The Flea Theater’s Hit #serials@theflea Returns for Cycle 5

Following four sold-out runs, The Flea Theater is proud to announce Cycle 5 of #serials@theflea, the raucous late night play competition featuring The Bats and some of NYC's hottest young playwrights. Live music and free beer from official sponsor Sixpoint Brewery help fuel this weekly event, which runs Thursday, Friday & Saturday nights at 11pm December 1st through the 17th. All tickets are only $10 (cash only available at the door; reserved seating for Thursdays only by emailing serialreserve@theflea.org).

In #serials@theflea, five teams of Bats perform original ten-minute episodic plays. The audience votes for its three favorite pieces, which return the next week with a new installment. The teams with the two least popular stories must likewise come back the following week, but with entirely different serialized plays.

Participating playwrights include Lucy Alibar (Too Little Too Late), Robert Askins (Hand to God), E.J.C. Calvert (The Bird Girl), Jonathan Caren (The Recommendation at The Old Globe), Dylan Dawson (The Tenant), Lila Feinberg (Monkey Bowl), Halley Feiffer (How to Make Friends and Then Kill Them), Edith Freni (Baby Girl), Jonathan Goldberg (The Landwhale Murders), Joshua Elias Harmon (Love in the Time of Channukah), Jessica S. Hinds (Nevin), Lucas Kavner (Fisheye), Boo Killebrew (They're Just Like Us), Krista Knight & Barry Brinegar (Salamandar Leviathan), JC Lee (Julliard Playwriting Fellow), Nathan Leigh (Sealand), Sam Marks (The Joke), Eric John Meyer (The Sister at The Brick), Michael Mitnick (2nd Stage Uptown's The Sex Lives of Our Parents), Jordan Seavey (The Truth Will Out), Kevin Christopher Snipes (The Chimes at SPF), Chris Sullivan (EST/Youngblood), Adam Symkowicz (Nerve), Emily Chadick Weiss (EST/Youngblood), and Leah Nanako Winkler (EST/Youngblood).

Bands for 5 include Anabel Graff, Andy Suzuki, Teen Girl Scientist Monthly and Uzimon.

Created by Bat company members Dominic Spillane and Stephen Stout, in
collaboration with Jim Simpson, #serials@theflea features participating directors by Liz Carlson, Wes Grantom, Kel Haney, Portia Krieger, Kristan Seemel, BrIan Smith, Brandon Stock, and Pirronne Yousefzadeh.

The production features over 55 members of The Bats, The Flea's resident company of actors, including Tiffany Abercrombie, Bradley Anderson, Crystal Arnette, Yoni Ben-Yehuda, Satomi Blair, Jenna Bosco, Brooke Bundy, Charlotte Bydwell, Arturo Castro, Jenelle Chu, Ugo Chukwu, Alex Cook, Thomas Crawford, Jimmy Dailey, Greg Engbrecht, Morgan Everitt, Eric Folks, Bobby Foley, Katherine Folk-Sullivan, Cleo Gray, John Paul Harkins, Grant Harrison, Kana Hatakeyama, Victoria Haynes, Halima Henderson, Alex Herrald, Josephine Huang, Amanda Idoko, Raul Sigmund Julia, Vin Kridakorn, Maren Langdon, Bruce Lemon, Betsy Lippitt, Sean McIntyre, Michael Micalizzi, Kate Michaud, Seth Moore, Megha Nabe, Sade Namei, Joy Notoma, Margaret Odette, Frank Paiva, Daniel Phai, Briana Pozner, Donaldo Prescod, Ivano Pulito, Joann Sacco, Michelle Silvani, Dominic Spillane, Olivia Stoker, Stephen Stout, Hannah Tamminen, Nate Washburn, Akyiaa Wilson, Monica Wyche and Wilton Yeung.

Dominic Spillane (Producer) is in his second year as a member of The Flea Theater's Bat company. Last season he was seen in Sheila Callaghan's Recess directed by Kip Fagan, and Adam Rapp's Classic Kitchen Timer as a part of The Great Recession: an evening of six original one-act plays. Dominic recently returned from Williamstown Theater Festival as a part of John Guare's Six Degrees of Separation directed by Anne Kauffman. He was also a part of the Williamstown fellowship that originated Amy Herzog's After the Revolution, which was produced by Playwrights Horizons last fall. Dominic wrote, directed, and produced the short film Falling Down in 2007 which toured 4 international film festivals, as well as various plays, and one-act festivals in Los Angeles.

Stephen Stout (Producer) is co-creator and co-producer of the sold out late night hit #serials@theflea at The Flea Theater. As a member of The Bats at The Flea, he will be seen in the upcoming These Seven Sicknesses, directed by Ed Iskandar. He has performed in Sheila Callaghan's Recess and Erin Courtney's Severed as part of The Great Recession, Itamar Moses' Love/Stories or but you will get used to it, The Footage, and readings/workshops with writers Thomas Bradshaw, Len Jenkin, Itamar Moses, Sam Marks, and Mac Wellman. Other recent NYC Credits include: Salamander Leviathan (Ars Nova), Clown Bar (Rising Phoenix Rep, dir. Kip Fagan), File Under: Superwolf by Bekah Brunstetter (Superwolf at ART/NY), …things i found on craigslist (Theatre for a New City) by christopher oscar peña, Yes We Can by Daniella Shoshan (Down Payment Productions), The Spanish Tragedy (Red Bull Theatre – Revelation Readings Series), La Boheme (spoken) (The Cell), Three Sisters (The Assembly) and three seasons with The Aquila Theatre Company. Film credits include: Mystery Team (Sundance '09) and Checkout (HBO US Comedy Arts Festival). He has also produced programming for the Old Vic New Voices Network in New York City for London's The Old Vic Theatre, with whom he has produced London Calling (The Vineyard Theatre), Biting the Big Apple (The Public Theater), Live in London, Empire State of Mind (The Old Vic), and The Arden Project (3LD Arts & Technology Center) - the first transatlantic digitally webcast performance featuring new work by top emerging British and American Playwrights performed simultaneously in both cities.

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, Just Cause by Zack Russell and Qui Nguyen's She Kills Monsters.

#serials@theflea runs December 1 – 17, Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays at 11pm. Check www.theflea.org for the full performance schedule. 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 $10 and are available at the door beginning 1 hour prior to each performance. Reserved seating is available for Thursdays only by emailing serialreserve@theflea.org. Each ticket purchase includes a free beer. Sixpoint Brewery is the official sponsor of #serials@theflea.