The Flea's JOB Begins Performances Tonight, 8/31

The Bats are back and in The Flea Theater's New York premiere production of JOB, written by Thomas Bradshaw and directed by Flea Resident Director Benjamin Kamine. Previews begin tonight, August 31, with opening night slated for Wednesday, September 19.

In JOB, Thomas Bradshaw takes on a sacred biblical text to explore issues of faith.  How low will God go?  Bradshaw calls his play "an honest, un-cynical adaptation of the book of Job."

The production features members of the Flea's lauded resident acting ensemble The Bats:  Bradley Anderson, Mimi Augustin, Jaspal Binning, Ugo Chukwu, Alex Coelho, Timothy Craig, Jimmy Dailey, Edgar Eguia, Eric Folks, Cleo Gray, Grant Harrison, Layla Khosnoudi, Adam Lebowitz-Lockard, Abraham Makany, Sean McIntyre, Chester Poon, Ivano Pulito, Marie-Claire Roussel, Stephen Stout and Jennifer Tsay.  The design team includes Aaron Green (set), Jonathan Cottle (lights), Ashley Farra (costumes), Jeremy Bloom (sound), and Courtney Ulrich (stage manager).

Thomas Bradshaw's plays have been produced at regional theaters, in NYC as as well as in Europe.  Most recently, his play BURNING ran successfully at The New Group in New York City. In 2011, the Goodman Theater produced his play MARY, which they had previously commissioned. THE BEREAVED, produced by Partial Comfort, was named one of the Best Plays of 2009 in Time Out New York. In 2008, two of his plays premiered in NYC: SOUTHERN PROMISES, at Performance Space 122 in September, and DAWN, at The Flea Theater in November, and both were listed among the Best Performances of Stage and Screen for 2008 in The New Yorker. His plays PURITY, PROPHET and STROM THURMOND IS NOT A RACIST and CLEANSED were produced in NYC and LA.  A German translation of DAWN was presented at Theater Bielefeld in Germany in October 2008 and published by Theater Der Zeit in that same month.  Mr. Bradshaw received his M.F.A. from Mac Wellman's playwriting program and is Professor of Playwriting at Northwestern University. He has been featured as one of Time Out New York's ten playwrights to watch, as one of Paper Magazine's Beautiful People, and Best Provocative Playwright by the Village Voice. He has received Fellowships from The Lark Play Development Center, Soho Rep. (Streslin Fellow), and New York Theater Workshop. He was the Playwright in Residence at The Soho Theatre in London in February 2009, where he wrote THE ASHES.  Thomas Bradshaw has received commissions from Soho Theatre (London),The Goodman Theater, Soho Repertory Theater (New York), The Flea Theater, Theater Bielefeld (Germany), and Partial Comfort Productions. He is the recipient of a 2009 Guggenheim Fellowship, and the 2012 Award from the Foundation of Contemporary Art.

Benjamin Kamine is a stage director from Los Angeles. He has a passion for new work, and his recent directing credits include the world premieres of Wars and Whores by Jeffrey Barg and Sarah Ollove, Gutter Space by Keith Boynton, Medea's Got Some Issues by Emilio Williams, and Cheesesteak Latkes by Matt Ocks.  He also directed the west coast premiere of The Gift Horse by Lydia R. Diamond (Stick Fly).  He loves ancient cultures, with particular enthusiasm for work that explores his own (Judaism), and he cannot wait to get back to India, where he directed a cross-cultural production of Sophocles' Philoctetes in 2008.  He is the Resident Director at the Jewish Plays Project and is a member of the Lincoln Center Theater  Directors Lab.  He also works throughout New York as a sound, lighting, and projection designer, and is a Guest Artist at the Lab School for Collaborative Studies. Previous directing credits for The Flea: The Flying Latke by Arthur Yorinks; Kathleen Supove and the Electric Sheep.

The Bats are the resident Acting Company members of The Flea Theater. Each year over a thousand actors audition for a place in this unique company. The Bats perform in extended runs of challenging classic and new plays. The Bats have recently appeared in World Premieres by A.R. Gurney, Will Eno, Adam Rapp, Beau Willimon, Mac Wellman, Elizabeth Swados, Thomas Bradshaw, Itamar Moses, Sheila Callaghan, Julian Sheppard, Ken Urban, Tommy Smith, Jonathan Reynolds, Trista Baldwin, Laurel Haines, Qui Nguyen and Sean Graney.

The Flea Theater, under Artistic Director Jim Simpson and Producing Director Carol Ostrow, is one of New York's leading off-off-Broadway companies. Winner of a Special Drama Desk Award for outstanding achievement, Obie Awards and an Otto for political theater, The Flea has presented over 100 plays and numerous dance and live music performances since its inception in 1996. Past productions include the premieres of Anne Nelson's The Guys; six plays by A.R. Gurney (Post Mortem, O Jerusalem, Screenplay, Mrs. Farnsworth, A Light Lunch and Office Hours); Mac Wellman's Cellophane and Two September; Roger Rosenblatt's Ashley Montana Goes Ashore... and The Oldsmobiles; Elizabeth Swados' JABU and Kaspar Hauser; Karen Finley's Return of the Chocolate Smeared Woman; Adam Rapp's Bingo with the Indians; Will Eno's Oh, The Humanity and other exclamations; Dawn by Thomas Bradshaw; Love/Stories (or But You Will Get Used to it) by Itamar Moses, The Great Recession, Jonathan Reynolds' Girls in Trouble, Bathsheba Doran's Parents' Evening, Looking at Christmas by Steven Banks, the Drama Desk nominated She Kills Monsters by Qui Nguyen, and the Drama Desk nominated These Seven Sicknesses by Sean Graney.

JOB runs tonight, August 31 – October 7, 2012, performance schedule varies. The Flea is located at 41 White Street between Church and Broadway, three blocks south of Canal, close to the A/C/E, N/R/Q, 6, J/M/Z and 1 subway lines. Tickets are $20 and are available by calling 212-352-3101 or online at www.theflea.org.

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