  
InterAct's WHEN WE GO UPON THE SEA
Moves to Off-Broadway in June 2010!
Find out more about its limited run in New York Here!
ABOUT THE PLAY
 Commissioned by InterAct in 2008 through its 20/20
New Play Commission program, WHEN WE GO UPON THE SEA is a provocative new play by Tony Award nominated playwright Lee Blessing, author of A WALK IN THE WOODS, WHORES, and GOING TO ST. IVES. Set in a high-end hotel room at The Hague, WHEN WE GO UPON THE SEA imagines former President George W. Bush on the eve of his trial for international war crimes. Tended to by an inscrutable Dutch butler and an alluring masseuse, the President embarks on a long night of drinking, joking, and ruminating, taking the audience through a deep exploration of how we regard our leaders - loving them, fearing them, unintentionally deifying them. WHEN WE GO UPON THE SEA examines an American populace that has grown strikingly complacent in the wake of extraordinary
global challenges, exposing one of the world’s most
intriguing and influential conflicts: the battle
between the elected leader of the free world and a
democracy of millions.
ON THE WEB & IN THE PRESS
InterAct's WHEN WE GO UPON THE SEA
Moves to Off-Broadway in June 2010!
Find out more about its move to New York Here!
The Philadelpha Inquirer:
 In this world-premiere production of Lee Blessing's When We Go Upon the Sea, commissioned by InterAct Theatre Company, George W. Bush ... will get his comeuppance and be exposed as the evildoer we knew he was all along. ... Wrong ... this isn't even really a drama about Bush, though it riffs on the former president's administration and personal history ... Instead, . ...
- which places the apostle Piet [(Peter Schmitz)] and his Mary Magdalen-like associate Anna-Lisa (Kim Carson) amid a metaphoric tide that rages and recedes according to George's humor. ... If [actor Conan] as a refugee seeking shelter from the global storm ...
Blessing (A Walk in the Woods, Thief River) raises more questions than he answers ... but that's OK. while our own shores are still relatively calm.
BroadStreetReview.com:
 Lee Blessing’s new play, When We Go Upon the Sea, imagines George W. Bush in a place liberals would love to see him: awaiting trial as a war criminal in The Hague. , Americans and Europeans alike.
... the true interest of the play lies in the subtly entwined strands of shared history and guilt ... ...
If Blessing’s mysterious hotel is to be regarded as the anteroom to judgment, then what it finally represents is the moral limbo we all inhabit, the impossibility of judgment itself. ...
Conan McCarty’s “George” is both a dead-on imitation and a satire of our 43rd president, although in the case of George W. Bush imitation and satire are almost indistinguishable. Peter Schmitz’s Piet, at once deadpan and provocative, makes a genuine character out of an enigmatic symbol, and Kim Carson is a businesslike temptress whose personal trauma is revealed only as a self-alienated, third-person soliloquy that makes her the most mysterious presence of all.
Between these slick European types, W.’s transparent foibles seem almost winning. He was, in retrospect, the perfect American dictator.
Director Paul Meshejian keeps the proceedings going as well as their static framework allows; set, lighting and sound all contribute to the ambivalent, subtly menacing mood the play evokes.
here, a play whose invitation to mock our last president lets none of us off the hook.
ABOUT INTERACT'S NEW PLAY COMMISSION PROGRAM
 Lee Blessing’s WHEN WE GO UPON THE SEA is the second play to come out of InterAct’s 20/20 New Play Commission program and receive a full production in InterAct’s main stage season. Established during InterAct’s 2007/2008 20th Anniversary season, the 20/20 New Play Commission program is an ambitious initiative with the goal of awarding twenty new play commissions over a period of six seasons to playwrights who are addressing the issues society will face over the next twenty years. The program was developed to support the creation of new work that fits into InterAct’s mission of producing plays that explore the social, political, and cultural issues of our time. Awards range from $2,500 developmental grants, which are given to works already in progress, to $5,000 - $10,000 new play commissions, which go to new, previously or substantially unwritten plays. In addition to WHEN WE GO UPON THE SEA, the 2008 recipients of a 20/20 New Play Commission included Michael Whistler for LITTLE LAMB, which was produced by InterAct last season; Tom Coash for VEILS; Eric Pfeffinger for SOME OTHER KIND OF PERSON; and Elaine Romero for THE DALAI LAMA ISN’T WELCOME HERE. The 2009 recipients were Kara Lee Corthron for an untitled new play; Frances Ya-Chu Cowhig for LIDLESS, who also won the 2009 Yale Drama Series award in playwriting; Peter Gil-Sheridan for RITU COMES HOME; and Sean Christopher Lewis for THE ROAD TO EDEN.
Click here to find out about supporting InterAct's 20/20 New Play Commission program.
