2002 – 03 Season

Titus Andronicus

By William Shakespeare

Adapted and directed by David M. Jenkins

Oct. 17 – Nov. 3, 2002

Shimberg Playhouse, Straz Center for the Performing Arts

Tampa Tribune

The Jobsite Theater continues its successful lineage of Halloween productions (Clive Barker’s The History of the Devil, Dracula) while collaborating with The Center Theater Company to bring you Titus Andronicus – Shakespeare’s bloodiest and most macabre play. Set in the aftermath of a bloody conflict between the Romans and the Goths, Titus Andronicus tells the story of an honorable warrior who returns home to find his country – and family – caught in a web of political unrest and personal upheaval. Thrills and chills as well as unexpected delights are guaranteed in this vengeful world of murder and madness. When we say “Give ’em a hand,” we mean it!

The Bible: The Complete Word of God (abridged)

By Adam Long, Reed Martin & Austin Tichenor

Directed by Katrina Stevenson

Jan. 3 – 19, 2003

Shimberg Playhouse, Straz Center for the Performing Arts

Weekly Planet

In this follow-up to Jobsites wildly successful and critically acclaimed The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (abridged), the cast of Shawn Paonessa, Jason Evans and David M. Jenkins are back to do it again. You dont have to be of any particular religious denomination to enjoy this rapid-fire dissection of the Old and New Testaments by these three crazed actors. Youll find out how good a job John the Baptist could have done if he had a Super Soaker! You’ll see three grown men wearing nothing but fig leaves! Wrestling matches, silly songs and cross-dressing, The Bible: The Complete Word of God (abridged) has it all!

Cloud Nine

By Caryl Churchill

Directed by Ami Sallee

Jun. 13 – 29, 2003

Shimberg Playhouse, Straz Center for the Performing Arts

Weekly Planet Best of the Bay

Tampa Tribune

Witnessing Caryl Churchill’s 1979 comedy about sex and love is a sure-fire mental workout. First, she sets in motion characters whose sexual identities and alliances shift constantly. Then she asks you to accept that most of the characters make an impossible leap in time, from colonial Africa in the Victorian age to contemporary Britain. Last, she asks you to ignore the fact that certain men are played by women, certain women are played by men, children can be played by adults and that even black can be white. Churchill likes to get all things good and mixed up so all preconceptions about gender, romance, and “lifestyle” are scrambled, neutralized, and hopefully even rebuilt by the end of the show. The title, Cloud Nine, refers to the state of orgasmic and emotional bliss that everyone in the play is so desperately striving for.

The Beauty Queen of Leenane

By Martin McDonagh

Directed by Paul J. Potenza

Mar. 27 – Apr. 13, 2003

Shimberg Playhouse, Straz Center for the Performing Arts

Weekly Planet Best of The Bay

Tampa Tribune

The Jobsite Theater and The Center Theater Company once again join forces for Martin McDonagh’s The Beauty Queen of Leenane. Set in the mountains of Connemara, County Galway, The Beauty Queen of Leenane tells the darkly comic tale of Maureen Folan, a plain and lonely woman in her early 40s, and her manipulative, aging mother whose interference in Maureen’s first – and potentially last – loving relationship sets in motion a series of events both gothically funny and horrific. The Beauty Queen of Leenane was nominated for a Tony for Best New Play and took home four Tony Awards in 1998.

Murder Ballads

By Various Authors

Co-directed by Chris Holcom and David M. Jenkins

Aug. 1 – 17, 2003

Shimberg Playhouse, Straz Center for the Performing Arts

In this fifth year of bringing Original Works to the Bay area Jobsite pays homage to the highly theatrical Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds album by the same title. Past Original Works have included The Ruins, Y2K: Yearn to Know and The Nature of Fear and Its Effects. Writers will be commissioned to create performance pieces of all styles (movement, music, monologue, short play, multimedia etc.) that will be either literal or abstract interpretations of each of the 10 tracks on the album. Nick Cave has been writing songs about love lost and violence since he first surfaced in 1980 as the Birthday Party’s pale, skinny, gothic-punk Jim Morrison. But the murder ballads that provide this set’s title are different, tantalizingly deliberate. Murder Ballads is a fascinating concept album that uses the narrative ballad form of the English folk tradition to tell of murder: random deaths, passion crimes, and killing sprees, all in one package. Includes Bob Dylan’s “Death Is Not the End” and the traditional Stagger Lee.