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from BJ Jones, Artistic Director

At 35 years, Northlight is moving into elite territory as an institution that has a history which is intertwined in a meaningful way with the community.  So many of you have talked to me during this production of Awake and Sing! to tell me your story of Northlight’s place in your life.  This article in London’s Guardian shows us that this is by no means an unusual set of circumstances.  Theatres are destinations and create events that can be associated with moments in our own lives.  Certain plays or musicals can reflect incidents in our lives that resonate, refresh, or relieve us.  They can create an aura around important time frames and link them together.  More importantly, good theatre arises from our own lives.

Perhaps you would like to tell us your Northlight story. If you have been a subscriber for a number of years, use this blog to tell us of your earliest memories.  If you are a recent convert, tell us what production influenced your decision to join us.  If you have had a unique experience at Northlight either on the stage or in the audience, share it with us.  If you are in love with your seat and fight to keep it year after year, or if you have branched out to a new section in the theatre for a change of pace, share it!

This anniversary is yours, thirty-five years!

Congratulations…let the stories begin!

from BJ Jones

The importance of intiatives like Interplay for theatres like Northlight is vital.  So often a playwright would truly relish a reading, provided by sensitive and supportive artists and theatres where the work is appreciated and the environment is safe. That is the goal for us here at Northlight. The delight for me is in the opportunity to acquaint myself with these artists and to work with them in close quarters.

That paragraph is part of an article I wrote for The New Play Times in Fall 2007.   In the two years since then, I’m proud to say that many of our Interplay readings have gone on to productions around the country - most recently, Lisa Dillman’s Ground has been selected to appear at the prestigious Humana Festival of New American Plays this spring.  And as we get ready for our next reading on Monday, Katori Hall’s Saturday Night/Sunday Morning, I’m reminded again of how important Interplay is.

Read my full article for more of my thoughts on the struggle for and importance of new work.  And I hope you’ll join us for an Interplay reading this season.  I’d love to see you there.

More anon,

Beej

from BJ Jones

It’s the week after the opening of Souvenir and our audiences and the critics appear to be most pleased.  It’s funny, charming and surprisingly moving, but what appears to fascinate our audience the most is that it is about a real person.

Over the years, work that reflects our human condition seems to resonate quite strongly.  Character driven, and quirky plays and musicals like last season’s Grey Gardens, or Side Show, the musical about the conjoined twins, always strike a chord with our subscribers and it’s one of the reasons I look for these interesting pieces when considering our upcoming seasons.

I like to find work that shakes up our perceptions of social and political issues, like Permanent Collection, Gee’s Bend, or Ground, a play that we commissioned and will premier at the Humana Festival this year in Louisville.

I mention this now, as I am in process of choosing next season and often I am asked by subscribers how I choose our seasons and how far in advance we work on it.  I tell them we are always looking for work that they will respond to.  We have had the rights to Souvenir for two seasons but we found other plays that felt more appropriate and timely, so we did those first. READ MORE

from BJ Jones

Larry Gelbart passed away on September 11, 2009.  He was a friend of mine and all here at Northlight, and was the author of the semi-autobiographical play Better Late, which he penned with the help of Craig Wright (and which went on to become the highest grossing play in Northlight’s history).

I’ve been thinking about Larry since he passed away.   I spoke with him last on the 4th of July weekend after reading in the NY Times of a famous actress who wanted someone to write a play for her.   She was notoriously outrageous and when I mentioned contacting her and writing a play for her, he said he would think about it.   “She’s quite a handful, you know, Beej.”   I said that I knew that, and told him handling handfuls was my specialty, and he laughed at that.

I asked him how he was and he said getting old was hard.   I thought there was something in the comment but I didn’t want to press further.   We chatted a bit, he inquired after my wife Candy and all here at Northlight.   We closed on a quip - he was the quickest witted man I know and even at 81, he always left you on a laugh.   I told him I missed him and he returned the compliment. READ MORE

from BJ Jones, Artistic Director

As the summer draws to a close, I have been lucky enough to travel a bit to see some wonderful theatre.  The question that has arisen about theatre since the nadir of the recession in February and March has been, “why theatre, why now?”  My evenings in the cooled air of these summer evenings have provided me the answer.  Theatre is inevitable, indomitable, and a collective comfort through communal celebration of our humanity.

