Flux Theatre Ensemble's Production of Erin Browne's MENDERS Closes

Flux Theatre Ensemble presents the World Premiere of Erin Browne's (Narrator 1 at Theater Row; Trying at The Bushwick Starr) MENDERS through February 11 at The Gym at Judson (243 Thompson Street at Washington Square South). The production will be directed by Flux Producing Director, Heather Cohn (nominated for an NYIT Outstanding Direction Award for Flux's The Lesser Seductions of History; Winner of a FringeNYC Excellence Award for Outstanding Direction for Flux's Other Bodies).

Corey and Aimes are new recruits mending the wall that guards their city from an unnamed threat. But as their teacher Drew tells them subversive tales of the world outside they begin to wonder at the real purpose of the wall, 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.

Judson Memorial Church is the home of the original Judson Poets' Theatre, who along with Caffé Cino, were among the original pioneers of the off-off Broadway theatre movement. The Gym at Judson is a new theatre space dedicated to rekindling Judson's role as a home for off-off Broadway. As recipients of the prestigious New York Innovative Theatre 2011 Caffé Cino Fellowship Award, Flux Theatre Ensemble was the perfect company to help christen the space as a new home for independent and off-off Broadway theatre.

The production, presented by Flux Theatre Ensemble, played a four-week engagement at The Gym at Judson (243 Thompson Street at Washington Square South), January 19-February 11; The final performance is on February 11 at 8pm. Tickets ($18/$15 students) may be purchased online at www.fluxtheatre.org or by calling 866-811-4111.

Erin Browne (Playwright) has written the full-length plays A Meth Play, Coffee/Lovelorn, Devil to Pay, Hence, Menders, Narrator 1, Not As of Yet, Projects, Return, and Trying. Return was a winner of the Hudson Valley Writers' Center inaugural Play Reading Series Contest and will have a staged reading in December 2011. Erin's play Narrator 1 was produced by Iron Jaw Company at Theater Row. Trying was produced at the Bushwick Starr and a radio play version of Trying was the winner of the BBC World Service International Radio Play Contest and was broadcast on BBC World Service. It was also shortlisted for the Richard Imison Award from the Writers' Guild of Great Brittan. A Meth Play was the winner of the National Student Drama Fest's International Playscript Award and received a reading at NSDF. Erin's full-length plays have been read and developed with the help of Flux Theatre Ensemble, the Saltbox Theatre, Iron Jaw Company, The Forge, At Hand Theatre Company, Hip Obscurity, Potluck Plays, Rattlestick Playwrights Theatre, The Flea, Tribeca Performing Arts Center, America in Play, Abingdon Theatre, Columbia University, and New York University. Erin's short plays and collaborative texts have been produced by MadShag, The Forge, PACE University, The Slant Theater Project, Poliglot Theater, Spork Fest, Brooklyn Playwrights Collective, Sticky, Adelphi University, Columbia University, and Brooklyn College. Her screenplays have been award finalists and her poetry widely published. Erin primarily works in television documentaries and lives in Brooklyn.

"Erin Browne's play was described by the judges as "exquisite", "human" and "spare", and is a tender three-hander about co-dependency and moving on."
BBC World Service (Trying, BBC World Service Prize Winner)

"Erin Browne's script is rife with lyricism and word play usually only seen on the printed page, not the stage." Adrienne Urbanski, Theatre is Easy

Heather Cohn (Director) is a co-founder of Flux Theatre Ensemble and currently serves as the Producing Director. Directing credits for Flux include August Schulenburg's The Lesser Seductions of History (nominated for Outstanding Direction, New York Innovative Theatre Awards) and Other Bodies (FringeNYC Excellence Award for Outstanding Direction); staged readings of Jose Rivera's Sueño and Adam Szymkowicz's Pretty Theft, August Schulenburg's Channeling and Bekah Brunstetter's Miss Lilly Gets Boned. Outside of Flux Heather recently directed David Stallings' The Stranger to Kindness (Outstanding Overall Production of a One-Act, Planet Connections Theatre Festivity Awards, also nominated for Outstanding Direction Award). Other credits include: Aliza Einhorns's Blood (EstroGenius Festival); Wayne Paul Mattingly's The Ballad of Lulu and Dad (Artistic New Directions); Zack Calhoon's Paint (On the Square Productions); and Tulpa, or Anne & Me (Crossroads Theatre Project). Member - Women's Project Producers' LAB (2008-2010).

"Cohn's direction--which has to juggle a lot of pieces at once--is always clear about the intents and beauty of things as simple as our presence."
Aaron Riccio, That Sounds Cool (The Lesser Seductions of History)

"Heather Cohn, as director, combines intelligence, imagination, and wisdom, and tempers all with a modicum of heart. Actors can only be as good as they are allowed to be by their director, and Heather has a great handle on her actors, as well as a distinguishing eye for detail." Toby Thelin, Off Off Online (Lesser Seductions)

"Staged impeccably by director Heather Cohn. She smartly avoids blackouts save for three pivotal moments in the show... Cohn's work with actors Nappo and Shipp is admirable." Nathaniel Kressen, nytheatre.com (Other Bodies)

FLUX THEATRE ENSEMBLE produces transformative theatre that explores and awakens the capacity for change. As an ensemble-artist driven company, Flux believes that long-term collaboration and rigorous creative development can unite artists and audiences to build a creative home in New York. 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 "Outstanding Direction" of Other Bodies. In 2008 nytheatre.com chose Flux Theatre Ensemble as one of their "People of the Year" saying "This rising theatre company had a hit in the New York International Fringe Festival with Other Bodies, written by Artistic Director August Schulenburg, and then went on to mount the fall's most ambitious indie show, Johnna Adams's Angel Eaters Trilogy." Flux received a Citation for Excellence in Off-Off Broadway Theatre from the Independent Theater Bloggers Association and seven New York Innovative Theatre Award nominations for The Angel Eaters Trilogy including a win for Outstanding Sound Design. In 2010, director Heather Cohn was nominated for a New York Innovative Theatre Award for The Lesser Seductions of History and Flux's 2011 production of Liz Duffy Adams' Dog Act received two nominations for Outstanding Actress in a Featured Role (Becky Byers) and Outstanding Set Design (Jason Paradine). The New York Innovative Theatre Awards also awarded the prestigious 2011 Caffé Cino Fellowship Award to Flux for consistently producing outstanding work.

www.fluxtheatre.org

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