Taking a Blood Bath: GCI’s Improvised Slasher

  First Blood It all started in May of 2007. For our final show of the season, Geva Comedy Improv was performing an improvised Western and GCI alum Josh Rice happened to be in town, so we invited him to perform with us as an “everybody else” character (more on that later). The night of …

Stir Up the Hornets’ Nest on Nov. 10

DIVE INTO THE HORNETS’ NEST AT GEVA THEATRE CENTER Geva’s nationally recognized program of thought-provoking theatre begins Monday, November 10. Few experiences can ignite a great conversation like a thrilling night in the theatre. The Hornets’ Nest series has theatre-goers itching for that conversation. The Hornets’ Nest series of script-in-hand readings with professional actors and …

Meet the Playwright: Maria Brandt #FONT

What is it like to live the life of a writer? They lead what some would call a double life. Ordinary, everyday citizen by day, writer by whatever spare time they have left. In fact, many have very successful careers outside of their writing. Take Maria Brandt, for example. Not only is one of her scripts …

Meet the Playwright: Christina Gorman #FONT

On October 29th, Geva’s Fesitval of New Theatre (FONT) will present Christina Gorman’s Far From the Trees in a one-night-only staged reading. In the play, an Oregon widower spends his days unearthing the forest of petrified trees he’s discovered on his land.  When his nephew is expelled from graduate school for “academic sabotage,” the university …

Getting to Know the Playwright: An Interview with Victor Lesniewski

Victor Lesniewski(Photo: Joshua Bright, The New York Times)Have you ever wondered what it’s like to write a play? For most of us, the mere idea is daunting enough. Let’s face it, many of us, myself included, found it tough to write papers for school, much less write an entire play! Believe it or not, there …

Happy Whitman Wednesday!

You’ve heard of Throwback Thursday… You’ve heard of Follow Friday… Now it’s time for something even better… Whitman Wednesday! In honor of Walt Whitman, the “poet of the people” whose writing serves as the basis for I and You, Lauren Gunderson’s play currently running in the Nextstage here at Geva, the literary department decrees today …

Introducing… Lauren Gunderson #new=classic

While working yesterday morning on the lobby display* for Informed Consent, I ducked into the Nextstage. It’s abuzz in there as they finish loading in the set for our next show, Lauren Gunderson’s  I and You. The space is being transformed into a teenager’s bedroom, a striking difference from the sparse grown-up’s sandbox of Stranded …

“the great sweeps of what it means to be human”

Art is central to Alexa’s story in Stranded on Earth. What is sacrificed for art and, conversely, what art is often sacrificed for; the creation of art and it’s sustaining properties for us during our lightest and darkest times; its ability to speak for our often inarticulate natures and to fuse those disparate strands which sometimes barely …

What’s Playing the Role of Sand in Stranded on Earth?

My two least favorite things to see on stage are glitter and sand. Sure, they might look great. Maybe they really serve the story. But I know from personal experience that every time glitter or sand appears on stage, that means some poor stagehand is going to be sweeping, vacuuming, and mopping that stuff up …

Little Honeymoons

Anyone who has ever worked on a play, at some point or another, figures out how that play applies to them directly, how it somehow mirrors their own life.  You don’t need to be Romeo or Juliet in order to know what it feels like to be young and in love – you, no doubt, …