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Love, The Flea!
Love, The Flea
Click HERE for our Spring 2007 Newsletter! Mission and Background: Founded in 1996 by three of New York’s most acclaimed downtown theater artists-- director Jim Simpson, designer Kyle Chepulis, and playwright Mac Wellman—the award-winning Flea Theater was originally formed out of the purely artistic impulse to create “a joyful hell in a small space”. Brash, energetic, and dedicated, we soon became a downtown beacon for creative artists of every discipline, and for audiences seeking bold and inventive work. Soon a more formal mission was born: to present edgy and distinctive work that raises the standards of Off-Off-Broadway for artists and audiences alike. Comfortable seats and decent dressing rooms became as much a part of our mission as our commitment to supporting talented artists with big ideas; each year The Flea presents and produces dozens of new works in an environment that is professional, welcoming, and intimate. As a testament to our success, we have been honored with two OBIE Awards, an Otto Award, and, in May 2004, a Drama Desk Award for Distinguished Achievement commending our dedication to adventurous theater. Non-institutional and resolutely non-commercial, The Flea embodies the spirit of adventure and experiment that has defined Off-Off-Broadway since its inception. We are one of the only professional theaters left in New York that maintains an open-door policy for artists, which we believe is crucial to keeping New York theater vital. Part playground, part laboratory, and part training ground, we have been home to established artists taking new risks, emerging artists developing their ideas, and mid-career artists building sustained audiences. With the continued participation of our founders and an ever-growing community of diverse and creative talents, The Flea truly represents the wide range of what is possible Off-Off-Broadway. Activities: The Flea produces three original major productions each year, along with new work by the most iconoclastic, imaginative, and talented artists we can find. Our two small, state-of-the-art performance spaces are constantly in action, with as many as four shows a night featuring new theater, music, dance, and cross-disciplinary inventions. In addition, we have provided a regular home for small companies such as The TriBeCa New Music Festival, produced by the New York Art Ensemble, The New York Goofs, The Neta Dance Company, and Composers Collaborative. Within our regular season are several mini-festivals, including Dance @ The Flea, a series of new work by mid-career dance companies and choreographers, Music @ The Flea, quickly gaining ground as one of the must-see showcases for new music, and Downstairs @ The Flea, an ongoing series of new plays that, if successful, have the opportunity to pick up steam and earn longer runs. This concurrence of theater, dance and music has yielded many surprising and unique collaborations between artists. Our three unique, important, ongoing programs for artists including our OBIE award-winning resident company The Bats; a series of artist-driven playwriting workshops called’Pataphysics; and a presenting program for mid-career artists called Space Grants. Highlights: In the nine years since its founding, The Flea has evolved from a small downtown theater in the heart of TriBeCa to a bustling multi-disciplinary performance complex that is an active member of its Lower Manhattan community. Especially known for our early support of emerging innovators such as Sarah East Johnson, Kathy Supové, and Nicholas Leichter, we are also recognized for presenting the experimental work of established artists including Len Jenkin, A.R. Gurney, Irene Worth, Karen Finley, Sigourney Weaver, and Elizabeth Swados, among others.A seminal early production was The Guys, which captured the hearts and minds of New York City after 9/11. With the Flea just a few short blocks from Ground Zero, The Guys turned into an extraordinary community phenomenon and played to 13 months of sold-out houses before being made into a feature film. By the end of its run, it had featured a rotating cast that included Sigourney Weaver, Bill Murray, Susan Sarandon, Tim Robbins, Bill Irwin, Carol Kane, Amy Irving, and Anthony La Paglia, among others, and drew more than 12,000 people. More recent production highlights include our current extended production of Screen Play and last year’s Mrs. Farnsworth, a timely political comedy written specially for The Flea, both by renowned playwright A.R. Gurney. Performed by the incomparable duo of Sigourney Weaver and John Lithgow, Mrs. Farnsworth won rave reviews and returned to The Flea for a special encore in the fall. For two years in a row, The New York Times has named a Flea production as one of the best Off-Broadway shows of the season-- Mrs. Farnsworth in 2004 and O Jerusalem in 2003. Other notable productions include the Kabuki-inspired, OBIE Award-winning Benten Kozo and the world premieres of Alice Tuan’s Ajax, Oyamo’s The Breakout, and Chère Maître, with Irene Worth and Peter Eyre. To read
more about the Flea Theater,
please click HERE to download our full text
version of "About The Flea," including
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