“In love you either sink or swim”

The Seeing Place Theater, known for intense & intimate ensemble work, presents Bob Glaudini’s touching and warmhearted play, JACK GOES BOATING. This play is a part of “The Empathy Initiative,” The Seeing Place’s year-long commitment to addressing oppression through the power of theater.

In JACK GOES BOATING, four flawed but likeable lower-middle-class New Yorkers interact in a touching play about learning how to stay afloat in the deep water of day-to-day living. Laced with cooking classes, swimming lessons, and a smorgasbord of illegal drugs, is a story of date panic, marital meltdown, and the prevailing grace of the human spirit.

“This play addresses one of the most insidious types of oppression – the judgment and loathing we have for ourselves when life isn’t turning out the way we want it to,” says director Erin Cronican. “If we can find a way to forgive ourselves, what might be possible in our forgiveness of others? It’s this message that we hope to share with JACK GOES BOATING, and we hope that audiences will walk away with a deeper commitment to look at their own self-sabotage.”

With an emphasis on the organic, edgy American style of acting developed by the Group Theatre, TSP allows audiences to experience modern classics with deeper understanding of how they relate to the struggles we face today. With that, tickets are as low as $15 as a part of TSP’s Affordable Theater Initiative, making theater accessible for all.

First Performance: Saturday, November 4, 2017 (8pm)
The Seeing Place @ the Paradise Factory
64 East 4th Street, NYC

Running time: 100 minutes, plus a 15 minute intermission

JACK GOES BOATING plays November 4-19, 2017 (see website for full schedule)
General Admission tickets are $15 and can be purchased at www.theseeingplace.com

Cast/Creative Team for JACK GOES BOATING:

Cast: Erin Cronican (Connie), Marc Randolph Henry (Clyde), Candice Oden (Lucy), Brandon Walker (Jack). Understudies: Juan Cardenes, Clinton Powell.

Creative Team: Directed by Erin Cronican. Lighting Design by Duane Pagano. Sound Design by Brandon Walker. Set/Costume Design by Erin Cronican. Stage Management by Clinton Powell.

About The Play:

In Jack Goes Boating, Jack is a shy and awkward man who drives a limo and lives an unassuming life. His friend and co-worker, Clyde, and his wife Lucy, feel sorry for Jack and set him up on a blind date with Connie. Connie shares Jack’s shyness and awkwardness, but through each other they seem to be able to find solace within themselves. Trouble might be brewing in paradise though, as Clyde and Lucy’s marriage stumbles just as Jack and Connie’s relationship grows.

About the playwright, Bob Glaudini:

Bob Glaudini has written plays that include On Borrowed Time and Against the Sun (Theater Genesis) and The Claiming Race, Sickness of Youth, and The Poison Tree (presented in Los Angeles’ Mark Taper Forum’s New Works Festival, The Poison Tree went on to be produced on the Taper main stage). He is a member of The LABryinth Theater Company, which produced his play Dutch Heart of Man at New York’s The Public Theater, and soon followed it at The Public with productions of Jack Goes Boating and A View from 151st Street both directed by Peter DuBois. The Identical Same Temptation and The Claiming Race were produced at New York’s Theater for the New City. He wrote the script for the film Jack Goes Boating (directed by Philip Seymour Hoffman), which was released in 2010. Mr. Glaudini also directed the world premiere of Sam Shepard’s Mad Dog Blues at Theater Genesis, and the premiere of Cowboy Mouth written by Mr. Shepard and Patti Smith at The American Place Theatre.

About The Seeing Place:

“The Seeing Place” is the literal translation of the Greek word theatron: “…the place where we go to understand ourselves.” The Seeing Place Ensemble is an actor-driven company: built by actors and managed by actors to be a base for actors who want to grow & hone their craft in a creative and supportive artistic home. TSP is forcefully committed to four key elements of theatre-making: developing highly trained actors into thriving self-producers; honoring the craft of the acting process through rehearsal and into performance thereby bringing organic, “fully lived” storytelling to our community; presenting compelling works by master playwrights that reflect the struggles and triumphs of our current society; and making theater accessible for all New Yorkers by keeping ticket prices low and affordable.

Our 8th Season includes Main Stage productions of: CLOUD 9 by classic feminist playwright Caryl Churchill – running June 30-July 16, 2017 at the Access Theater; JACK GOES BOATING, a NY Times Critics Pick by Bob Glaudini, running in November 2017; and two other plays being produced in rotating repertory in spring 2018. Our TSP Unplugged Series gives patrons an exciting and exclusive look behind the scenes at The Seeing Place, and includes an opportunity to participate with our artists in exploring three important texts of our time: OUR COUNTRY’S GOOD by Timberlake Wertenbaker, originally performed at The Royal Court Theatre in London in 1988 to critical acclaim; THE HAIRY APE by Nobel Prize winning playwright Eugene O’Neill; and SPIN CYCLE, a world premiere by NYC playwright and lyricist, Cornelia Ravenal.

The Seeing Place Theater website: www.seeingplacetheater.com

Two couples battling through life in New York City take center stage in Jack Goes Boating, written by Bob Glaudini and presented by The Seeing Place Theater and director Erin Cronican. The charming script has many juicy acting opportunities, though the somewhat unkempt production does leave many unrealized. Still, the work has some genuinely charged partnering moments. The play follows Clyde and Lucy, a marriage going through a rough patch, and Connie and Jack, an emerging romance. We watch them struggle to make ends meet and establish a sense of self in this crazy world. There is real depth and texture to their lives; it is a play that is all about the one-on-one scenes and the performers delivering something. In addition to directly, Erin Cronican also performs as Connie, and the development of her relationship with Jack, played by Brandon Walker, has clear movement. They are both clearly passionate performers. At times, the space was utilized well. The performance area had a great deal of width, and there were moments when that width became effective, and the dynamic between the two performers turned the stage into a veritable court of play. Scenes were like a tennis match; you …Read more