Here's to friendship and PFTC plans for the future

“A friend is one that knows you as you are, understands where you have been, accepts what you have become, and still, gently allows you to grow.”
― William Shakespeare

Unofficial Offices

It's during FringeNYC 2010. I'm at a West Village bar with a good friend of mine. He's in the middle of directing and producing his play over at the Kraine Theatre. We're in the middle of downing some kind of Brooklyn beer on tap, when he throws his hands in the air. "All I want in life is an office."
I didn't know it until that moment, but then, oh then I did. "Me too." I reply with the slurred hop induced emphasis on the "Me" and "too".

Fact of the matter is here at PFTCo and with most indie NYC theatre companies, we are office-less. At least in the traditional sense. In the non traditional sense, we have some of the most interesting offices... well ever.

This post is a preview for the newest addition to the Plastic Flamingo Blog. Look forward to articles featuring the many offices we work from. From awesome apartments to park benches to coffee shops to lobbies- we've found some thrifty and very productive unconventional work spaces.

We're still hoping one Christmas Santa will give us a P Flam office on the 7th floor of some important building with big windows and cubicles and rolly chairs. Until then, look forward to a viral celebration and investigation of where we operate in the feature "Unofficial Offices" .

*I realize Unofficial Offices has got to be one of the most bland titles for a blog ever created. If you have a better title for this new section of the site please email suggestions to plasticflamingotheatre@gmail.com.
Subject Line: I am wittier than Erin Austin by a lot.

Stay tuned.

10 Theaters we wouldn’t mind getting stuck in during a blizzard…

Tonight, as Darren and I walked west into the incoming ice pellets, I began regretting our decision to ever leave the warm and sheltered theatre where we had just witnessed a reading.

Now that I’m home and partially thawed, I realize this was a rash thought. The unnamed theater we were at- as lovely as it is (and I truly do love it) has a terrible bathroom. This would not make a fun snowed-in situation.

However, in the spirit of 2011’s Snowpocalypse and our company’s undying love for NYC theaters, I present a list of local spaces (in no particular order) where the Flamingos would happily hibernate through the Artic months.

1. The Clemente Soto Vélez Cultural Center. 107 Suffolk St. L.E.S. I have never seen a show here and not sweated my ass off. Plus there’s an attached beach themed bar with real sand. Steamy and classy.

2. HERE Arts Center. 145 6th Ave. Soho. This is the theatre space equivalent to your buddy’s house in high school with the cool parents who let you drink in the basement. They will let you get away with anything. They let us freaking paint each other on stage there during Finger Paint… Things could get crazy.

3. The Foxwoods Theater. 214 W. 43rd St. Midtown. Spiderman, Turn Off the Dark is there… Things could get crazy.

4. Dixon Place. 161A Chrystie St. L.E.S. Four words. Full. Service. Bar. Inside.

5. The Snapple Theatre. 1627 Broadway. Midtown. There are a lot of Snapple facts on those bathroom walls. I need more time to figure out which ones are real.

6. Regal Union Square Stadium 14. 850 Broadway. Union Square. I know this isn’t that kind of theatre. But we’ve seen some really interesting impromptu live performances there. And we gotta catch up on the Oscar nominees at some point.

7. 2econd Stage. 305 W. 43rd St. Midtown. We would just chill in the audience and make some poor technician open and close those big blinds in the house stage left on a regular basis. Those things are fantastic.

8. 3LD Art and Technology Center. 80 Greenwich St. Financial District. The location isn’t grand. Diane dubbed it “even too downtown for Erin”. But once you’re inside you get a choice of watching performances on chairs or on brightly colored throw pillows. Awesome.

9. The Chocolate Factory. 49th Ave. L.I.C. Okay, I haven’t been here yet, but this just sounds like a good place to be for obvious (and hopeful) reasons.

10. The Wild Project. 195 E 3rd St. L.E.S. This place is one of the only “green” theatres in the area. How or why it’s “green” remains an enigma. But dagnabbit, us Flamingos like to feel righteous about our hypothetical theatrical hideaways.