Top 11 Moments in Flux 2011
2011 was about as good as it gets, and in casting my mind back through the year, it’s hard for me to believe so much happened in such a short time. Here are my favorite 11 moments in Flux during 2011. I hope they’ll not only inspire you to share your own moments in the comments and on Facebook and Twitter, but to make a year-end donation to help keep the Fluxy moments coming in 2012.
1. The New York Innovative Theatre Awards: The IT Awards are always an amazing time, but this year was special, and not just because we were awarded the 2011 Caffé Cino Fellowship Award. Our performance of Do It Yourself met with such a warm and joyous response that my commitment to this extraordinary community we’re a part of was super-charged, and I’m buzzing from it still (not to mention any opportunity to act with Heather Cohn and Will Lowry must be seized).
Photo: Isaiah Tanenbaum. Pictured: Lori E. Parquet, Chris Wight
2. The Jem Monologue in Dog Act:I’ve spoken about my love for this monologue before, but every single night I heard it, I was moved as if for the first time. Zetta’s tale of watching her father-figure Jem smell the sea and leave the troupe when she was child is so achingly written, and was so beautifully performed by Lori E. Parquet, that it echoes in my ears still: “Mam told me it was because he wasn’t a true roadster. She said, one of those things you can’t help. Where you belong got a gravity and it going to pull you hard. But fug-hat, Dog. Why this sea-smell making me think? I followed Jem a ways. But Mam was right. I went back, and we went away back inland. Maybe, though, nothing was the same.”
3. What Happened After Kali/Maori: One of my proudest achievements artistically was something you may not have even noticed. In Ajax in Iraq, after A.J. suffers the sexual assault that snaps her sanity, she invokes Kali with the women soldiers, and that invocation explodes into a Maori War Dance. It was a thrill to stage, and many audience members singled this section out. But it was the moment after that I was especially pleased with: I didn’t want the energy to drop, and yet our playwright Ellen didn’t connect with the various transitional scenes I offered to move from the peak of violence to its valley.
Photo: Isaiah Tanenbaum. Pictured: Anna Rahn, Tiffany Clementi, Christina Shipp, Lori E. Parquet, Sol Crespo
I resisted the release of a blackout, until I realized the energy could be sustained through sound alone. With our amazingly game cast, we created a hissing, pulsing, strange and violent soundscape that kept the energy of the play humming and didn’t let the audience release.
4. Tiffany Clementi’s Retreat: You’ve hopefully heard the sad/happy news that Tiffany moved to Florida, taking with her a big-sized chunk of Flux’s heart. But if you weren’t at our 2011 Annual Retreat, you missed her performance in Erin Browne’s play Projects. It was a highlight of the retreat, with Kelly O’Donnell, Alisha Spielmann, Stephen Conrad Moore and oh, heck, just about everyone turning in some of their best work, but it is Tiffany’s monologue surrounded by darkness standing in a pool of Little Pond light that sticks in my memory. I knew, and I think we all felt, that something precious was changing.
Pictured: Alisha Spielmann, Tiffany Clementi
5. Kristen Palmer Making the New Stories: The revolt of the young (and young at heart) against the broken, oppressive systems of the old was a theme for Kristen in several of her 2011 plays – Bridgeport, The Heart In Your Chest and most notably for Flux, Sacrifice.
Pictured: Alisha Spielmann, Isaiah Tanenbaum.
This last play was developed at Flux Sundays and the Retreat, but it was these words from a scene in our January Have Anotherthat have stuck with me. Emmie is a young girl plotting a revolution that ends badly, but her words here ring true: “We can try, we can try to re-write some of the moments, make the history different – the story different. Change the story. That’s the only hope cause it’s all rooted in there. All the hate and the power and the lack of care and the blindness – it’s all in the stories that we’re born with and we’re going to make the new stories and that is going to change everything.”
6. That Crazy Flux Sunday: On August 14th, we attempted to essentially do two Flux Sundays in a single three hour span, first staging plays by Larry and myself, then plays by Adam and Kristen. It was one of the craziest Flux Sundays ever, but a total creative rush.
