Flux Sunday, September 27th

(What is Flux Sunday?)

Our last Flux Sunday before The Lesser Seductions of History takes us over was great, if it nearly killed me getting us there! Sometimes, the amount of roles the playwrights write match perfectly with the attending actors; and then there are times where I have to write us into a balance. With a production meeting that morning, I had two hours to pump out some pages, but I hadn’t quite finished by 4PM so we started rehearsing some of the scenes while I finished writing enough pages for all. Hot off the presses, indeed!

Luckily, I was ably assisted by Crystal Skillman’s second scene from The Sleeping World (and if you haven’t already read Crystal’s new great interview at the Clyde Fitch Report, check it out.)

Directors Nora Hummel and Heidi Handelsman split the long second scene of The Sleeping World, and we saw beautiful work again from Gretchen Poulos as Sam, and reveled in the returns of Amy Fitts as Sam in part two (welcome back from Italy!) and Richard Watson as Luke. His funny and moving read of Luke’s long remembering of his betrayal of Peter, a recently passed friend, was especially stunning. (If you’re looking for a new monologue for auditions, Luke’s would be a hell of a choice – funny, sad, caustic and detailed). Brian Pracht and Matthew Archambault split Tom, and Christina Shipp took a heartfelt turn as the wounded wounding Angie.

We then looked at (the very) new scenes from my Dark Matter (character/plot info here). First we saw two overlapping scenes – Winny telling Max about the job that will take her away from the family, and Marie convincing Donny to sleep with her – followed by a third scene where Maxine is caught stealing research from Afruz by her mentor Nikolay. Candice Holdorf found a great deal of complexity in Winny – thrilled by her new job, worried about the cost of leaving, bitter of having had to play the caretaker role for so long – as she navigated the reactions of the wildly emotional Maxine (played by Flux’s scientist-in-residence, Ingrid Nordstrom).

Kitty Lindsay’s portrayal of Marie found an especially strong moment when she explained to Donny why everything had to be perfect the 1st time they had sex (and their fumble to turn off “Single Ladies” was hilarious!) And everyone winced as Afruz (Isaiah Tanenbaum) showed his well-meaning pity for Maxine after catching her in the act of stealing from him, finally causing her breakdown (sensitively captured by Nancy Franklin).

It was a Sunday of bold and nuanced acting choices – a real actor feast that will have to keep us full until Lesser Seductions releases us from its clutches.

And if you were there – what were your favorite parts? Comment away!