Flying V is sad to report that Monstress will not move ahead as planned this October (2022). This original devised work, which was conceived at the end of 2021, was to be Flying V’s highly anticipated return to mainstage theatrical production.
The exceedingly talented devising team began work in April, and created a story worth telling and then some. The world the team built, captured on paper in short story form by R&D Artistic Lead navi, was immersive, authentic, creepy, and deeply intentional about how it addressed the mythology surrounding one of the Philippine’s most storied folk tales: the Manananggal. Kelly Colburn, Artistic Lead of Theatre, was wildly imaginative in her ideas and leadership throughout the process, and her imagination, research, and talent for putting together excellent creators led us to a place that felt ripe for moving forward through the summer.
What none of us imagined was a sharp and sudden stop to our momentum. Through the unfortunate confluence of life circumstances, the Monstress team lost several team members right as we began a critical production phase of the process. As a result, the Flying V Leadership team met and made the difficult decision to postpone Monstress. We did not feel confident that replacing these roles quickly would demonstrate adequate care for the rest of the team and their work, and we did not feel comfortable pushing the project forward without these roles in place. With the given delay, we felt that even if the roles were able to be replaced at the last minute, the project would not move forward on a healthy timeline for the team.
We are still very sad about the need to slumber this show, even as we remain confident that our decision was the right call for the work and for our artists.
Monstress is a really great piece devised by some fantastic creators and it deserves a full run. But the piece and those amazing creators deserve a production that provides both a stunning final product, and a fulfilling, healthy artistic process for those creating it.
We look forward to sharing Monstress with you when the time is right. In the meantime, we will do our best to honor the work already created by our team in a format that celebrates what we’ve already built!
More on that soon!
-The Flying V Team-
