Invisible Loisaida – Ideas City

IDEAS CITY

Part of the Street Program 12:00 -6:00pm

Loisaida Inc: Invisible Loisaida

The booth by Loisaida, Inc. will play with the visible and invisible tensions of rescued social spaces, their cultural output, and their lack of inclusion in the mainstream story line of the Lower East Side. Through a collaborative installation by resident artists Edgardo Tomás Larregui and Alejandro Epifanio, the booth will recreate the vernacular architecture of “seclusion” and social gathering elements of the traditional casita or urban community garden. Our casita also involves a strategy to render visible the reality of Loisaida, Inc., a social-cultural-artistic community (Latino/Puerto Rican Lower East Side), whose contributions to New York City and the downtown scene have usually remained unacknowledged, absent, and invisible to the hegemonic artistic and cultural narratives of New York City’s creative myth. The presentation will feature a listening station of oral histories by Laura Zelasnic, performances by ongoing Loisaida Center collaborators and projects: the Salvage Project; Flux Theater Ensemble; the Plenatorium, which nurtures and documents the “plena universe”; and Edwin Torres, a Nuyorican poet, performer, and downtown icon, who will explore the nonappearance of “No-isaida.”


A ONGOING programming throughout the day:

1. Display and live screen-printing of the templates and prints developed and produced through our workshop: Building Community Through the Arts, a partnership with Hester Street Collaborative.

2. Listening Station featuring oral histories focused on local Latino cultural and community organizations such as CHARAS and Loisaida, Inc., by Laura Zelasnic.

3. Visual Collaborative Installation(s) between artist collaborators of the Loisaida Center. The entire booth will act as an installation and visual collaboration between visual artist’s Alejandro Epifanio and Edgardo Larregui with the support of Urban Garden Center NYC.


B SCHEDULED programming by time-slots:

3:00 pm – The Salvage Project

Story circles facilitated by the Loisaida Center’s artistic residents Flux Theater Ensemble where community members will share the stories of a precious object and have their stories transformed by professional playwrights into short monologues.

http://www.fluxtheatre.org/2015/02/flux-announces-art-residency-loisaida-center/

4:00 pm – Edwin Torres:

“Nuyorican” (New York-Puerto Rican) poet-performer-sound artist and downtown icon will present work based on the Invisible Loisaida theme. Torres’s work bridges numerous downtown and Loisaida traditions and scenes, from the Poetry Project at St. Mark’s Church to the Nuyorican Poets Cafe and beyond. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edwin_Torres_(poet)

5:00pm – PLENATORIUM:

A project initiative of the Loisaida Center focused on the nurturing and documentation of the practice of Puerto Rican plena, a genre of popular traditional music, song and dance native to the island of Puerto Rico, but related to similar Afro-diasporic expressions throughout the Caribbean and commonly present within the casita/community garden culture.

Planetarium means a space for the plena-universe of activities such as forums, workshops, performances, and other forms of plena-focused sociocultural participation.

http://loisaida.org/plenatorium/


Invisible Loisaida was made possible by: 9C Community Garden – Northeast Avenue C & 9 Street


 

*SALVAGE WORLD PREMIERE* 04/10/2015

photograph / graphic design by Isaiah Tanenbaum

The Loisaida Center & Flux Theatre Ensemble presents:

SALVAGE

by August Schulenburg
directed by Heather Cohn

featuring the debut of Flux’s LIVING TICKET


WORLD PREMIERE

OPENING NIGHT FRIDAY, APRIL 10 – 8:00pm

PREVIEWS APRIL 8 & 9 – 8:00pm

NO PERFORMANCES APRIL 15 OR APRIL 24

Flux Theatre Ensemble will present the World Premiere of August Schulenburg’s (Jane the Plain with Flux) Salvage, April 8 – 25 at The Loisaida Center (710 E 9th St on Ave C). The production will be directed by Heather Cohn (NYIT Award-nominated production of Sans Merci with Flux) with Assistant Director Emily Hartford (Jane the Plane with Flux) and will feature Sol Crespo (DEINDE with Flux), Rachael Hip-Flores (Once Upon A Bride There Was a Forest with Flux), Mike Mihm* (Ajax in Iraq with Flux), and Isaiah Tanenbaum* (Jane the Plain with Flux). The creative team will include Sound Design by Janie Bullard (2014 USITT/LDI Rising Star Award Winner, NY Theatre Now 2013 Person of the Year; 2014 NYIT Nominee for Jane the Plain), Scenic Design by Will Lowry (Once Upon a Bride There Was a Forest with Flux), Costume Design by Becky Byers (asst. on Jane the Plain, Sans Merci, and Honey Fist with Flux), Lighting Design by Kia Rogers (2014 NYIT Award for Jane the Plain), and Props Design by Alisha Spielmann (Jane the Plain with Flux). The Production Stage Manager will be Jodi M. Witherell.

