Dearest Friends,
Jobsite is very proud to begin 07-08, our ninth overall season, with a truly deliciously dark treat for the Halloween season – Gorey Stories.
It’s our sincerest wish that all of you will choose to join us to celebrate our opening weekend. Friday and Saturday night’s performances are sold out, but we still have open seats for Thursday and Sunday.
Your support on opening weekend, and the successive word of mouth recommendations you make to your friends and colleagues mean so much to us. It’s why we try so very hard to get those who are already fans of our work in first, so that they can help us get others in the theater.
This is a monster undertaking for Jobsite. It’s only our 3rd musical in nine years and it’s the first we’ve done with a live orchestra. This also may be the most highly stylized production we’ve done, with production values that push the envelope of anything we’ve ever attempted.
The show is tremendous fun. A lot of folks have asked me recently if the show is really gory or scary. It’s not. Gorey’s work is certainly dark, but it always has a thick layer of sardonic humor spread across it. We’re calling the show PG-13, due to the subject matter of some of the stories – which often revolve around bizarre murders or nasty things happening to little kids – and also for some very suggestive innuendo and shadowplay that exists in one of the 18 shorts, The Curious Sofa.
As director I’ve pushed myself, my ensemble of 9, my designers, my music director and even my stage manager about as hard as I’ve ever pushed a company. I’ve learned a lot this time around, I’ve never undertaken a musical, but the attention to detail on this show in every regard is really something to marvel at.
For those of you who are big fans of Edward Gorey, there’s going to be a ton to like here. The show is comprised of 18 of his stories, poems and limericks and we’ve tried to go even further – some of the shorts quite literally move frame by frame through his detailed illustrations. Some of the vignettes are fairly straight-up narrative tellings of the stories, others are turned into songs with a few other surprises along the way.
For those of you who have no idea who Gorey was, you’re not going to be lost. Come in with your fresh mind ready to be entertained and have a laugh as you get a crash course through this wicked, wild and often hilarious world.
The show is just under two hours, perhaps a relief for some of you who let me know about your numb buns during the marathon productions of The Pillowman or Hurlyburly.
There’s so much more to say about this show and the wonderful group of people who’ve come together to make this thing a reality, but I’ll just point you to the website for more information.
I really hope to see all of you this weekend. Please say hello if you get the chance.
Best Regards,
-dj