7. Tour de Force, thy name is Kari Swenson Riely: Though Kari turned in many wonderful performances for Flux in 2011, my favorite was her madly impassioned lecturer in Liz Duffy Adams’ Bama-Sama as part of our ForePlay: New World Iliads. This was also, in my mind, the high water mark for ForePlays since Midsummer’s Imagination Compact.
Photo: isaiah Tanenbaum. Pictured: Aja Houston, Matthew Murumba, Brian Pracht, Kari Swenson Riely
8. The SpeakEasy Brainstorm of ’11: With Matt Archambault leading a reinvigorated Friend of Flux and SpeakEasy program, our most recent meeting was already humming when we opened it up to a brainstorm session regarding our 2012 ForePlay of Deinde. In the course of the next half an hour, 50+ brilliant ideas for short plays about the next evolutions of the human senses poured so rapidly out of the group that Jodi Witherell and I were racing to keep pace with our note-taking. I can’t wait to share the fruits of this session with a wider group.
9. Viva Fidel, or Matt Archampuppet: We worked on Isaiah Tanenbaum’s Cuban political-farce at the Retreat and over several Flux Sundays, but it was the team of Kelly O’Donnell, Jessica Zinder, David Crommett and Paco Tolson pulling the strings of Matt Archambault’s dead Castro that still makes me L to the O.L. Not to mention I had a cameo as an assassin…
10. Heaven Isn’t Too Far Away in Spectacular Browne: As an atheist, I was totally taken off-guard by the depth of emotion stirred up by Brian Pracht’s heavenly reunion in Spectacular Browne. This Food:Soul’s dynamite cast featured stunning work from Raushanah Simmons, and introduced mega-talents Mychael Chinn and Corey Allen to Flux. Judging from the rest of our audience, I was not the only one so moved.
Photo: Isaiah Tanenbaum. Pictured: Mike Mihm, Elise Link, Mychael Chinn, Matthew Archambault, Travis York, Antoinette Broderick
11. And from 2010…: While this was from the end of 2010, sometimes you don’t know how important a moment is when it happens. So it was with Nancy Franklin’s moving read as a dreaming lost boy terrorized by Jason Howard’s Crocker Dial in Katherine Burger’s Peter Pan-fantasia, Never Never. I will never, ever forget the haunting power Nancy brought to that scene, and it was very soon after that she moved permanently back to the Boston area. So, I’m willing to bend the rules for someone who was such a big part of the first few years of Flux, and who is very much missed.
Of course, in such an abundant year, narrowing down to 11 is agonizing (what about the song Asa found for the suicide/sand from the boots? Kia’s repeated miracle-working? “The Human Blues?” The rain-soaked Perse and Honey Fist on a hill? Matthew Murumba and I splitting a drag queen? Becky Byers in general? Jason Paradine’s cart? The prehensile-tail of genius that is Jodi Witherell?)
BUT…
That’s where YOU come in. What were your favorite moments in Flux 2011?
And if you haven’t already, please donate now to Flux so we can keep the moments coming in 2012. From all of us in Flux, thank you for an amazing year.
12 Comments on "Top 11 Moments in Flux 2011"
Hands-down: Becky Byers’ monologue in Dog Act that ends (I’m probably paraphrasing): “She wasn’t his little witch. He was wrong about that.” Holy effing crap. What an explosion of energy and awesome.
Agreed. And one of the great things about Becky’s performance was (watching it as many times as I did) that she was always absolutely present as Jo-Jo – I loved watching her listen in stillness as much as watch her explode with awesome.
There are so many moments! I have been so blesses to have worked with such a fine group of talented people. I need to think on this a bit and narrow down my choices!
i love all of these moments!!! i was lucky enough to be a part of #’s 4,5,6, & 8, and to experience and watch #’s 1, 2,3,7, & 11, and I couldn’t agree more. what an awesome list!!!
