By Anne Nelson
Directed by Brian Shea
Single tickets: $30.00
Five years after one of the most shocking attacks in history, The Jobsite Theater remembers with an encore performance of The Guys to benefit the Tampa Firefighters Museum.
Less than two weeks after the September 11th attacks, New Yorkers are still in shock. One of them, an editor named Joan, receives an unexpected phone call on behalf of Nick, a fire captain who has lost most of his men in the attack. He’s looking for a writer to help him with the eulogies he must present at their memorial services. Nick and Joan spend a long afternoon together, recalling the fallen men through recounting their virtues and their foibles, and fashioning the stories into memorials of words.
In the process, Nick and Joan discover the possibilities of friendship in each other and their shared love for the unconquerable spirit of the city. As they make their way through the emotional landscape of grief, they draw on humor, tango, the appreciation of craft in all its forms – and the enduring bonds of common humanity. The Guys is based on a true story.
Anne Nelson's The Guys was written in just nine days. It almost immediately opened at Tribeca's off-off-Broadway's The Flea and starred Bill Murray and Sigourney Weaver. Since then, stars of stage and screen have taken turns in this piece in New York, California and across the country hoping to help heal this nation’s pain.
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The Jobsite production of The Guys began when Jobsite Artistic Associate Paul Potenza traveled to New York City in January 2002 and saw The Flea’s original production. He knew he had to bring this important work to Tampa.
Paul was born and raised in New York City, and in his words it “will always be home to me.” Shortly after September 11th, Paul was given a tour of Ground Zero. It was an event that would forever change Paul’s life. Paul’s brother-in-law Tommy DaParma – a fireman and Queens Trustee for the FDNY – was able to put Paul in contact with Anne Nelson to get the project moving.
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