Blue Surge honored with two Jeff Awards

I’ve never been all that good at tooting my own horn, and maybe that’s why I’ve been so slow to blog about the fantastic night we – and I – had on Monday. The 2009 Non-Equity Jeff Awards were held at the Park West, and two of the night’s awards went to myself (Actor in a [...]

Interview with the Jeff Nominees

Laura Coover and Nat Swift, Jeff-nominated actors in Blue Surge, sat down with ensemble member Steve Dale before the final performance to talk about their characters, their process, and the nudity:

Friday photo rescue

Four Jeff-Nominated performances, from 2008/2009:
Jon Steinhagen in Plaza Suite:
Nora Fiffer in The Autumn Garden:

Nathaniel Swift in Blue Surge:

Laura Coover in Blue Surge:

Eclipse nominated for four Jeff Awards!

The nominations for this year’s Non-Equity Jeff Awards were announced this morning, and Eclipse was honored with four nominations, including myself and Laura in our current production of Blue Surge:

Laura Coover, Actress in a Principal Role – Play (Blue Surge)
Nathaniel Swift, Actor in a Supporting Role – Play (Blue Surge)
Jon Steinhagen, Actor in a [...]

Live blogging from backstage

2:04 – I just arrived at the theater a few minutes ago. We’re sold out and then some today, so I need to keep the producer hat on for a few more minutes. Warmups, notes and fight call start in six minutes – I’ll be back soon.
2:28 – The box office chaos is (mostly) under [...]

Live blogging from backstage on Sunday

I guess technically I’m live blogging right now (we’re in act two, scene three of Blue Surge right now, and I have about five minutes before I’m back on stage), but this is just a quick post to say that I’ll be blogging throughout the show from backstage this Sunday. The show starts at 3:00 [...]

Talking about the play

We have our first of many post-show discussions coming up after Sunday’s show, and we’re kicking it off with a group that I’m really looking forward to talking to – joining us for Sunday’s performance is a group of students from Michigan State (which means they’ll probably be checking NCAA tournament scores on their phones [...]

How I learned to stop worrying and love the nudity

This past Sunday, we ran the show for the first time with full costumes – which, for me, included full lack of costumes. My character, Doug, is an undercover cop who arrests a prostitute early in Blue Surge. To keep his cover, he strips completely when he asks for a “massage.”
This is a first for [...]

Watch scenes from Blue Surge

Two short clips from Rebecca Gilman’s Blue Surge are now up on The Stage Channel, and you can watch them both right here on the blog:
In the first clip, Curt and Sandy (Kevin Scott and Laura Coover) discuss the down side of community college:
In the second, Curt describes the undercover operation at the “massage parlor” [...]

Jim Cramer & Jon Stewart

Last night was the final rehearsal before we move into our home at the Greenhouse. The mania and fun that is Tech week is now upon us, and it’s odd to think that so much time has passed since the very first read through.
So, like most nights after rehearsal, I get home and  wind down; [...]

An interview with Sasha Gioppo

Stephen Dale, one of our fantastic new ensemble members, has been sitting down with the cast and crew of Blue Surge to talk about the show, the rehearsal process, and whatever else happens to come up when you put creative people in front of a digital video camera. We’ll be posting more interviews with actors [...]

Field Trip

Rehearsals have been remarkable! As I have posted before, this is my first time being on the other side of the table, the first time I have sat through the gruelling decisions steeped in auditions, call backs and now rehearsals; helping guide the vision of the playwright. It’s quite the change for me, and there [...]

The American Dream

The phrase “the American Dream” is part of the show description of Blue Surge on our website.  So, as I’m looking around for inspiration for the dramaturgically driven lobby display, what do I do, I turn to google…..I mean isn’t that where we all turn when we are looking for inspiration?  Either google or facebook, [...]

The Sound of the Serge

There is one scene in which Duke Ellington’s poetic, heartbreaking, & illuminating “Blue Serge” is played and talked about. If you haven’t heard this particular tune, or any of Ellington’s music, run to your nearest itunes provider and get some. Music has always played a very vibrant, essential role in my work, my life and [...]

Leaping into the hole

So, this is the first time I have ever done this as myself, JP, that is. An alter ego of mine wrote during Plaza Suite: Wally the bellhop.
This is my first outing with assistant Directing and the thought was at once thrilling and somewhat terrifying. What was expected of me? What will I be taking [...]

Watch a scene from Blue Surge rehearsals

We’re just over a week into rehearsals for Blue Surge, and last night we ran through all of act one twice. We’re all still carrying scripts and exploring choices at this point in the process, and there’s still a long way to go before we open, but things are starting to take shape.
In the clip [...]

The “Are you a cop?” defense

My favorite bit of dramaturgical research so far – according to urban legend debunker snopes.com, it is not actually true that an undercover cop has to answer honestly when asked “Are you a cop?”
Yeah, it seemed like that would be a dumb rule.

Blue Surge Dramaturgy is here

We just finished posting all of Sarah’s dramaturgical research for Blue Surge. The permanent link is over on the right sidebar.
We’ll probably add some more information and links, and we’ll point out some highlights in posts as we go along, but jump in and browse away …

Friday photo rescue

From the brand spankin’ new Blue Surge set on Flickr, here’s me and Kevin (Doug and Curt in the play) cooling our heels in the alley, waiting for the Captain to give the signal to start an undercover operation.
 

Blue Surge rehearsals

This past Monday night at the Greenhouse Theater, the cast and crew of Blue Surge got together for the first time to kick around ideas and read the script out loud. With a small audience in the upstairs studio theater that included a few subscribers, friends, and playwright Rebecca Gilman, we got our first taste [...]