FluxForward Food:Soul–Marian Smouldering

(Photo by Isaiah Tanenbaum: Theatrical Photography from the 2015 Flux Retreat workshop of Marian Smouldering at the Little Pond Arts Retreat. Post by August Schulenburg.)

We’re thrilled to announce the first Food:Soul staged reading of a FluxForward play, Adam Szymkowicz’s Marian Smouldering; Or, The True Tale of Robin Hood. On Monday, October 19 at TheaterLab, the doors will open at 7pm to potluck food and community (please feel free to bring a treat), and then the reading begins at 7:30pm. RSVP here, and then let the world know you’re coming on Facebook here.

Adam’s play, Marian Smouldering; Or, The True Tale of Robin Hood, is a gender-bending take on greed, love, and greedy love, full of archery, disguises, plots, and song. Through this gender-remixed version of the classic tale, Adam explores what we give up for the greater good, and what we find when we abandon our disguises. And what a cast! Check it: Ryan Andes, Jessica Angleskhan, Becky Byers, Phillip Gregory Burke, Nat Cassidy, Kevin R. Free, Renata Friedman, Nandita Shenoy, Alisha Spielmann, Tanisha Thompson, and Matthew Trumbull.

(Photo by Kia Rogers. Pictured: David DelGrosso, Dara O’Brien, Alisha Spielmann, Lori E. Parquet. From a Flux Sunday workshop of Marian Smouldering.)

FluxForward is an open-ended playwright residency program that provides four playwrights with significant developmental support, a commission, the strong possibility of production, and the hope of a creative home. Learn more here, and then save the date of December 14 for the next FluxForward reading of Kevin R. Free’s  AM I DEAD? An Untrue Narrative of Anatomical Lewis, The Slave. 

Scenes from Marian Smouldering have been workshopped at Flux Sundays and Flux’s 2015 Retreat at Little Pond, and the first draft of the play received an internal read-through earlier this year. We’re thrilled to share the first public reading of the play with you!

(Photo from Ryan Andes of the cast of the first full read-through of Marian Smouldering.)

Cast for original read through: Ryan Andes, Emily Hartford, Lori E. Parquet, Chester Poon, Anna Rahn, August Schulenburg, Alisha Spielmann, Brian Silliman, Jennifer Tsay, Matthew Trumbull, Chinaza Uche, Kristen Vaughn, Sean Williams. Thanks to you and everyone who has helped develop the play at Flux Sundays and our Annual Retreat!

(Screenshot from a video of a mighty sword fight in Marian Smouldering at the 2015 Annual Retreat.)

Food:Soul, Flux’s potluck play development series, breaks the mold of traditional staged readings by developing community through developing plays. Our extreme staged reading model gives the artists and audiences a taste of the excitement of a full production, and the potluck dinner that surrounds it frames the play as a free, communal event. Food:Soul also provides Flux a chance to share plays we’re considering for full production with the Flux community. This is Adam Szymkowicz’s third Food:Soul reading. His first two, Pretty Theft and Hearts Like Fists, wound up produced by Flux, so you won’t want to miss Marian Smouldering. Learn more about past Food:Souls here.

(A scene from the Food:Soul of Adam’s Hearts Like Fists.)

(Photo from the Food:Soul of Adam’s Pretty Theft. We were indeed once this young.)