A wonderful weekend at American Players Theatre (in Spring Green, Wisconsin) went from a production of Comedy of Errors which was not only funny but surprisingly touching, to a terrific ensemble all pulling double and triple duty in a lean and efficient Henry V. I was taken by the sense of propriety their audience has for their beautiful theatre.  Climbing the hill, they know the plays, they treasure the players, they cherish the ritual of the journey to this charming theatre in the woods.

At the Guthrie (in Minneapolis), an ensemble of veterans who worked with the great Tyrone Guthrie when he began the theatre expertly and effortlessly refreshed a near forgotten JB Priestly play, When We Are Married, and connected with a full house of Guthrie regulars.  The Guthrie has, for decades, re-awakened work that, through rich language and stunning imagery reminds us of our resiliency as a people and our common journey.  Those actors, whose careers have been fostered by and intertwined with the Guthrie, have built a relationship with that audience that makes the evening more profound and powerful by the accumulation of time. READ MORE

from BJ Jones, Artistic Director

It’s high summer here at Northlight.  And even though it feels a bit like Fall, it puts us in mind of the spectacular 35th Anniversary season which will soon be here.

So often people ask me what we do in the off-season here at Northlight.  The answer is, there is no off-season here at Northlight!  There are shows to be cast, production meetings to be scheduled and attended, budgets to be readied, a full camp full of students (2 sessions!) and plays to be read.

I just got back from New York and the opening night of Judith Ivey’s production of Vanities at Second Stage.  The performances were wonderful and Judy’s directorial work was heartfelt and dynamic.  It was an honor to be her guest and exciting to attend a New York opening.  Lauren Kennedy, the star of our production of The Last Five Years, is in the cast and as always is a superb performer with astonishing talent  -  it was great to see her again.

On Monday I had our first production meeting with the designers of The Lady with All the Answers production that we will open in October at Cherry Lane in New York.  Broadway designers Neil Patel and Martin Paklidinez are brilliant and will give us a whole new look to this production.

This week we head to Nantucket with Judy as she reprises her role as Ann Landers for a benefit performance.  She and her husband Tim Braine have a summer home there and are generously donating her performance for one night to benefit some of the island’s charities.  It will be a great warm-up for Cherry Lane in October.  I hope those of you who can will join us in NYC for the production in the Fall.   I will send pictures for all you blogger types! READ MORE

from BJ Jones, Artistic Director

The closing of The Lieutenant of Inishmore has left all of us here a little melancholy. It was a very gutsy choice for us to produce and of course we have heard a lot of feedback from many of you. Some felt it was not their favorite Northlight offering, though it was, however, others’ personal favorite and many wrote and called us to tell us to keep pushing the envelope. I would have to say personally that I received an equal number of pro and con responses to the show,  and that pleases me more than I can say. The real thrill for all of us though, is that so many of you felt compelled to connect with us and tell us how you felt.

Communicating with a theatre that you subscribe to bespeaks a kind of relationship that drills to the core of our mission. Whether you appreciated what we were doing with Lieutenant or not, you cared enough to get in touch, and that is profound.

To all those who got behind the choice we say thank you for your support and for enjoying the ride as much as we did. Our staff had more fun producing this than we can tell you, and believe me, 288 gallons of blood and over 200 loads of laundry later, that is saying something. The cast had so much fun and for those of you who joined in their joy, we say thanks!

To those who didn’t enjoy the ride, we are also grateful for your understanding that theatrical tastes are broad and diverse. Many told us they were mystified by the standing ovations or the laughs from others in the audience. “That’s what makes a horse race”, as they say.

To all of you, I say thank you for a great season. It was for me a particularly gratifying year and it provided me with two of my most cherished directing assignments, Grey Gardens and The Lieutenant of Inishmore - I cannot think of working on two more diverse works in one season.

Next year we celebrate 35 years. Not many theatres can claim that achievement. And we got here through your support, for which we are profoundly grateful.

