Maxamoo Interview: Johnna Adams and August Schulenburg
Continuing our Maxamoo Interview series with New York City playwrights, this week we talk to Johnna Adams and August Schulenburg.
Their plays, Sans Merci and Honey Fist, were presented in repertoire by Flux Theatre Ensemble.
To better understand these brilliant, prolific playwrights, we discuss their earliest theater memories and favorite theater experiences, including naked ushers and a moving production in New Orleans’ Lower 9th Ward.
Sans Merci by Johnna Adams tells the story of when tragedy strikes two young women traveling in South America on a humanitarian mission. Years later, a mother returns with questions about her daughter, the women’s relationship, and the truth of what happened on the final day of their mission.
Honey Fist by August Schulenburg follows a group of old friends gathering for an annual bender honoring a high school buddy who died young. An old adversary returns with a movie star on his arm and a Porsche for the person who shares the best story about their friend. After the story-telling ends in a fight, the friends kidnap the girlfriend, and learn a painful truth about how their friend really died.
Ms. Adams is the 2011 recipient of the Princess Grace Award and a finalist for the 2012 Susan Smith Blackburn award with her play Gidion’s Knot. Gidion’s Knot was published in the December issue of TCG’s American Theatre magazine.
Mr. Schulenburg is the Artistic Director and Co-Founder of Flux Ensemble Theater. His plays include Carrin Beginning, Kidding Jane, Rue, Riding the Bull, Good Hope, Other Bodies, Honey Fist, Dark Matter, Jacob’s House, DEINDE, Dream Walker, Denny and Lila, Stepping, Jane the Plain and The Lesser Seductions of History.
UPDATE May 3, 2013
Reviews
Sans Merci
The Artswire
Bottom Line: Powerful and tragic, moving and affecting, Flux Theatre Ensemble has quite a show on it’s hands here.
Autostraddle
Really Powerful Theater: ‘Sans Merci’ Is Messy, Human, Incredible
Cultural Capital
The unfolding story compels your attention for two hours, and the final, cathartic scene sent a chill up my spine.
Show Showdown
In Sans Merci, written by Johnna Adams and directed by Heather Cohn, two young women, Kelly (the awkwardly, impressively real Rachael Hip-Flores) and Tracy (the lovely and intense Alisha Spielmann), fall in love and decide to try to save the world, starting with a small mountain in Colombia.
The Local East Village
The latest from the Flux Theatre Ensemble is a sensitively written play about dealing with loss and guilt.
Honey Fist
NYTheatre.com
The rich humanity of Schulenburg’s work is as stirring a theatrical experience as any on offer right now.
Show Showdown
It’s amazing what really excellent playwrights can pull off. Take the Flux Theatre Ensemble’s Honey Fist, by the wonderful August Schulenburg.