*Appears courtesy of Actors’ Equity Association.

Salvage is a drama about Noma and Akiko, two government officials searching for precious objects through what’s left of a post-catastrophe New York City. When their manager Dennis hires Mandy, a veteran from America’s many wars, the searchers discover things that make them question their mission, and whether it’s time to let their city go.

Salvage will be presented by Flux Theatre Ensemble at The Loisaida Center (710 East 9th St on Ave C) April 8 – 25, Monday through Saturday at 8pm, with no performances on Wednesday April 15 or Friday April 24.


Beginning with Salvage, no financial transaction is required to attend a Flux performance. Instead, Flux will use a “Living Ticket.” In their commitment to financial transparency, Flux will share their operating budget and leave it to each audience member to donate as they see fit.

Get Tickets Now!


photograph / graphic design by Isaiah Tanenbaum


AUGUST SCHULENBURG (Playwright) is a founding Creative Partner of Flux and current Artistic Director.  With Flux, he directed Ajax in Iraq (NYITA nomination), A Midsummer Night’s Dream, and the Food:Souls Goldsboro and Volleygirls.  As an actor with Flux, he has played Dr. X in Hearts Like Fists, Ezekiel in 8 Little Antichrists (NYITA nomination), and the Professor in Rue. As a playwright, his work with Flux includes Riding the Bull, Rue, Other Bodies, The Lesser Seductions of History, Jacob’s House, DEINDE and Honey Fist.

August’s plays include Carrin Beginning, Kidding Jane, Rue, Riding the Bull, Good Hope, Other Bodies, Honey Fist, Dark Matter, Jacob’s House, DEINDE, Dream Walker, Denny and Lila, Dark Matter, Jane the Plain and The Lesser Seductions of History. His plays have been produced and developed at the Lark Play Development Center, Bay Area Playwrights Festival, Ensemble Studio Theatre, Chelsea Playhouse, Theater for the New City, Portland Stage Company, Dayton Playhouse, Colonial Players, Pennsylvania Shakespeare Festival, Contemporary Stage Company, Abingdon Theater Company, Gideon Productions, New Amerikan Theatre, Penobscot Theatre, Impetuous Theater Group, Decades Out, Soundtrack Series, Reverie Productions, Wolf 359, Blue Box Productions, Piper McKenzie, Boomerang Theatre Company, Adaptive Arts, Hall High School, Nosedive Productions,  MTWorks, Purple Repertory, Valley Repertory Company, The Brick Theater, CAPS LOCK Theatre, Chameleon Theatre Circle, Retro Productions, Elephant Run District, and TheatreLAB and Flux Theatre Ensemble. He is a member of the Propulsion Lab for Mission to (dit)Mars. His work has also been published in the New York Theater Review, Stage and Screen, Indie Theater Now, Midway Journal, NoPassport Press and in two issues of Carrier Pigeon. He also writes for film and television with MozzleStead Productions.

Visit him online at augustschulenburg.wordpress.com

HEATHER COHN (Director) is a co-founder and Producing Director of Flux Theatre Ensemble. Directing credits for Flux include: Kristen Palmer’s Once Upon A Bride There Was a Forest, Johnna Adams’ Sans Merci (NYITA nomination, Best Original Script), August Schulenburg’s DEINDE, Erin Browne’s Menders, August Schulenburg’s The Lesser Seductions of History (nominated for Outstanding Direction, NYITA) and Other Bodies (FringeNYC Excellence Award for Direction) and numerous staged readings. Outside of Flux: Assistant Director to Austin Pendleton on Johnna Adams’ Gidion’s Knot (59E59); David Stallings’ Dark Water (MTWorks – NYITA for

Outstanding Original Script; nomination for Outstanding Production) and The Stranger to Kindness (Outstanding Overall Production of a One-Act, Planet Connections Theatre Festivity Awards, also nominated for Outstanding Direction Award); Mariah MacCarthy’s For the Good of the Child (Gideon Productions); Rosie The Retired Rockette and Blood (EstroGenius Festival); and numerous staged readings for companies such as: Rattlestick, The Lark, Cherry Lane, The Brick, Mission to Ditmars, On the Square Productions, MTWorks, Resonance Ensemble, Jewish Plays Project, The Platform Group and CAPS LOCKS THEATRE. Member – Women’s Project Producers’ LAB (2008-2010). Heather is a graduate of Vassar College.