In the years to come, you will all recall The Lieutenant of Inishmore, whether you enjoyed it or not, and that is what makes coming to Northlight a special experience. I feel fairly certain that none of you slept through it, and I know most of you have never seen anything like it before. We are proud of that. And we are proud of you for going the distance.

See you at The Marvelous Wonderettes.

from BJ Jones

Opening nights are always fraught. The critics are coldly professional and involved in their jobs assessing the work, the audience is overreacting and the adrenaline factor is incredibly high, threatening to tear the delicate fabric of the work.

We’ve had two sort of opening nights with a full house on Wednesday of students and twenty-somethings who loved the play and knew it by reputation. It was like a rock concert with screams of laughter and shrieks louder than anything I have ever heard in our theatre.

Last night, the official opening, was more subdued. The audience got completely involved in the story of the play, laughed uproariously when it was appropriate and listened intently when the story and characters unfolded. One of my favorite moments is the quiet little love scene among all the carnage. And shortly there after, the strange sad rendition of “The Patriot Game” filled with disappointment and loss, sung by Mairead. Haunting and heartbreaking, the end of the play asks that we feel these emotions along with her.  I know some in our audience are turned off by the pyrotechnics of the play, but that is the key - it is a play, and it is only foam rubber and corn syrup.

As my friend and frequent Northlight performer Patrick Clear wrote me this morning, “I honestly can’t remember the last time I came out of a theatre feeling so totally jazzed. Like stepping off a roller coaster, part of me was thinking “Wow, I can breathe again,” and another part is thinking, “I can’t wait to do it again.”

I am so proud of our cast, crew, creative team and our Board, who have supported what is a real risk for a mainstream theatre like Northlight with a largely suburban audience.

I hope you can join us for the wild ride.  We’ve been Jeff-recommended!

from BJ Jones, Director

Last night was the final dress rehearsal for The Lieutenant of Inishmore.   We had over 100 people in the audience -  students and board members, as well as interested friends and family filling out the seats while  photographer Michael Brosilow shot the rehearsal for production photos.

The reaction was wonderful, the play revealed itself in important ways and the audience reacted better than we imagined.  The laughs came easily, the stunned silences were gratifying and we had one of the more remarkable dress rehearsals I can remember, given all the technical challenges we are employing.   In all I am thrilled and excited to get the real audience in to see the work.

The Lieutenant of Inishmore is a play about the folly of resentment, mindless violence, political folly, and misguided principals.  It takes the form of a black farce, stylistically shaped to mimic an old-fashioned Western, or more recently, a Quentin Tarantino film.  Blood sprays, TVs explode, characters insult each other with blunt abandon and it is a festival of extremes and comic irony. It is wildly funny, as audiences everywhere can attest to, and as our audience has come to expect from Martin McDonagh –  it is the third of his plays I have directed here (A Skull in Connemara, The Cripple of Inishmaan).   But this play not only pushes the envelope, it shreds it.

READ MORE

from BJ Jones, Director

After a wonderful week of hard work by our diligent cast, we got through the play, blocking and marking out how the physical flow of the play’s journey should go with our set as an environment. This is a fairly aggressive approach, as we attacked these tasks first, given what the play’s physical demands are. Fortunately, the cast came in to rehearsals largely off-book (lines memorized), so that we could move ahead to take on the physical demands first.

Cast at the first read-through of the play

For a few hours at the end of last week and all of Monday, we brought in Nick Sandys, our fight director, to deal with the violence of the play. Nick teaches all of our actors to execute the moves safely and with a sense of reality. We walked through the play as blocked and he added all the fight moves that are required, as well as addressing the gunplay which needs to be safe and specific. The actors were wonderful, picking up the intricacies of the moves quickly, and eager to take on the tasks.

Nick was great at sensing the comedic nature of the violence, and working with me to find the proper balance of gravity and looniness. We seem to be moving in the right direction!

This week we will plunge further into the play’s nuances and refine the scenes, and by the end of the week we will start to do some run thrus.

The Lieutenant of Inishmore is just too much fun to work on, and I am lucky to have such a talented team to take on a rather daunting piece with such challenging physical demands.