Fast Art and Plastic Flamingo

If Mary Shelley wrote Frankenstein in one night at a dinner party, just imagine what kind of art can blossom in a full week. We’re expecting these flowers of possibility to be six fully directed and acted plays based on the guidelines of the popular board game, Clue. It’s Plastic Flamingo’s first foray into “fast art” and we want you there!

It’s no surprise this style of quick and dirty theatre known as “fast art” works well in NYC. We’ve all got twelve jobs and only one of them pays. We all rely a little too much on 5 hour energy shots to push us through that last hour on the clock, and we all enjoy the exciting and often unpredictable results of artistic exercise.

One of the most well known NYC variations on “fast art” is the event The A Train Plays, where, yes, plays and musicals are created on the blue line, the city's longest subway route. Playwrights, actors, and directors make the subway car their office and rehearsal space. They have limited time to conceive and rehearse their new creations. How limited is their time? Well they have as long as it takes the train to get from W 207th street to Rockaway and back.

This coming Sunday, the appropriately titled The 24 hour Play Festival will start its egg timers. The performance will be at The American Airlines Theater on Monday November 15. This year it will feature among others, Claire Danes, Elijah Wood, and Sarah Silverman.

It was only a matter of time before those of us at Plastic Flamingo Theatre Company jumped onto the quickly moving “fast art” train. But in typical Flamingo fashion, we’re making up our own rules. We already spend too much time on subways and 24 hours is over too quickly. In Get A Clue! Play Fest, our 6 writers will have 2 days to create a short play. Directors and actors will get the rest of the week to rehearse. Sounds easy? We’re also making these writers incorporate the weapons and settings of the board game Clue into their plays. And directors and actors will be rehearsing without the comfort of a provided rehearsal space. So if you see a group of actors running lines on the A train, you’re getting a sneak peak for Sunday.

It’s a mystery as to what plays you’ll see on November 21st. But I can tell you we’ve assembled a group of eclectic and wildly talented artists. We’ll see you at Bar 82 on Sunday. Because let’s be honest, you’re in New York and you like it fast.

`Erin

Co founder of Plastic Flamingo Theatre Company