its base of affiliated artists through programs like Flux Sunday, a weekly play development series, and Have Another and Food:Soul, public performances sharing the progress of that development.

Flux is the proud recipient of two NYC Fringe Festival Awards, in 2007 the Village Voice Audience Favorite Award for August Schulenburg's Riding the Bull and in 2008 for Heather Cohn's direction of Other Bodies. Nytheatre.com calls Flux "a smart company, unafraid of challenging material, and they make a point of engaging their audience at every turn. I left the theatre excited to see what they offer up next."

The Angel Eaters Trilogy plays Monday through Thursday at 8:00pm, Friday at 7:00pm & 9:30pm, and Saturday & Sunday at 1:00pm, 4:00pm, and 8:00pm. Tickets are regularly $18 and may be purchased online at www.fluxtheatre.org or www.theatermania.com. For a great deal, audiences may purchase a 3-Show-Package for only $40. Visit www.fluxtheatre.org for details.

Website: www.fluxtheatre.org

Blog: www.fluxtheatreensemble.blogspot.com

*Appearing courtesy of Actors' Equity Association

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