The Flea Theater to Present Tommy Smiths' NECTARINE EP, 2/8-17

The Flea goes audio with the upcoming workshop production of Tommy Smith's NECTARINE EP. A sonic reverberation of Homer's The Odyssey - filtered through the lens of downtown artist Tommy Smith - the audio-fueled "extended play", NECTARINE EP, de-stimulates the audience's perception through visual and auditory manipulation. This experimental production is both written and directed by Tommy Smith and features The Bats, the resident Acting Company at The Flea. (PLEASE NOTE: This production is not open for review.)

NECTARINE EP features additional direction by Tom Costello and Benjamin H. Kamine. Original Music by Julian Hill, John Osebold, and Michael McQuilken. Sound Design by Michael McQuilken, and Lighting/Projection Design by Sarah Lasley. The cast features Jamie Bock, Jenelle Chu, Jessica Frey, Marlowe Holden, Christine Lee, Cristina Pitter, Michelle Silvani, Lulu Ward and Mari Yamamoto.

The production plays February 8 through 17 at 9pm on Friday and Saturday and at 7pm on Sunday. All tickets are $20 and are available at www.theflea.org or by calling 212-352-3101.

Tommy Smith's work includes LOTUS EATERS EP (IRT Theater), PIGEON (Ensemble Studio Theatre; dir. Billy Carden), THE WIFE (Access Gallery; dir. May Adrales), WHITE HOT (HERE Arts Center; dir. May Adrales), SEXTET (Washington Ensemble Theatre; dir. Roger Benington), PTSD (Ensemble Studio Theatre; dir. Billy Carden), AIR CONDITIONING (Eugene O'Neill Playwrights Conference; dir. Steve Cosson), among others. His work has also appeared at PS 122, The Ontological Theatre, Soho Rep Writer/Director Lab, The Yale Cabaret; internationally, he has been produced in Prague, Edinburgh, Amsterdam, Montreal, Berlin and Athens. His award-winning theatrical collaborations with Reggie Watts have played at The Public Theatre, Lamama, The Warhol Museum, MCA Chicago, ICA Boston, On The Boards and PICA: TBA, among others. He is the recipient of the PONY fellow at The Lark, a two-time winner of the Lecomte du Nouy Prize, a recipient of the E.S.T. Sloan Grant, a winner of the Page73 Productions Playwriting Fellowship, and a recipient of the Creative Capital award. Publications include PIGEON for Dramatists Play Service, WHITE HOT in the New York Theatre Review. Recently, his feature film FIGMENT was optioned by Ridley Scott's Production Company ScottFree. He is a graduate of the playwriting program at The Juilliard School. He lives in New York City.

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 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, Sean Graney, and Amy Freed.

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, seven plays by A.R. Gurney (O Jerusalem, Screenplay, Mrs. Farnsworth, Post Mortem, A Light Lunch, Office Hours and Heresy), Cellophane and Two September by Mac Wellman, Ashley Montana Goes Ashore... and The Oldsmobiles by Roger Rosenblatt; JABU and Kaspar Hauser by Elizabeth Swados; Return of the Chocolate Smeared Woman by Karen Finley, Bingo with the Indians by Adam Rapp, Oh, The Humanity and other exclamations by Will Eno, Dawn and Job by Thomas Bradshaw, Love/Stories (or But You Will Get Used to it) Itamar Moses, The Great Recession, Girls in Trouble by Jonathan Reynolds, Parents' Evening by Bathsheba Doran, Looking at Christmas by Steven Banks, the Drama Desk nominated She Kills Monsters by Qui Nguyen, the Drama Desk nominated These Seven Sicknesses by Sean Graney, I Hate f-ing Mexicans by Luis Enrique Gutiérrez Ortiz Monasterio and Amy Freed's Restoration Comedy.

NECTARINE EP runs February 8-17 at 9pm on Friday and Saturday and at 7pm on Sunday. 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 start at $20, and are available by calling 212-352-3101 or online at www.theflea.org.

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