Flux Sunday Report, 1/20/13

Photo and post by Isaiah Tanenbaum

With Gus and Heather representing Flux at the NET Conference in New Orleans, and our usual home at Judson Memorial Church unavailable, it fell to me to run Flux Sunday and the very gracious Ken Glickfeld to host. And what a fun afternoon it was, filled with SO MANY PAGES. We got to enjoy some site-specific directing, an actual light cue, last-minute printed pages, and Franklin Pierce’s cross-gender cabinet.

• Playwrights: Aaron Michael Zook (Graves), Nat Cassidy (Pierce), Lauren Ferebee (Salutatio), Isaiah Tanenbaum (Transcendental Etudes), Aja Houston (Acirfa), and Nandita Shenoy (Co-Op).
• Directors: Lauren Ferebee, Sarah Amandes, and Aja Houston.
• Actors: Carissa Cordes, Heather Lee Rogers, Emily Hartford, Alisha Spielmann, Alexis Thompson, Johnna Adams, Sarah Amandes, and Ken Glickfeld.

Highlights included:

• Johnna as a delightfully devious Jefferson Davis in our cold read of Nat Cassidy’s Pierce, which also featured Ken as tubercular vice president William King.
• Heather jumping past me as I reached for our her intercom in Nandita’s Co-Op, so brilliantly staged in Ken’s bedroom by first-time Flux Sunday director Aja.
• Over the past few months, Lauren has brought us several revisions of the scene in Salutatio where Carolyn, a studious art history professor, tangles with Bruce, her “history is fun!” colleague, all while a go-getter student vies for an assistantship she is sure will give her resume some valuable cultural flair. Each version has been tighter, funnier, and with higher stakes, and seeing Lauren’s revision process is a rare delight for Flux’s usual progression-loving Sundays. This latest edition featured a prestigious academic grant that, to Carolyn’s surprise and anger, Bruce has applied for as well. Oh, and I think maybe Bruce and Carolyn have a romantic past too, now? I enjoyed Aja-as-Carolyn’s cold stares against Aaron-as-Bruce’s blank geniality.
• Speaking of an enjoyably genial Aaron, I particularly liked his bumbling yet earnest portrayal of Bill as he proposed to Alisha’s self-assured Joyce in my own Transcendental Etudes. I am now looking to make Young Bill more awkward, and Young Joyce more assertive, wherever possible.
• Finally, how cool was it to see Carissa laying down the law as Princess Aaliya in Aja’s Acirfa (so many A’s!)? Here was another time where a first-time director (Sarah Amandes) really shone.

What were your highlights, dear readers? And who’s coming to see Food:Soul #11: Goldsboro on Wednesday?