Due to rights issues, Flux Theatre Ensemble will not be producing Archibald MacLeish's play, J.B. as previously planned. In its place, Flux will be staging the world premiere of August Schulenburg's JACOB'S HOUSE, a play inspired by the loss of J.B. Playwright August Schulenburg has taken the themes, style, design elements, staging concept, and cast from Flux's planned production of J.B., and used them as inspiration to write his own unique riff on the story of Jacob wrestling the Angel.
When three siblings argue over a strange provision in their father Jacob's will, allegiances shift, as secrets of his past are uncovered. As the full danger of his power is revealed, Jacob's son and daughters must decide what to do with their enigmatic inheritance. This darkly comic riff on the Biblical story of Jacob explores the legacies of violence and power, and the cost of wrestling with the divine. Director Kelly O'Donnell and Playwright August Schulenburg team up again for the first time since their Award-winning collaboration on Riding the Bull.
The cast will feature Johnna Adams, Jessica Angleskahn*, Matthew Archambault, Zack Calhoon*, Tiffany Clementi, Kelli Holsopple, Bianca LaVerne Jones*, Jane Lincoln Taylor*, Isaiah Tanenbaum, and Anthony Wills, Jr.* *Appearing courtesy of the Actors' Equity Association
The creative team will include Scenic Design by Jason Paradine, Costume Design by Hannah Rose Peck, Lighting Design by Kia Rogers, and Sound Design by Betsy Rhodes. Jodi Witherell will serve as the Stage Manager for the production with Assistant Direction by Catherine Adler-Josem.
The production, presented by Flux Theatre Ensemble will play at the Access Theater Gallery (380 Broadway at White Street, 4th Floor) April 29-May 22, Thursday through Saturday at 8pm and Sundays at 7pm. Tickets ($18) are available online at www.fluxtheatre.org.
AUGUST SCHULENBURG (Playwright) August's plays include Carrin Beginning, Kidding Jane, Rue, Riding the Bull, Good Hope, Other Bodies, 19 Words, Dark Matter, Honey Fist, and The Lesser Seductions of History. His plays have been produced and developed at The Lark, Bay Area Playwrights Festival, Chelsea Playhouse, Theater for the New City, Portland Stage Company, Dayton Playhouse, Colonial Players, Contemporary Stage Company, Abingdon Theater Company, GidEon Productions, Impetuous Theater Group, Blue Box Productions, Center Stage, Decades Out, Riot Actors of Washington, and of course, Flux Theatre Ensemble. His work has been published twice in the New York Theater Review, and also Stage and Screen.
KELLY O'DONNELL (Director) Kelly is a co-founder of Flux Theatre Ensemble and currently serves as their Marketing Director. For Flux, Kelly directed 8 Little Antichrists, Riding the Bull, Life is a Dream and Rue. She also directed the reading of Jason Grote's This Storm is What We Call Progress for Flux's Food:Soul. In 2009 Kelly made her Flux acting debut in The Lesser Seductions of History. Kelly has worked as an actor or director at The Pennsylvania, Orlando and Utah Shakespeare Festivals, the Walnut Street Theatre, Alchemy Theatre Company, the West End Shakespeare Players, the Cape Playhouse, The Orlando Fringe Festival and the Arden TheatrE. Kelly graduated from DeSales University and is a native of Philadelphia, PA.
FLUX THEATRE ENSEMBLE is a group of multi-faceted theatre artists composed of playwrights, directors, actors and designers. Through continual collaboration and development of new works, re-imagined classics, and ensemble-based projects, Flux creates seasons with an underlining theme that unites work that is character-driven, transformative, and uniquely theatrical. 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. nytheatre.com chose Flux Theatre Ensemble as one of their "People of the Year" for 2008 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 also received a Citation for Excellence in Off-Off Broadway Theatre from the Independent Theater Bloggers Association and 7 New York Innovative Theatre Award nominations for The Angel Eaters Trilogy including a win for Best Sound Design.
For more information, visit www.fluxtheatre.org or fluxtheatreensemble.blogspot.com.
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