Open Flame Theatre

Tonight's show of "Will You Miss Me?" by The Hinterlands is SOLD OUT!!! but we still have tickets for tomorrow 🔥 Get them now at www.phillyfarm.org

Join us Philadelphia Community Farm to present The Hinterlands in September!!!

The Garden Premieres at the Southern Theater in Minneapolis and Grows Into Something Rather Special Open Flame Theatre is an all-transgender/gender non-conforming theatre ensemble that has been in existence in some form or other since 2009, but I had never heard of them. Faithful readers will kno…

Meet the q***r/trans theologians who will be facilitating tonight's post-show conversation! Dr. Justin Sabia Tanis and Max Yeshaye Brumberg-Kraus!

Justin Sabia-Tanis is an associate professor and director of the Social Transformation Program at United Theological Seminary of the Twin Cities. He holds a PhD in interdisciplinary studies, is ordained with the United Church of Christ, and is a pastor, activist, and scholar. In addition to United, he has taught at the University of Arizona, Pima Community College, Iliff School of Theology, and Pacific School of Religion. Justin’s non-profit work included directing communications at the National Center for Transgender Equality, Out & Equal Workplace Advocates, and the Center for LGBTQ and Gender Studies in Religion. He is the author of Transgender: Ministry, Theology, and Communities of Faith and has also contributed chapters to the Q***r Bible Commentary, Take Back the Word: A Q***r Reading of the Bible and Understanding Transgender Identity: Four Views.

Max Yeshaye Brumberg-Kraus is a writer, theopoet, and performing artist in Saint Paul, MN. They are the artistic director of the performance art group, the House of Larva Drag Co-operative, in which they perform as Drag Ogress Cicada L'amour. They have performed at Patrick's Cabaret, 20% Theatre, Intermedia Arts, in the Heart of the Beast, Pangea World Theater, the Guthrie, the Rochester Arts Center, and with Rimon, the MN Jewish Arts Council. Brumberg-Kraus directed and wrote Circe: Twilight of a Goddess, produced on the water in 2019 with Siren Island at Point San Pablo Harbor, CA and they work with educational, art, and, faith organizations as a facilitator in gender exploration workshops using movement, writing, and dance. They also guest preach on gender, sexuality, and spirituality and lecture on drag, theatre and religion, feminism and feminist theology, q***r theory and theology, and theopoetics. They are the author of forthcoming The(y)ology: Mythopoetics for Q***r and Trans Liberation (punctum books) and the collection of poems Visions of Divine's Love, a poetic amalgamation of Julian of Norwich with John Waters's Pink Flamingos. Brumberg-Kraus studied Classics and Theatre at Beloit College and earned their MA in Theology and the Arts from United Seminary of the Twin Cities. Currently, they are pursuing their MFA in Interdisciplinary arts at Goddard College.

Opening night for The Garden is tomorrow! Your support makes our work possible, it's not too late, please donate if you are able! link for tix in comments.

Support Trans Theatre, Support Trans Liberation @openflame4003 Open Flame Theatre’s GiveMN.org campaign

Thank you Dispatch Minneapolis for writing about The Garden: The Only Way Out of Hell is Through It! Premieres this Friday🔥

Open Flame Theatre “The only way out of hell is through it.” Open Flame Theatre Presents: An intimate, re-imagining of ‘The Garden’ May 19th-21st and 26th=28th, 2-23Last year, we premiered The Garden at Philadelphia Community Farm in Osceola, WI, where Open Flame Theatre has been in residence since 2017...

It’s us, Walken Schweigert and Katie Burgess, co-artistic directors of Open Flame Theatre. In addition to some exciting announcements and updates we want to share with you, we simultaneously wanted to let you know about the launch of our GIVE TO THE MAX DAY campaign today!

Last year, we premiered The Garden at Philadelphia Community Farm in Osceola, WI, where Open Flame Theatre has been in residence since 2017.

We are so grateful for those of you who came to see it. If you missed it, well, never fear because in true Walken & Katie fashion, we have decided to reimagine The Garden and remount it at the Southern Theater in May of 2023!

