See ATWT's Marnie Schulenburg on Stage

(All Photos by Isaiah Tanenbaum)

Is beauty a thief or a gift?

Flux’s 2009/10 season, “A Season of Give and Take” begins with Adam Szymkowicz’s PRETTY THEFT, a play about ballerinas, boxes and the dangers of beauty. After losing her father, Allegra falls under the wing of bad girl Suzy, only to find an unexpected friendship with Joe, an autistic savant. When things between them take a violent turn, Allegra and Suzy escape on a cross-country trip. The girls end up befriending Marco, a mysterious thief who claims he cannot be caught. Newest Flux member Angela Astle stages this unsettling play from the critically acclaimed playwright of Nerve, Food for Fish and Incendiary.

PRETTY THEFT features Todd D’Amour*, Candice Holdorf*, Maria Portman Kelly*, Lynn Kenny, Brian Pracht, Zack Robidas, Marnie Schulenburg, and Cotton Wright*.

*Appearing courtesy of Actors’ Equity Association

The creative team for PRETTY THEFT includes Kate August (Stage Manager), Heather Cohn (Set Design), Andy Fritsch (Lighting Design) Kevin Fuller (Sound Design), Becky Kelly (Costume Design), and Ashley Martinez (Choreographer).

The production, produced by Flux Theatre Ensemble, will play at the Access Theater Gallery Space (380 Broadway at White Street, 4th Floor) April 23-May 17, Thursday through Saturday at 8pm and Sundays at 7pm. Tickets ($18) are available online at www.fluxtheatre.org

Adam Szymkowicz (Playwright) Adam’s plays Food For Fish and Nerve were called “fabulously weird and weirdly fabulous” and “sweet, sexy, neurotic friendly”, respectively, by the New York Times. His work has been produced throughout the U.S., and in Canada, England, The Netherlands and Lithuania. Adam’s plays have been presented or developed at such places as MCC Theater, Ars Nova, South Coast Rep, Playwright Horizons, LAByrinth Theater Company, The Lark, Julliard, Manhattan Theatre Source, Clubbed Thumb, Theatre of Note and Studio Dante. Plays include Deflowering Waldo, Open Minds, Anne, The Art Machine, Food For Fish, Hearts like Fists, Herbie, Incendiary, Bee Eater, Temporary Everything, Susan Gets Some Play and Nerve. Adam’s plays have been published by Dramatists Play Service, The New York Theater Review and in various Smith and Kraus anthologies. Adam is a two-time Lecomte du Nouy Prize winner, a member of the Dramatists Guild, the MCC Playwright’s Coalition and was a founding member of Ars Nova Play Group. Adam received his playwriting MFA from Columbia University where he was the Dean’s Fellow and, subsequently, received a Playwright’s Diploma from the Julliard School.

Angela Astle (Director) came to New York from Denver, Colorado in August 2007. She was the Venue Director for the New York International Fringe Festival 2007 where she first met Flux Theatre Ensemble. She was invited to be the associate director for Flux’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream while also associate producing Lysistrata at Gallery Players. Past directing credits include Dead Man Walking (Tim Robbins’ play based on the movie and book of the same name) and Waffles by Martha Garvey as part of the Estrogenius Festival 2008 at Manhattan Theatre Source. Waffles was selected for encore performances during the “Best of Estro Week”. Other recent directing credits include A Place for Owls by Fiona Jones, and What We Planned For by Jen Thatcher. Angela is currently the Associate Producer at New Perspectives Theatre Company.

Flux Theatre Ensemble is a group of multi-faceted theatre artists composed of playwrights, directors, actors and designers. Through continual collaboration and development of new works, re-imagined classics, and ensemble-based projects, Flux creates seasons with an underlining theme that unites work that is character-driven, globally engaged and uniquely theatrical. Flux is the proud recipient of two NYC Fringe Festival Awards. In 2007 the Village Voice Audience Favorite Award for August Schulenburg’s Riding the Bull and in 2008 for Heather Cohn’s “Outstanding Direction” of Other Bodies. nytheatre.com chose Flux Theatre Ensemble as one of their “People of the Year” for 2008 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's Angel Eaters Trilogy.”

"Best Underappreciated Indie Theatre Company Whose Work You Should Get Your Ass To"

New York Press

“Flux Theatre Ensemble is a smart company, unafraid of challenging material, and they make a point of engaging their audience at every turn.” nytheatre.com

“Even though we may already know that theater brings a transforming magic to our mortal world, it's a pleasure to have a production as delightful as this one to remind us.” Patrick Lee, TheaterMania (A Midsummer’s Night Dream)

“One could say it is one of the most intelligent and perceptive works to have taken the indie theater stage this year, and that would still not be doing the play justice. Nathanial Kressen, nytheatre.com (Other Bodies)

"One of the pleasures derived from attending lots of Off-Off-Broadway plays is the chance to discover new talent, and Johnna Adams' wildly ambitious…new trilogy is currently offering a bumper crop of it." Mark Peikert, Backstage (The Angel Eaters Trilogy)