ABOUT THE PLAYWRIGHT
is the author of two previous InterAct Theatre Company productions: WHORES and GOING TO ST. IVES. Broadway and London's West End: A WALK IN THE WOODS. Off-Broadway: A BODY OF WATER, GOING TO ST. IVES (Primary Stages), THIEF RIVER (Signature Theatre), CHESAPEAKE (New York Stage & Film at Second Stage), COBB (Lucille Lortel Theatre), DOWN THE ROAD (The Weissberger Group at Atlantic Theater), ELEEMOSYNARY (Manhattan Theatre Company), as well as the 1992-93 Signature Theatre season featuring FORTINBRAS, LAKE STREET EXTENSION, TWO ROOMS and the world premiere of PATIENT A. Recent regional premieres: HEAVEN'S MY DESTINATION (Cleveland Play House), GREAT FALLS (Humana New Play Festival of the Actors Theatre of Louisville), LONESOME HOLLOW, FLAG DAY and WHORES (Contemporary American Theatre Festival), and THE SCOTTISH PLAY (La Jolla Playhouse). Mr. Blessing's plays have received two awards and a citation from the Steinberg/American Theatre Critics Association as well as awards and nominations from the Outer Critics Circle, Drama Desk, OBIE, Lucille Lortel Awards, L.A. Drama Critics Circle, Humanitas, Drama-Logue, Tony, Pulitzer and Olivier Awards. His work has been premiered by the Yale Repertory Theater, The Guthrie Theater, the Old Globe Theatre, Arena Stage, Steppenwolf, the Alliance Theatre, Florida Stage and A Contemporary Theater in Seattle among many others. Film and television: Cooperstown (for TNT) and episodes for "Homicide: Life On The Street," "Picket Fences" and "Nothing Sacred". He's received grants from the NEA and the Guggenheim, Bush, McKnight and Jerome Foundations. Mr. Blessing heads the graduate playwriting program at Mason Gross School of the Arts, Rutgers University. He is married to playwright/TV writer Melanie Marnich.
Talking With... Lee Blessing
Read an interview with the playwright of WHEN WE GO UPON THE SEA
ABOUT THE DIRECTOR
is the Founding Artistic Director of PlayPenn, a national new play development conference located in Philadelphia, which recently concluded its fifth season. WHEN WE GO UPON THE SEA is Paul's third directorial effort for InterAct, having previously directed LAST OF THE BOYS and SINCE AFRICA. As an actor, Paul also appeared in InterAct's productions of HOUSE, DIVIDED, MASTERGATE and WHORES. Elsewhere, Paul directed Bill Corbett’s HECKLER for 1812 Productions, Russel Davis and Jon Held’s TALES OF LUNACY, at Touchstone Theatre and Nancy Bagshaw-Reasoner’s TOUGH LOVE at Cheltenham Theatre, and a number of short plays for People’s Light and Theatre where he has been a company member since 1989. In addition to performing for most of Philadelphia’s major theatres and nominated for numerous Barrymore Awards, he can also be seen on film in Equinox and Twelve Monkeys, and on television in "Homicide: Life on the Street" and "The Wire," among others. He is a member of the faculties at University of the Arts and Arcadia University. In the 1980’s he was the founding artistic director of Stage One: Collaboration, a professional theatre in Minneapolis/St. Paul devoted to new and rarely produced works. He has a long history of new play development work as both actor and director in his 14 year relationship with The Playwrights Center in Minneapolis. He serves on the Board of Directors of the International Institute for Theatre Research and is a member of LMDA, Literary Managers and Dramaturgs of the Americas.
ABOUT THE CAST
will be instantly recognizable to InterAct audiences as the soft-spoken yet unscrupulous movie director, Julius, in last season's JIHAD JONES & THE KALASHNIKOV BABES. Other recent credits include roles at Walnut Street Theatre (including HAIRSPRAY and LES MISERABLES), the Arden Theatre (THE DINOSAUR MUSICAL and WINESBURG, OHIO) and Act II Playhouse (ALMOST, MAINE). He has also worked at the Guthrie Theatre, the Minneapolis Children’s Theatre, and the Penumbra Theatre, the Yale Repertory Theatre, the Shakespeare Theatre in D.C., the Portland Stage Company in Maine, Studio Arena Theatre in Buffalo, and the Opera Theatre of St. Louis. In New York, he has played on Broadway (MY FAIR LADY), off-Broadway, and in off-off Broadway (Suzan-Lori Parks’ IMPERCEPTIBLE MUTABILITIES IN THE THIRD KINGDOM). Peter's on-camera credits include the Oscar-winning Coen Brothers’ movie Fargo.
makes here InterAct Theatre debut in WHEN WE GO UPON THE SEA, but many theatre goers will recognize her from the many roles she's played in the Philadelphia area. Most recently, she played Dorothy in THE WIZARD OF OZ at Media Theatre, as well as reprising her 2008 Barrymnore Award-winning role in Azuka's HEDWIG & THE ANGRY INCH. Other favorite credits include: GREY GARDENS at Philadelphia Theatre Co.; CINDERELLA and SIX SHARACTERS... at Peoples Light and Theatre Co.; and SIDE BY SIDE BY SONDHEIM at Walnut Street. She has also worked at Arden Theatre Co., New Jersey Rep, and Pennsylvania Shakespeare Festival.
The design team for WHEN WE GO UPON THE SEA includes Set Design by , Lighting Design by
, Costume Design by , Sound Design by and
Properties Design by Avista Custom Theatrical Services. will serve as Stage Manager, serves as Dramaturg and
as Technical Director.
EXPLORING THE ISSUES
During WHEN WE GO UPON THE SEA, InterAct will host several post-performance talk-backs to encourage further discussion on the issues it raises. Speaker Sundays, a series featuring invited scholars, community leaders and artists, are scheduled to follow matinee performances on:
Featuring
Featuring
Speaker T.B.A.
Following the 2nd and 3rd Tuesday and Wednesday performances of every production, we invite patrons to grab a brownie and a cup of joe, then join us for Coffee Converstaions, informal discussions with company artists. During WHEN WE GO UPON THE SEA, Coffee Converstaions are scheduled for Tuesday, April 20; Wednesday, April 21; Tuesday, April 27; and Wednesday, April 28.
Check back often for up-to-the-minute updates on featured speakers!
PRODUCTION SPONSOR
WHEN WE GO UPON THE SEA PERFORMANCE CALENDAR
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SUBSCRIPTIONS & TICKETS
Purchasing Tickets or Subscriptions:
215.568.8079
InterAct's Box Office at The Adrienne, 2030 Sansom St., Phila
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Lee Blessing (Playwright)
Paul Meshejian (Director)
