Flux’s 2015

(Screen short from the dance break of Flux’s Meet the Theatre film from Theatre Development Fund.)

What a year for Flux! From the amazing TDF video about Flux to an IT Award nomination for Becky to being named one of “8 Young (and Mighty) New York Theater Companies” by Backstage, this was a great turn around the sun. Join us as we take a month by month tour of our exhilarating and exhausting 2015, and please make a donation to support our work going forward in 2016.

JANUARY

(Photo by Isaiah Tanenbaum. Pictured: Rachael Hip-Flores, Brian Silliman, and Chinaza Uche in Once Upon a Bride There Was a Forest. Weddings and engagements would be a surprise theme for Flux in 2015.)

Well, we should have been recovering from our December 2014 production of Once Upon a Bride There Was a Forest, but we jumped right into a busy schedule of Flux Sundays and preparations for our March Food:Soul, Breathe Free. We also were awarded a Dramatists Guild Fund grant for our FluxForward program, catalyzing a very busy year of play development.

FEBRUARY

(Graphic design by Isaiah Tanenbaum.)

Oh, and speaking of FluxForward, February saw the announcement of the first four commissioned playwrights, an amazing lineup of Kevin R. Free, Chisa Hutchinson, Nandita Shenoy, and Adam Szymkowicz. Flux Sundays continued, as did our prep for Breathe Free, and we announced the cast and creative team for Salvage. As if that wasn’t enough, February also saw the announcement of our Art Residency at The Loisaida Center, an amazing opportunity which would, among many other benefits, make the risk of the Living Ticket possible.

MARCH

(Photo by Isaiah Tanenbaum of Breathe Free. Pictured: Antonio Minino, Carl Li, Stephanie Willing, Collin McConnell, Ivy Hong, and Daryl Lathon.)

Breathe Free was more than an amazing night of theatre, poetry, and dance. It launched an ongoing relationship with the New Sanctuary Coalition which we hope will bear even more fruit in 2016. But March was busy on many fronts: Flux Sundays continued, and we officially launched the Living Ticket and Open Book programs. We also gathered submissions for The Salvage Project, a Tumblr blog that featured moving stories from members of our community about precious objects in their lives, all inspired by the themes of the full production.

APRIL

(Photo by Deborah Alexander of Salvage. Pictured: Mike Mihm, Isaiah Tanenbaum, Rachael Hip-Flores, and Sol Crespo.)

And oh, what a production! Not only did we fill the seats of a majority of performances, but our Living Ticket and Open Book programs thrived, providing access to folks who wouldn’t have otherwise seen the show, while raising more income than we did on the past two productions.

MAY

(Photo by Kelly O’Donnell. Pictured: Ivy Hong, Antonio Minino, Stephanie Willing, and Carl Li.)

And in May, we rested. Nah, just kidding: we shared scenes from Breathe Free as part of our residency at Loisaida, began planning the next big steps for FluxForward, developed a relationship for our soon-to-be-announced next residency, and prepared for our Annual Retreat.

JUNE

(Photo by Kia Rogers. Pictured: David DelGrosso, Dara O’Brien, Lori Parquet, Alisha Spielmann, Justin Hoch, workshopping Marian Smouldering at Flux Sunday.)

June saw our first Flux Sunday focused entirely on FluxForward plays, two of which, Adam’s Marian Smoldering and Kevin’s AM I DEAD?, would receive Food:Souls by the end of 2015.

JULY

(photo by August Schulenburg. Pictured: Stephanie Willing,Kia Rogers, Janie Bullard, Chisa Hutchinson, Sol Crespo, Heather Cohn, and Mercena Schulenburg, workshopping Chisa’s The Wedding Gift at Flux’s Annual Retreat.)

Our Annual Retreat was an intense seven days of strategic planning, play development, and community building, with all four FluxForward playwrights involved, and deep conversations about Flux’s vision, season planning, and potential new Creative Partners launching the tumultuous but ultimately transformative second half of Flux’s 2015. This is also where we fell all the way in love with Jason Tseng’s Rizing, which will go on to be our first production in 2016.

AUGUST

(Photo by Juston Hoch. Pictured: Jen Kipley and Isaiah Tanenbaum, workshopping Johnna’s World Builders at Flux Sundays.)

August was a major milestone for Flux: we had simultaneous-ish Flux Sundays on two coasts! With Becky and Will in Greenville, SC, and Rachael in Los Angeles, CA, a big part of the second half of our year was spent navigating what it means to be a creative home when not everyone lives in the same place. One solution? Create work in multiple places, and our upcoming bi-coastal production of Johnna Adam’s World Builders will test out what’s possible with a geographically dispersed Flux. We also prepared for an unexpected yet hugely important Flux event…

SEPTEMBER

(Photo by Isaiah Tanenbaum. Pictured: Hannah Cheek, Shaun Fauntleroy, and Anna Rahn.)

September launched #SpeakUp, a night of plays responding to street harassment, created and led by Friend of Flux Shaun Fauntleroy. This was not only a powerful night of theatre and dialogue, where one could witness minds being changed in real time, but also a beautiful test case of Friends of Flux stepping up and leading important programming. That was true for Breathe Free as well, and we expect to see more of that in 2016. Oh, and did we mention that Flux Sundays kept Flux Sunday-ing? Because they did.

OCTOBER

(Photo by Kia Rogers. Pictured: Ryan Andes, Tanisha Thompson, Phillip Gregory Burke, Jessica Angleskhan, Alisha Spielmann, Becky Byers, Kevin Free, and Nat Cassidy, workshopping Adam’s Marian Smoldering.)

FluxForward sprang to life in the final months of 2015, with October seeing a riotously funny Food:Soul of Adam’s Marian Smouldering. We also officially became a 501(c)3 organization, marking a significant structural milestone for Flux (and yes, there were even more Flux Sundays). And oh hey, remember how we talked about Friends of Flux stepping up in major ways?

NOVEMBER

(Photo by Isaiah Tanenbaum. Pictured: Matthew Trumbull and Nandita Shenoy.)

The Friends of Flux stepped up HUGE in making our fall fundraiser, The Price is Right: Guess the Bucks with Flux such a success.  We’re still glowing with thanks (and the ruthless flush of competition, of course).

DECEMBER

(Photo by August Schulenburg, Pictured: Heather Cohn, Isaiah Tanenbaum, Sol Crespo, Chinaza Uche, Lori Parquet, Alisha Spielmann, Kevin R. Free, and Pete Boisvert.)

We ended the year right with a heart-stopping Food:Soul reading of Kevin’s FluxForward play, AM I DEAD?, The Untrue Narrative of Anatomical Lewis, The Slave. There were many powerful moments of this night, not least of which was Anna Rahn stepping up last minute to fill in a sick actor’s shoes, and our beautiful community, patiently waiting for the reading to begin as we dined on home-cooked food.

In so many ways, this was a year about home and family: Will and Becky getting engaged, Sol and Mike getting engaged, Mercena at rehearsals, finding a way to keep working together across great distances, having deep and difficult conversations, and above all, rallying around each other in times of crisis.

I can’t wait for Flux’s 2016, and thanks to our upcoming Food:Soul reading of the first act of Jason Tseng’s Rizing, we don’t have to wait long…can you make a donation to help support this work going forward?

(Photo by August Schulenburg. Pictured: Jason Tseng, Chris Wight, Becky Byers, Emily Hartford, Montserrat Mendez, Anna Rahn.)