Flying Fig Theater Founded by Michaela Goldhaber and Heather Ondersma in 2002, Flying Fig has created seven full productions throughout New York City. Flying Fig's first production was Ellen K. Anderson's Liz Estrada, an adaptation of Aristophanes' Lysistrata, performed at La Plaza Cultural Garden's amphitheater as part of the 2002 New York International Fringe Festival. Flying Fig has continued to work with Anderson, commissioning her to write a play about the Triangle Shirtwaist Fire. Shirtwaist, a Musical Ghost Story premiered at the 2003 NYC Fringe Festival, and then had a sold-out run at the Lower East Side Tenement Museum in February 2004. Flying Fig Theater commissioned Anderson's new historical comedy, New Amsterdames, which will premiere at Here Arts Center in December 2007. Flying Fig's most recent productions included the New York premiere of Sus Manos by Lauren Gunderson, a multimedia drama about an American filmmaker working in Oaxaca on the eve of the Mexican revolution; a revival of Sarah Daniels's The Gut Girls, a drama about female butchers in Victorian England that was performed at The Chocolate Factory in Long Island City; and the New York premiere of Shiloh Rules, a comedy by Doris Baizley about Civil War re-enactors at the Gene Frankel Theatre in Manhattan. Flying Fig Theater also produced Susanna Centlivre's 18th century comedy The Wonder! A Woman Keeps a Secret at A.R.T./New York's South Oxford Space in Brooklyn in 2003, and will be producing more classical plays by women in the near future. Selected Press: The Gut Girls
". . . The ensemble evokes a specific, convincing camaraderie, aided by Michaela Goldhaber's understated direction. Janine Kyanko, as the ingenue in the slaughterhouse, and Tiffany Green, as the strapping wench trying to avoid her mother's life of loveless toil, are particular standouts. Their vulnerability and bravado are moving,"
Shiloh Rules
"Sterling performances by the six-member, all-female cast make the production, by the Flying Fig Theater and Middle Tennessee State University, a rewarding trip . . . "
Shirtwaist
"90 minutes of engaging and provocative theatre that reminds us of our too-easily forgotten responsibilities as humans sharing this planet."
The Wonder: A Woman Keeps a Secret
"Go see it—and take your daughters."
Sus Manos
"Translated from Spanish, 'sus manos' literally means 'her hands', and the beauty with which this symbolic title is currently translated onto the stage in Lauren Gunderson's new play is simply striking."
Artistic Directors' Biographies Michaela Goldhaber directed Flying Fig's productions of The Wonder! A Woman Keeps a Secret by Susanna Centlivre, The Gut Girlsby Sarah Daniels, and Shiloh Rules by Doris Baizley. She co-produced Sus Manos by Lauren Gunderson, and was co-producer and dramaturg for Liz Estrada and Shirtwaist, both by Ellen K. Anderson, as well as a performer in both shows. She continues in these roles for Anderson's New Amsterdames. She has directed for the Hypothetical Theatre Company, the WorkShop Theatre Company, and the Lady Cavaliers Theatre Company. She is a graduate of UCLA, Tufts University, and LAMDA, and is a member of the Lincoln Center Directors Lab. Michaela was the Associate Development Director at New York Theatre Workshop for two and half years, where she curated and moderated the post-performance discussion series AfterWords. Heather Ondersma is the director for New Amsterdames. She directed Flying Fig's production of Sus Manos by Lauren Gunderson and Fig's two productions of Shirtwaist by Ellen Anderson (at the Tenement Museum and Teatro La Tea). She also directed Fig's first production (in conjunction with Dramatic Women): the NYC premiere of Ellen Anderson's Liz Estrada (FringeNYC 2002). Other directing credits: The Blessed Apple Tree (American Living Room/Lincoln Center Directors Lab 2000, Here) Ellen Anderson's Why Mud Flaps? (FringeNYC 2000, Fringe Excellence Award), world premieres of Stephen F. Kelleher's Empire Gas (Lost Tribe, Bank St. Theater) and The Last Liberal by Bob Potter (Santa Barbara, CA), NYC premiere of Hella Haasse's A Thread in the Dark, performed on the historic vessel The Yankee Ferry, and The Rivals for Titans Theatre. Heather is a member of the Lincoln Center Directors Lab. |
is dedicated to producing compelling theatrical stories about women's lives, through commissioning new plays by contemporary playwrights and rediscovering plays from the past. We challenge standards: of beauty, through non-traditional casting; of social convention, via the stories we tell; of theatricality, by producing work in unconventional spaces.