News Review
Jack Goes Boating Floats onto FCC Stage
A contemporary romantic comedy featuring lovable losers, that best describes the play, Jack Goes Boating, opening December 5 at Fresno City College.
Jack Goes Boating, by Bob Glaudini, will run December 5, 6, 10, 11, 12, and 13 at 7:30 p.m. with matinees on December 6, 7, and 13 at 2 p.m. The December 7 matinee show is a scholarship benefit performance. All performances will be held in the FCC Theatre Studio 105.
General admission is $12 and Students/Seniors $10. Group rates are also available. Call the FCC Theatre Box Office at 442-8221 for ticket information.
According to director Chuck Erven, the plot is a relationship story between two socially inept people who have been set up by friends, a married couple. In the course of the play you have Jack, a pothead, who at first experiences some date panic but learns a lot of different things in order to get to the relationship to work. Erven says the married couple’s relationship is also explored. “It’s ultimately about taking a chance, getting over your fears and opening yourself up,” he said.
Erven says the play has a contemporary feel to it and is very funny, but at the same time it’s a little sad. He’s sure audiences who have connected with other quirky contemporary comedies in recent years (Little Miss Sunshine, Seinfeld) will connect with the four flawed but “absolutely sympathetic and lovable" characters. Despite their drug use and use of strong language, he says “They are loveable losers who have a good moral core. They are really good sweet people.”
Jack Goes Boating was first produced off-Broadway by the LAByrinth Theater Company in New York. Its world premiere was in March 2007 and featured Academy Award-winning actor Philip Seymour Hoffman. Hoffman will direct and star in the movie version tentatively scheduled for release in 2011. The play is now being produced in a variety of places and Erven says audiences can expect to see more productions. “It’s one of those small simmering productions that you’ll see more and more of over the coming years,” he noted.
Jack Goes Boating Cast List
Magnus Chhan Jack
Nick Haas. . Clyde
Sydney Mason Connie
Danielle Cash Lucy
Jon Hollis Understudy: Clyde