Alisha, you were such a HUGE part of Flux this year, as I learned from looking through the pictures from this year, and I’m so grateful for it. I’ll definitely remember your fierce Emmie, especially that haunting moment that Zack Robidas staged for the final scene – that was so unsettling. And of course, your work in that magical dinner table scene from Projects at both the Retreat and HA. I’d add to that list getting to torture you in Johnna’s THE ANGUISHER and of course, you work as Jane in JTP. Ooh, and remember that scene where you were in love with Archie?? That was a good one, too. In short (or perhaps in long), you rocked in 2011.
-Tiffany and Matt banter as we were plastering the AJAX IN IRAQ blast walls
-the Halloween Flux Sunday when I jokinginly suggested that the Fengar Gael group could rehearse their scene as though they were Halloween creatures (vampires, zombies, etc) – and they took me seriously!
-when Becky Byers, ever-in character as Jo-Jo in DOG ACT, picked up the fallen squish and ate it off the floor of the Flamboyan
-when I got to speak in-depth to an Iraq veteran who came to see AJAX IN IRAQ
-the wedding weekend that culminated in returning to NYC and heading straight to accept the Caffe Cino Award and perform our Cino play
-the night the sandbag magic timed out perfectly with Taps…ah beauty
H, what was the name of their show? Bantering buddies? And wish I could’ve seen the famous Halloween Fengar Gael scene! (I also include the JoJo squish as a favorite moment, though of all time, not just 2011)
Dear Gus, Dear Flux,
I wanted to say that I agree with you, Gus, about the power and terror of those moments in the dark after the Ka Mateh haka–thrilling and deeply disturbing and a wonderful solution to a directorial challenge (one of, oh, MANY) that I threw at you all.
And I also loved every single one of those hard-working, open-hearted actors.
A special shout out to Mike and particularly Sol, who had to memorize a new speech in a few hours for the culmination of the play in the funeral. That takes guts and grit.
I will always be grateful.
Love all around and Happy New Year
Happy New Year! Delighted to be included with this amazing group of people in the top 11. Wow! The list goes to 11!
Flux and the people involved, Huzzah, what a joy, blessing, art, commitment, innovation, goodness………
Gus, you rock.
There are so, so many faves in 2011! Narrowing it down:
~Getting to make up songs/dances on the spot with Will Lowry (without cracking up) during Perse at the retreat.
~The war dance/chant from “Ajax in Iraq.” My god, that gave me chills.
~Getting to perform for Gus and Heather in one of the plays for their wedding (MPK with a hammer as Jason? That’s gold.), and that brilliant weekend in general.
~The wonder that was “Honeyfist” on the hill, as well as Cotton Wright’s stunning performance at Have Another.
~Archambault’s endless supply of bouncy balls.
~Playing Jo-jo in “Dog Act.” Pretty much my favorite character I’ve played and an experience I’ll never forget. FIIISSSSHHH!
My first year getting to work with Flux, and it sure was a good one! Thanks again, guys. Have a stellar 2012!
I have so many favorites, it’s impossible to list them all. Here are a few:
– The Dog Act cart that felt like an impossible task, then watching, astonished, as it transformed the stage and became the most beautiful set piece we’ve ever had. That cart was probably the most ensemble-based set in Flux history. Almost everyone had a hand in its conception and construction.
– Watching the Kali dance for the first time at an Ajax rehearsal and being blown away by it.
– The closing performance of Dog Act, in the final moment. One of the doors cracked and Zetta and Dog just shrugged as if to say “Ah, this old cart again. Whatever, let’s go to China.”
– Tiffany’s knock-it-out-of-the-park scene as the soldier’s wife. Wow!
– Cleaning up blood and sweeping sand after Ajax with Jodi, Tiffany, Heather and Gus.
– Matt and Isaiah smooching in WET
– Watching SOME NEW FAIRYTALES by Erin Browne and directed by Heather at the retreat. Everyone was so good!
– Watching PERSE by Gus at the retreat. Amazing writing/directing combo by Gus, phenomenal acting by everyone (with a special shout-out to David Crommett’s portrayal of Joan).
– Watching frog sex in Little Pond (yes, actual frog sex and not AT Little Pond, but IN it.)
– The new logo and website!
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