Extant Arts Company (Greg Taubman, Artistic Director) opens its season with a revival of Rebecca Gilman's melancholy romance Blue Surge January 21 through February 7, 2010 at The Wild Project (195 East 3rd Street).
Set in the Midwest, Blue Surge offers a provocative take on class differences and gender dynamics. Curt, an honorable small-town cop, and his partner Doug lead a botched raid on an illegal massage parlor, and find themselves drawn to the two young hookers they meet there -- Sandy and Heather. While Doug pursues a relationship with Heather, Curt attempts to save 19-year-old Sandy from prostitution. His actions threaten his job and his engagement to upper-class artist Beth. Blue Surge beautifully captures the fine line between hope and hopelessness.
Blue Surge premiered in 2001 at the Goodman Theatre before its 2002 New York debut at the Public Theater. Ben Brantley of the New York Times observed, "Ms. Gilman has the undeniable virtue of focusing with lucidity and evenhandedness on subjects that are more often sensationalized in the popular arts" while Peter Rainer of New York Metro called the play "shatteringly beautiful."
Rebecca Gilman is the author of Spinning into Butter, Boy Gets Girl, The American in Me, and The Glory of Living. She is the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship, the Prince Prize for Commissioning New Work, the Roger L. Stevens Award from the Kennedy Center Fund for New American Plays, the Evening Standard Award for Most Promising Playwright, and the George Devine Award. Gilman was named a finalist for the 2001 Pulitzer Prize for her play The Glory of Living, which received the American Theatre Critics Association's Osborn Award, a Joseph Jefferson Citation, and an After Dark Award for New Work.
Directed by Kat Vecchio, Blue Surge features a cast that includes Pete Caslavka, Bridget Durkin, Louise Flory, Justin Gallo, and Lauren Nordvig. The production team includes Meagan Miller-McKeever (set design), Nina Lourie (costume design), Brian Tovar (lighting design), Joe Mihalchick (Fight Director) and Gina Costagliola (stage manager).
Performances of Blue Surge run January 21 through February 7, 2010, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday at 8:00 pm, Saturday at 2:00 pm and 8:00 pm and Sunday at 3:00 pm, at The Wild Project (195 East 3rd Street, between 1st Ave. and Ave. A, Subway: F/V to 2nd Ave.). Tickets are $25 ($20 students) at http://www.smarttix.com or (212) 868-4444. The running time is 2 hours, including one intermission.
Extant Arts Company was founded in New York city in 2007, and has produced Mixed Doubles and La Ronde (Roy Arias Studios), Helen (Producer's Club), A Christmas Carol (touring), Three Sisters (Algonquin Theater), Midsummer Night's Dream, The Tempest, Love's Labour's Lost, and Macbeth (Mineral Springs); workshops of Progeny, g, and Paper Dolls (Wild Project). In addition to its productions, Extant Arts Company pursues its mission through the creation and instruction of Drama Enrichment programs in NYC's Uncommon Schools charter network. Believing that stories are the organizing principle of the human experience, Extant Arts Company endeavors to identify and present those that are enduring, immediate and vital. Extant reinterprets the classics through live performance, and fosters the classics of the future through adaptations, new play development and educational outreach. By connecting greater New York to the rest of the world, Extant strives to create a diverse community dedicated to sustaining stories. www.ExtantArts.org
