Thursday, September 11, 2008

Jobsite opens Blackbird tonight

Jobsite Theater, resident theater company in the Shimberg Playhouse, opens David Harrower's provocative and intense drama Blackbird tonight at 8pm. Blackbird was commissioned for the Edinburgh Fringe Festival and won the 2007 Olivier Award for Best New Play.

From the show website:

Una and Ray had a relationship that resulted in disastrous consequences. Ray moved on with his life, ensuring that they would never set eyes on each other again. Fifteen years later, Una has found Ray.

Never has a more thought-provoking play been written about such a taboo subject. The play explodes with unresolved and possibly irresolvable concerns that make it one of the most daring new plays in recent theater. Blackbird is a brilliant, unnerving and controversial play that taunts us with the limits of our own language and our conceptions of love, abuse and that much-abused neologism "closure".

Blackbird stars Paul J. Potenza and Caitlin Eason under the direction of Karla Hartley, who is also the Producing and Artistic Manager of the Shimberg Playhouse. The scenic design is by United Scenic Artists member Scott Cooper. Karla and Scott previously collaborated together on the Jobsite production of Mamet's Boston Marriage.

The show is also the start of Jobsite's 10th anniversary season. Though Jobsite has performed at TBPAC during each of their previous seasons, they were named resident theater company in 2003 and have performed all of their plays here since.

Here is a preview on the show that ran in today's St. Pete Times.

Blackbird is on stage through Sept. 28. This show is intended for mature audiences only.

*disclosure - I am also the Producing Artistic Director of Jobsite.

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