The Flea Theater Presents #serials@theflea 1/21

The Flea Theater will present the World Premiere of #serials@theflea, a raucous late night play competition featuring The Bats and some of NYC's hottest young playwrights. Live music and free beer help fuel this weekly event, which runs Friday and Saturday nights starting January 21. All tickets are only $10.

In #serials@theflea, five teams of Bats perform original ten-minute episodic plays. The audience will vote for its three favorite pieces, which return the next week with a new installment. The teams with the two least popular stories must likewise come back the following week, but with entirely different serialized plays.

Flea Artistic Director Jim Simpson notes, "#serials@theflea is an exciting new take on the late night theater wave that captivated downtown audiences in the 1980s. Such an event truly embraces The Flea's mission 'to create a joyful hell in a small space.'"

The first week will feature plays by Nikole Beckwith (EST/Youngblood), Lucas Kavner (Naked Angels' Naked Radio), Jonathan Goldberg (The Land Whale Murders), 5-year old Isaac Kruger, and an original piece by The Bats.

Subsequent weeks will feature work by such playwrights as Josh Barrett (HBO's Generation Kill), Sam Forman (I Sing! E.S.T. Youngblood), Erica Lipez (AMC's Rubicon), christopher oscar peña (Icarus Burns), Joe Tracz (Boy Wonders), and Dylan Dawson (Naked Angels' Naked Radio). Bands include Avan Lava, The Bangees, The Echo Friendly featuring Jake Rabinbach of Jump Back Jake and Francis and the Lights with Shannon Esper, and Harper Blynn.

Created by Bat company members Dominic Spillane and Stephen Stout, in collaboration with Jim Simpson, #serials@theflea is directed by The Flea's resident directors (Mark Duncan, Nicole Greene, Zachary Russell, Mia Walker) and Sarah Wansley.

The production features over 40 members of The Bats, The Flea's resident company of actors, including Tiffany Abercrombie, Brett Aresco, Crystal Arnette, Musa Bacon, Satomi Blair, Veracity Butcher, Thomas Crawford, Brent Dixon, Katherine Folk-Sullivan, Grant Harrison, Halima Henderson, Alex Herrald, Josephine Huang, Amanda Idoko, Raul Sigmund Julia, Yvette King, Vin Kirdakorn, Maren Langdon, Georgia X. Lifsher, Vella Lovell, Michael Micalizzi, Kate Michaud, Seth Moore, Scott Morse, Sade Namei, Joy Natoma, Jeffrey Norman, Reynaldo Pinillia, Miguel Pinzon, Donaldo Prescod, John Russo, Anita Sabherwahl, Joann Sacco, Zac Sandler, Nicky Schmidlein, Nalini Sharma, Michelle Silvani, Keola Simpson, Dominic Spillane, Stephen Stout, Ronald Washington, and Monica Wyche.

Dominic Spillane (Producer) is in his second year as a member of The Flea Theater's Bat company. Last season he was seen in Sheila Callaghan's Recess directed by Kip Fagan, and Adam Rapp's Classic Kitchen Timer as a part of The Great Recession: an evening of six original one-act plays. Dominic recently returned from Williamstown Theater Festival as a part of John Guare's Six Degrees of Separation directed by Anne Kauffman. He was also a part of the Williamstown fellowship that originated Amy Herzog's After the Revolution, which was produced by Playwrights Horizons last fall. Dominic wrote, directed, and produced the short film Falling Down in 2007 which toured 4 international film festivals, as well as various plays, and one-act festivals in Los Angeles.

Stephen Stout (Producer) runs the Old Vic New Voices Network in New York City for London's The Old Vic Theatre, with whom he has produced Biting the Big Apple (The Public Theater), Live in London (The Old Vic), and The Arden Project (3LD Arts & Technology Center) - the first transatlantic digitally webcast performance featuring new work by top emerging British and American Playwrights performed simultaneously in both cities. As a member of The Bats, he has performed in Sheila Callaghan's Recess and Erin Courtney's Severed as part of The Great Recession, Itamar Moses' Love/Stories or but you will get used to it, The Footage, and readings/workshops with writers Thomas Bradshaw, Len Jenkin, Itamar Moses, Sam Marks, and Mac Wellman. Other recent NYC Credits include: The Spanish Tragedy (Red Bull Theatre - Revelation Readings Series), l(y)re (Ontological Hysteric Incubator), La Boheme (spoken) (The Cell), Three Sisters (The Assembly) and three seasons with The Aquila Theatre Company. Film credits include: Mystery Team (Sundance '09) and Checkout (HBO US Comedy Arts Festival).

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 nearly 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'sOh, The Humanity and other exclamations; Dawn by Thomas Bradshaw; The Great Recession, Jonathan Reynolds' Girls in Trouble, Bathsheba Doran's Parents' Evening, and most recently the holiday hit Looking at Christmas by Steven Banks.

#serials@theflea runs January 21st - February 12th, Fridays at midnight and Saturdays at 11pm and 1am. 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 $10 and are available at the door beginning 45 minutes prior to each performance.

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