Flux Theatre Ensemble presents the World Premiere of Erin Browne’s (Narrator 1 at Theater Row; Trying at The Bushwick Starr) MENDERS through February 11 at The Gym at Judson (243 Thompson Street at Washington Square South). The production will be directed by Flux Producing Director, Heather Cohn (nominated for an NYIT Outstanding Direction Award for Flux’s The Lesser Seductions of History; Winner of a FringeNYC Excellence Award for Outstanding Direction for Flux’s Other Bodies).
Corey and Aimes are new recruits mending the wall that guards their city from an unnamed threat. But as their teacher Drew tells them subversive tales of the world outside they begin to wonder at the real purpose of the wall, until an unexpected act of passion tears the menders apart. Inspired by Robert Frost’s poem “Mending Wall”, Menders is a hauntingly lyrical look at what we’re walling out.
Judson Memorial Church is the home of the original Judson Poets’ Theatre, who along with Caffé Cino, were among the original pioneers of the off-off Broadway theatre movement. The Gym at Judson is a new theatre space dedicated to rekindling Judson's role as a home for off-off Broadway. As recipients of the prestigious New York Innovative Theatre 2011 Caffé Cino Fellowship Award, Flux Theatre Ensemble was the perfect company to help christen the space as a new home for independent and off-off Broadway theatre.
The production, presented by Flux Theatre Ensemble, played a four-week engagement at The Gym at Judson (243 Thompson Street at Washington Square South), January 19-February 11; The final performance is on February 11 at 8pm. Tickets ($18/$15 students) may be purchased online at www.fluxtheatre.org or by calling 866-811-4111.
Erin Browne (Playwright) has written the full-length plays A Meth Play, Coffee/Lovelorn, Devil to Pay, Hence, Menders, Narrator 1, Not As of Yet, Projects, Return, and Trying. Return was a winner of the Hudson Valley Writers’ Center inaugural Play Reading Series Contest and will have a staged reading in December 2011. Erin’s play Narrator 1 was produced by Iron Jaw Company at Theater Row. Trying was produced at the Bushwick Starr and a radio play version of Trying was the winner of the BBC World Service International Radio Play Contest and was broadcast on BBC World Service. It was also shortlisted for the Richard Imison Award from the Writers’ Guild of Great Brittan. A Meth Play was the winner of the National Student Drama Fest’s International Playscript Award and received a reading at NSDF. Erin’s full-length plays have been read and developed with the help of Flux Theatre Ensemble, the Saltbox Theatre, Iron Jaw Company, The Forge, At Hand Theatre Company, Hip Obscurity, Potluck Plays, Rattlestick Playwrights Theatre, The Flea, Tribeca Performing Arts Center, America in Play, Abingdon Theatre, Columbia University, and New York University. Erin’s short plays and collaborative texts have been produced by MadShag, The Forge, PACE University, The Slant Theater Project, Poliglot Theater, Spork Fest, Brooklyn Playwrights Collective, Sticky, Adelphi University, Columbia University, and Brooklyn College. Her screenplays have been award finalists and her poetry widely published. Erin primarily works in television documentaries and lives in Brooklyn.
"Erin Browne’s play was described by the judges as “exquisite”, “human” and “spare”, and is a tender three-hander about co-dependency and moving on."
BBC World Service (Trying, BBC World Service Prize Winner)
"Erin Browne’s script is rife with lyricism and word play usually only seen on the printed page, not the stage." Adrienne Urbanski, Theatre is Easy
Heather Cohn (Director) is a co-founder of Flux Theatre Ensemble and currently serves as the Producing Director. Directing credits for Flux include August Schulenburg’s The Lesser Seductions of History (nominated for Outstanding Direction, New York Innovative Theatre Awards) and Other Bodies (FringeNYC Excellence Award for Outstanding Direction); staged readings of Jose Rivera's Sueño and Adam Szymkowicz's Pretty Theft, August Schulenburg’s Channeling and Bekah Brunstetter’s Miss Lilly Gets Boned. Outside of Flux Heather recently directed David Stallings’ The Stranger to Kindness (Outstanding Overall Production of a One-Act, Planet Connections Theatre Festivity Awards, also nominated for Outstanding Direction Award). Other credits include: Aliza Einhorns’s Blood (EstroGenius Festival); Wayne Paul Mattingly’s The Ballad of Lulu and Dad (Artistic New Directions); Zack Calhoon’s Paint (On the Square Productions); and Tulpa, or Anne & Me (Crossroads Theatre Project). Member - Women’s Project Producers’ LAB (2008-2010).
