Mark with the first issue of The Flashpaper.
Mark Blankenship’s ’05 The Flashpaper is a new journal for theater artists and audiences.
Mark Blankenship ’05 released the first issue of The Flashpaper: Theatre’s Thoughts on Right Now in June 2020. This new journal is a biannual, on-demand print publication which will feature original content created in response to a timely prompt by a diverse group of artists.
The first issue asks the question on all of our minds: What Will It Be Like When Social Distancing Ends? The responses come in a variety of forms including photo essays, manifestos, plays, comics, reviews, and reflections. Issue #1 is bookended by YSD alumni with a forward from David Henry Hwang ’83 and an afterword by Sarah Treem ’05, YC ’02 and includes contributions from Meropi Peponides, Tara Moses, and Raquel Almazan among others. "The Flashpaper gathers together a new and vital community. On these pages,” writes Wang, “we will share our lives and work during this pandemic, our discoveries in isolation, and our innovations as we emerge to rebuild the theater. In doing so, we may even rediscover our roots.”
“I launched The Flashpaper for two reasons,” writes Mark, “I wanted audiences to have access to artists’ ideas, even when they weren’t seeing a show, and I wanted artists to earn money, even when they weren’t in production. I’m thrilled those things are happening, of course, but now that the journal exists, I also see that it’s a physical record of where our community stands at a particular time. In a few months, when the day-to-day experience of 2020 is getting hazy, I’ll be grateful I can open The Flashpaper and remind myself what we were thinking when the pandemic began. I’m hopeful that every future issue will be just as illuminating about its moment.” For more details visit theflashpaper.com.
Mark with the first issue of The Flashpaper.