The Flea Sets Fall/Winter 2011 Season, Begins With SHE KILLS MONSTERS

Jim Simpson, Artistic Director and Carol Ostrow, Producing Director announced today the line up for fall/winter 2011 at The Flea Theater.

Starting the season on a high note, The Flea is very pleased to have received first time funding from the NEA in support of The Bats, The Flea's renowned resident company of actors. Says Simpson, "The Bats are a unique company, the life blood of our little theater and we couldn't be more grateful to receive this funding and attention from our nations funding organization."

Next up will be a return engagement of INVASION!, Jonas Hassen Khemiri's Obie Award-winning play that enjoyed considerable critical and popular success during its U.S. premiere by The Play Company last winter. Again presented by The Play Company, previews start September
6 prior to an official press opening on September 13 at The Flea, where The Play Company will be based for the 2011-12 season. Erica Schmidt will again direct.

Says Simpson, "The Play Company is one of New York's best small companies and we're happy that they'll be in residence at The Flea. They excel at their mission to produce an international season of contemporary plays and we are looking forward to joining forces with them."

In November comes SHE KILLS MONSTERS, a World Premiere collaboration with the co-Artistic Directors of Brooklyn-based Vampire Cowboys Theater Company, director Robert Ross Parker and playwright Qui Nguyen. The duo will bring their Obie Award-winning "geek theater" style to create a brand new work featuring The Bats. After a summer of intensive workshops, previews begin November 4, with an official opening set for November 17.

"This is a most thrilling partnership," says Ostrow. "As we've been fortunate enough to do in the past, The Flea is attracting some of New York's top talent to work with The Bats, this time pairing them with the action/adventure, comic book aesthetic of Parker and Nguyen. The Bats are fearless and ready to tackle whatever these two downtown powerhouses throw at them."

Also continuing all fall in The Flea's downstairs space will be #serials@theflea, the hit late-night episodic play competition featuring The Bats and some of New York's hottest young playwrights.
Live music and free beer help fuel this weekly event, which was devised by Bats Dominic Spillane and Stephen Stout. "The serials are hilarious, surprising, and exuberant--a potent mix of young
playwrights and crack actors serving up short form work right in your face." notes Flea Artistic Director Jim Simpson."

Also in the works are projects by composer Elizabeth Swados, the Pataphysics Playwriting Workshops, and year two of The Flea's successful Resident Director Program. "You can expect hard-hitting new work from our Resident Directors, like last season's American Sexy
and Just Cause, as well as the atypically beautiful work that Swados exhibited in The Flea's hit production of Kaspaar Hauser," says Ostrow. "With The Pataphysics Playwriting workshop poised to again bring legendary playwrights for intensives to our space, The Flea will really be hopping this fall."

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 nearly 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; The Great Recession, Jonathan Reynolds' Girls in Trouble, Bathsheba Doran's Parents' Evening, and most recently the holiday hit
Looking at Christmas by Steven Banks, American Sexy by Trista Baldwin, Future Anxiety by Laurel Haines and Just Cause by Zack Russell.

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. For additional information on The Flea's upcoming season and its artistic initiatives, visit The Flea's website at www.theflea.org.

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