After a successful presentation of excerpts of a two-person version of The Garden at Double Edge Theatre in Ashfield, MA as part of a Magdalena Festival celebrating Double Edge’s 40th Anniversary, we decided we were not done with The Garden. This past summer, we dove back into the script.

With Richard Newman from The Hinterlands in Detroit, MI back on board to direct this version of The Garden, and Silen Wellington added to the musical team, we are back hard at work on staging and scoring. We will be in rehearsals all winter, to be ready to share this new version of The Garden with you all May 19th-21th, and 26th-28th 2023 at the Southern Theater in Minneapolis, MN. SAVE THE DATE!

Today is GIVE TO THE MAX DAY, a day organized by GiveMN.org to support local nonprofits that lift up BIPOC and LGBTQIA+ led communities. We are excited to be a part of this state-wide fundraising effort that supports so many amazing organizations across Minnesota. We have officially launched our GiveMN.org campaign to raise funds for our upcoming production of The Garden.

As an independent, trans-led theater company, we rely on the continued support from our friends, family, and community. We couldn’t do this without you!

To keep up to date with media content and find out more about our process, please check out our Patreon page. You can always get in touch with us personally at [email protected]. Please keep an eye on our new website these next few months for new media content, updates and upcoming events!

https://www.givemn.org/story/Openflame2023

Support Open Flame Theatre Presents: The Garden 2023 on GiveMN SAVE THE DATE: Open Flame Theatre presents a new, intimate reworking of ‘The Garden’ May 19th-21st 2023 @ The Southern Theatre Garden is an original,  operatic performance about conversion therapy and trans liberation created by Open Flame Theatre.The story follows a

Thank you Double Edge for including us in this incredible experience!

Repost from Walken Schweigert!

"Without risk, there is no hope." This was said by Double Edge founder Stacy Klein, during my mentorship almost a decade ago. I have thought about this many, many times since, as Double Edge and the incredible ensemble there have modeled for me the multiple meanings of this phrase again and again. Personally, it has inspired to grow as a performer and director in ways I used to think were impossible. Politically it has grounded me in the profound importance of the imagination as a necessary partner in liberation. Double Edge and the artists there are leaders in our field, and I nor my ensemble Open Flame Theatre would be here in the way we are without them.🖤🔥🖤 Photo by Kim Chin-Gibbons, from the production "Leonora's World" performed at Double Edge Theatre's farm center in Ashfield, MA October 2019

Overflowing with gratitude to everyone who made the premiere of The Garden such a stunning event. To our fantastic audiences (you know who you are! 😉 )! to our incredible cast: Katie Burgess, Oliver Norwyn , Sea Thomas, Megan the ManEater, Arlo Sombor, Walken Schweigert, Matthew Ryan Surline! To our fantastic crew: Judd Rappe, Joseph Vourteque, Richard Newman, Zoe Batson, Elisa Sugar & Lisa Winter! we couldn't have done it without you. To the resident community + council at Philadelphia Community Farm: Anna Becker, Chrystal Odin, Stephen Briggs, Karen Davis-Brown, Calvin Stalvig, Aiyana Sol Machado, Alisa Hoven, Maryan Abdirahaman, Carter Beck, Kayma, Henri, and Monty. To our mentors at Double Edge Theatre: Stacy Klein and Carlos Uriona, thank you so so so much for having our backs at every turn. To our stellar volunteers! Molly Campbell, Anders Nielsen, Lucy Geach, Tere Parsley Starnes, Charlie Wellington. To all our Patrons on Patreon! To the American Composers Forum for helping to fund this work! And to all of you who have been with us on this four year journey. We are overjoyed to finally be able to share this work with you. 🖤🌈🖤 Photos by Max Haynes

Stills from rehearsal, shot with an iphone. We promise you, we are not blurry in person. =) Come see The Garden! Friday and Saturday nights are sold out, but there are lots of openings Sunday. ***rTheatre

hey there! we need volunteers for the premiere of *The Garden*! if you want to help guide the audience and hang out with us on a farm in Osceola, Wi please let us know. we'd love to have you.

tickets are on sale now!
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Dear friends, family, colleagues, comrades, allies and accomplices,

THE GARDEN will premiere

September 24th-26th

Philadelphia Community Farm, Osceola, WI

Tickets are now available for purchase!

https://www.eventbrite.com/e/the-garden-tickets-164548686551

(Seating is limited, and so unlike all our previous performances, you do in fact need to buy a ticket to attend.)