FLUX THEATRE ENSEMBLE produces transformative theatre that explores and awakens the capacity for change. As an ensemble-artist driven company, Flux believes that long-term collaboration and rigorous creative development can unite artists and audiences to build a creative home in New York.

Flux is the proud recipient of two NYC Fringe Festival Awards (2007 Village Voice Audience Favorite Award for Riding the Bull; 2008 Outstanding Direction Award for Other Bodies) and an eighteen-time New York Innovative Theatre Award nominee between 2008-2014, including wins for The Angel Eaters Trilogy, Ajax in Iraq, and Jane the Plain. In 2011 The New York Innovative Theatre Awards also awarded the prestigious Caffé Cino Fellowship Award to Flux for “consistently producing outstanding work.” Flux received a Citation for Excellence in Off-Off Broadway Theatre from the Independent Theater Bloggers Association and was named one of nytheatre.com’s 2014 “People of the Decade.”

www.fluxtheatre.org

2015 Artists in Residence – FLUX Theatre Ensemble

photograph / graphic design by Isaiah Tanenbaum

The Loisaida Center is proud to announce

2015 Theater Co. Residency Recipient:

Flux Theatre Ensemble

Time frame of Residency @ Loisaida: February 24th 2015 to April 25th 2015

Proposed project for the residency:

Flux Sundays:

Are you an actor, playwright or director?

Join Flux Theatre Ensemble’s unique play development process and vibrant artist community for their weekly workshop, Flux Sundays. Once a week, up to 30 theatre artists gather for three hours in the afternoon to lightly stage new scenes from playwrights in the community. Not a theatre artist, but want to get involved? Feel free to join us for the final hour of Flux Sundays, where we share all of the scenes, and see plays in their earliest stages of development brought to vivid life by a welcoming community of artists.

Official Dates for Flux Sundays: 2/15, 2/22, 3/1 and 3/15 from 4:00pm – 6:00pm
Email Flux Sundays to learn more about how you can participate.

The Salvage Project:

Behind every special object we keep, there’s something even more important: a story.

Flux Theatre Ensemble’s The Salvage Project is a series of story-circles where communities come together to share stories about the precious objects of their lives. Through the sharing of these stories, we’ll learn what matters most to the people with whom we share this city and why. The Salvage Project culminates in a free, full-length production of the world premiere play Salvage, which imagines a band of searchers looking for precious objects left behind in a post-catastrophe NYC. Interested participants in The Salvage Project will have the option of sharing their object as part of the scenic design of the production, as well as opportunities to have their stories transformed by professional playwrights into short monologues. Stories and objects may also shared as part of The Salvage Project blog.

Email Sol Crespo to learn more and participate in The Salvage Project.

The Salvage Project WORLD PREMIER: Thursday, April 10th 2015 at 8:00pm


About Flux Theatre Ensemble:

Since 2006, Flux has produced 20 productions and countless readings and developmental projects. The ensemble is made up of eleven Creative Partners composed of actors, directors, playwrights, and designers. Flux is the proud recipient of the 2011 Caffe Cino Fellowship Award, presented annually to an Off-Off-Broadway theatre company that consistently produces outstanding work. The company’s productions of Hearts Like Fists and Ajax in Iraq were chosen as “New York Times Critics’ Picks” and in 2008, nytheatre.com chose Flux Theatre Ensemble as one of their “People of the Year” saying “This rising theatre company had a hit in the New York International Fringe Festival with Other Bodies, written by artistic director August Schulenburg, and then went on to mount the fall’s most ambitious indie show, Johnna Adams’ The Angel Eaters Trilogy.” Over the years, Flux has received New York Innovative Theatre Award nominations for their productions of Jane the Plain, Sans Merci, Hearts Like Fists, Ajax in Iraq, The Angel Eaters Trilogy, The Lesser Seductions of History and Dog Act.

Flux Theatre Ensemble is a member of the Alliance of Resident Theatres/NY, the Network of Ensemble Theaters and the League of Independent Theatres.

Website: Click here.