As a professional
theater without a stage of its own, the Jacksonville Stage Company
has moved from Arlington to downtown and now Riverside. But it's
staying put there for at least the next year.
And it's bringing in a director from New York to oversee its
latest production, the hit off-Broadway musical revue, I Love
You, You're Perfect, Now Change.
Last March, the Stage Company settled into a temporary home at
the Church of the Good Shepherd, 1100 Stockton St. Its latest show,
a series of comic scenes and songs about dating, marriage and
relationships, runs July 25 to Aug. 4.
I Love You's director, Rob Roznowski, appeared in the
original productions. He attended graduate school at Ohio State
University with Deborah Jordan, the Stage Company's artistic
director.
Jordan, a drama professor at Jacksonville University, said the
company is slowly getting established in the community.
"It's an educational process letting people know that we are a
professional company and not a community theater," she said. "It's
not only that we pay our actors, but we expect artistic excellence.
There isn't a show that we've done since wed that hasn't
gotten wonderful reviews by the people who come to see us.
Sometimes, technologically, we've had to cut corners because we
don't have the financial backing, but we don't sacrifice the
acting."
The company's first show was the Tony-winning Art, a comic
drama about the furor that erupts among three friends when one
spends $200,000 on a painting of white stripes on a white
background. It was staged in the summer of 2000 at JU's Swisher
Theater.
The company staged a couple of shows at another venue, the
Florida Theater, but was unable to attract a big enough audience to
pay for the productions. It then entered into an arrangement with
the River City Band to co-occupy historic Snyder Memorial downtown.
But the former church is being renovated, and the company again has
had to pull up roots until it's finished.
Jordan, who co-founded the company with Executive Director Bob
Pritchard, said the theater specializes in artistically ambitious
shows.
"We do more cutting edge shows that are controversial and newer,
topical plays," she said, citing the two-character sexual harassment
drama, Oleanna, as an example.
I Love You should have broad appeal, she said, because the
first part deals with dating, meeting parents and the wedding while
the second part deals with love after marriage, children and
widowhood.
The company received a grant this year from the Cultural Council
of Greater Jacksonville. Its season ends in November with the
production of Side Man, a drama about jazz musicians.
In addition to its regular season repertoire, the company does an
informal readers theater usually at 8 p.m. the first Friday of each
month. The cast does a few rehearsals and then brings it to the
audience, which is sitting in armchairs in Good Shepherd's Craig
Hall. The fare, which attracts about 50 patrons, has included
Driving Miss Daisy, Lion in Winter and Death of a
Salesman. Desserts and coffee are available.
Curtain for I Love You, which is co-sponsored by the
Haskell Company, is 8 p.m. July 25 to 27 and Aug. 1 to 3 and 2 p.m.
July 28 and Aug. 4. Tickets are $20. The cast consists of Gloria
Miller, Jack Bennett, Kathleen Johnston and David Kracke, who each
play 15 different characters of widely varying ages. For
information, call 350-1126.
Staff writer Sandy Strickland can be reached at 359-4128 or
via e-mail at sstrickland.
