The Flea Presents 3 Premieres in New Play Festival, Beginning Tonight

By: BWW News Desk Apr. 20, 2012

The Flea will present the World Premiere of three new plays with its NEW PLAY FESTIVAL: The Electric Lighthouse by Ed Hime, The Wundelsteipen (And Other Difficult Roles for Young People) by Nick Jones and A Letter from Omdurman by Jeffrey M. Jones. The Festival's cast will be comprised of The Bats, the resident Acting Company of The Flea. Previews begin April 20th at The Flea Theater.

NEW PLAY FESTIVAL will feature the three fully-produced World Premiere productions presented in rotating repertory:
• Set in Soho, London, The Electric Lighthouse is a jet-black comedy about post-punk bands, indie cinema and trying to hang onto yourself in a city that wants to re-write you. Written by Ed Hime and directed by Kristen Seemel.
• The Wundelsteipen (And Other Difficult Roles for Young People) is an evening of dark comedic pieces. A slave is responsible for waking Caligula in the morning. Two adolescent brothers are visited by a sex fairy from the internet. And the story of Salome is retold as a Disneyesque fairy tale, with a talking vulture and scorpion. Written by Nick Jones, directed by Thomas Costello.
• A Letter from Omdurman is an assemblage of stories-some true, some invented-which interweave three historical periods: life in the contemporary United States; events leading up to the gunfight at the OK Corral in Tombstone, Arizona; and the Anglo-Sudanese War which ended in the defeat of the Mahdi Army at the Battle of Omdurman in 1898. Written by Jeff Jones, directed by Page Burkholder.

NEW PLAY FESTIVAL stars Allison Buck, Jack Corcoran, Morgan Everitt, Andrew Fortman, Glenna Grant, Seth Moore, Margaret Odette, Stephen Stout, Hannah Corrigan, Tommy Crawford, Eric Folks, Alex Herrald, Maren Langdon, Sean McIntyre, Tedra Millan, Briana Pozner, Donaldo Prescod, Dominic Spillane. Matt Barbot, Veracity Butcher, Eric Folks, Sade Namei, Danny Rivera, Will Turner, and Wilton Yeung. The design & production team for NEW PLAY FESTIVAL includes Kate Foster, Jonathan Cottle, Colin Whitely, Lara de Bruijn, Whitney Locher, Stowe Nelson, Nicole Wee, Laura Been, Michelle Foster, Robin Frohardt, Corn Mo and JuLondre Brown.

Ed Hime was born in London in 1978. He was Writer in Residence at Hampstead Theatre in 2001. Previous theater credits include About the Boy (Royal Court Young Writers Festival) and London Falls/London Tongue (Old Red Lion) and Small Hours (Hampstead Theatre, Michael Frayn Space). In 2007 he was the Royal Shakespeare Company's nominee for The 50, a Royal Court/BBC talent-nurturing venture, and recently completed an attachment at The National Theatre Studio. Television credits include Skins series 4 and 5 (for which he was nominated for BAFTA Craft Breakthrough Talent in 2010).

Jeffrey M. Jones is a playwright whose works include 70 Scenes of Halloween, Nightcoil, Der Inka Von Peru, Tomorrowland, a series of Crazy Plays, Write If You Get Work, J.P. Morgan Saves The Nation, a musical with a score by the late Jonathan Larson, directed by Jean Randich, Stone Monkey Banished, commissioned by the Mettawee River Theater Company, and A Man's Best Friend, produced by the Undermain Theatre in New York and Dallas. His essays have appeared in The American Theatre Reader, Performing Arts Journal, and as introductions to the anthologies Plays by Young Jean Lee and New Downtown Now. He has been manager of The Wooster Group, Richard Foreman and John Jesurun; taught playwriting at the Yale School of Drama and a series of Pataphysics workshops at the Flea Theater; and is currently co-curator of the Obie-winning Little Theatre series at Dixon Place.

Nick Jones' produced plays include: The Coward (Lincoln Center/LCT3; 4 Lortel Nominations, including "Best Play") Jollyship the Whiz-Bang (Ars Nova, The Public), Straight Up Vampire: The History of Vampires in Colonial Pennsylvania as Performed to the Music of Paula Abdul, The Sporting Life, and The Nosemaker's Apprentice (with Rachel Shukert). His puppet horror musical Homunculus is in development with Center Theater Group (music by Dave Malloy, directed by Sam Gold) and Grizzly Adams, a rock musical performed by bears, with the Huntington (music by Corn Mo, directed by Peter DuBois). He also holds commissions from The Old Globe and Lincoln Center. His play Trevor is being produced by Circle X Theater in Los Angeles, in the fall. He attended Bard College for Literature and Juilliard for playwriting.

The Flea Theater, under Artistic Director Jim Simpson and Producing Director Carol Ostrow, is one of New York's leading off-off-Broadway companies. Winner of a Special Drama Desk Award for outstanding achievement, Obie Awards and an Otto for political theater, The Flea has presented over 100 plays and numerous dance and live music performances since its inception in 1996. Past productions include the premieres of Anne Nelson's The Guys; six plays by A.R. Gurney (Post Mortem, O Jerusalem, Screenplay, Mrs. Farnsworth, A Light Lunch and Office Hours); Mac Wellman's Cellophane and Two September; Roger Rosenblatt's Ashley Montana Goes Ashore... and The Oldsmobiles; Elizabeth Swados' JABU and Kaspar Hauser; Karen Finley's Return of the Chocolate Smeared Woman; Adam Rapp's Bingo with the Indians; Will Eno's Oh, The Humanity and other exclamations; Dawn by Thomas Bradshaw; Love/Stories (or But You Will Get Used To It) by Itamar Moses; The Great Recession, Jonathan Reynolds' Girls in Trouble, Bathsheba Doran's Parents' Evening, Looking at Christmas by Steven Banks, She Kills Monsters by Qui Nguyen, and These Seven Sicknesses by Sean Graney.

NEW PLAY FESTIVAL will run in repertory April 20 – May 27; times vary, with a complete performance schedule at www.theflea.org. Tickets are $20, available at 212-352-3101 or www.theflea.org. A New Play Festival Double Hitter pass for two shows at $30 or a New Play Festival Triple Hitter pass for all three shows $45, is also available. Mimosa Matinees, Saturday and Sunday noon performances, are $10 for a ticket and a cocktail. The Flea is located at 41 White Street between Church and Broadway, three blocks south of Canal, close to the A/C/E, N/R/Q, 6, J/M/Z and 1 subway lines. Tickets are $35 (except for Tuesday, which are Pay-What-You-Can) and are available by calling 212-352-3101 or online at www.theflea.org.

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