The cost is sliding scale, but if it is prohibitive for you please let us know at [email protected] and we will figure something out with you.

To offset the sliding scale ticketing, if you are in a position to make a donation please do!

You can do so at our website

www.OpenFlameTheatre.org

Your support makes our work possible and we can’t thank you enough!

For those of you who are new to us and those of you who have been with us for the four years we have been working on this show, we cannot tell you how excited we are to share this work with you.

In love and solidarity,

The Flamers

Open Flame Theatre added a Shop on website button to their Page.

Open Flame Theatre updated their address.

Through the recent launch of our Patreon, are so excited for the opportunity to share more with you about our process of creating THE GARDEN, which has been four long years in the making. With merch available at levels as low as $5, and with added insights such as the Composers’ Corner (excerpt below!) at higher levels, there are a number of ways to get closer to us and to support our work.

We are so grateful to those of you who have already signed up to support us monthly! Having reliable monthly income greatly increases our ability to plan our programming and long term sustainability, so if you have not yet signed up to support us in an ongoing way, please check it out! We look forward so much to sharing more of ourselves with you.

https://vimeo.com/573175304

Composers Corner Preview This is "Composers Corner Preview" by Open Flame Theatre on Vimeo, the home for high quality videos and the people who love them.

Thank you SO much to everyone who’s already joined our patreon! Your contributions offer longevity and community support that goes right back into our art-making — we can’t wait to share more time and space with you.

If you’re still on the fence, please consider joining us! Every little bit counts as we continue our journey into the world of The Garden. We have so much to share with you.

Visit patreon.com/openflametheatre to support our work! 🖤

🖤 OUR PATREON IS LIVE! 🖤

Today is the day! Visit https://patreon.com/openflametheatre to become a supporter of Open Flame Theatre and help us in the making of The Garden. For a small monthly fee of your choosing, you will have exclusive access to our work, extra content, merch, and a closer look into our creative journey, all while knowing that your kind donations are going right back into making our work stronger and our worlds more supported.

We hope that launching this patreon will promote more connection and exchange with our audiences, supporters, and community in general. We do not make our work in a vacuum; we make it an ever-flowing dialogue with our people. Our broader networks. Since we perform live relatively infrequently, it feels all the more important to have other avenues to engage in conversations about our process for creating the work. How do myths about the underworld relate to trans empowerment? And how is that present in musical and surreal theatrical contexts? We can’t wait to talk to you about it.

Now is the time to support artists. Now is the time to support q***r artists. Now is the time to support transgender artists. We have been creating all our lives, beyond and intertwined with one another, beyond and intertwined with you, our supporters. The only way we make this work is together -- the only way out of hell is through it. Please consider becoming a patron of Open Flame Theatre. It would mean the world to us, and we have some exciting rewards and opportunities to share in return. Every little bit counts, and we hold so much gratitude and love for all of our communities.

You can become an ongoing supporter of our work now, TODAY!

OUR PATREON LAUNCHES TOMORROW!

Holy hell, we’re SO excited to be back on our feet at Philadelphia Community Farm working on The Garden — but right now we need community support and connection more than ever! Consider supporting our all-transgender theatre company with a small monthly donation that goes directly back to us — and we have some incredible patron rewards to share!

Have you ever wanted an Open Flame T-Shirt? A monthly virtual book club with Artistic Director Walken Schweigert and ensemble member Sea Thomas walking through textual research from our shows? Advanced and free ticketing to our upcoming shows? Even more?? Patreon is making all of this possible for us, and we’re so excited for our launch TOMORROW!

Hope to see you soon. Immense gratitude. 🖤