Ensemble Studio Theatre (EST) (William Carden, Artistic Director), along with The Alfred P. Sloan Foundation (Doron Weber, Vice-President and Program Director) and the EST/Sloan Project, announced today the 2021 Fall Artist Cultivation Event for the EST/Sloan Project.
The Artists vs. the Flea: ‘We Will Burn It All Down’ Vulture.com 12/12/2020 Helen Shaw
When we last checked in on the Flea Theater, good things were happening. In June, galvanized by an open letter from a company actor, the members of the Off–Off Broadway theater had called for a racial and labor reckoning. All eyes were on the downtown house, potentially the industry’s prototype proof that, in some places at least, the summer calls for justice were bearing fruit. Then, without warning, on December 2, the board unilaterally dissolved its artists’ programs, cutting loose over a hundred affiliated theater-makers. The shock rippled through social media, shaking free painful memories and (in some cases) decades of anger at the venue. A parody Twitter account (now suspended) retweeted accusations going back years; attempts at healing dissolved. An organizer summed up the current mood: “We will burn it all down.”