Dear Friends,

I thought things would be quiet once Once on this Island was cast (by the way, the cast is fantastic), but I was sorely mistaken! So much to do! We're still talking to a few new team members and making arrangements for our first meeting, and ticketing! A whole new ticketing system! So, that's pretty exciting.

For our past three productions, we've worked with the Box Office staff at the Arsenal Center for the Arts/New Rep, which has been really great. Honestly, they're such great folks, and you couldn't ask for more conscientious and thoughtful customer service. However, the unfortunate truth is that their ticketing system is expensive to run; so, that's forced us to make a change for this season. Our new Box Office services provider is Brown Paper Tickets, which is a relatively new-to-the-scene player in the ticketing industry, but their business model is fantastic. They're calling themselves the "Fair Trade" ticketing company, and part of their profits go towards various causes and charities (you get to pick which when you purchase your tickets). So, this is very exciting to us as it's another way for us to fulfill our mission of reaching out to other communities and supporting them.

In addition, changing ticketing providers "de-couples" us from New Rep and the Arsenal Center, and opens up the possibility that we might be able to perform in other venues in the future. Not that we don't love New Rep and the ACA, but unfortunately a lot of people tend to get us confused. This will help clear that up. For example, we often hear of people talking about Hedwig and the Angry Inch at the "New Rep" - which is very confusing, since New Rep is a theater company, not a venue, and wasn't actually directly involved in the show. (If you're reading this, I'm assuming you already know that we're Blue Spruce Theatre, and not New Rep, nor the Arsenal Center. If this is all still confusing, This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it and I'll help straighten it out.)

In other news, the cast for Once on this Island is fantastic! (Did I already mention that?) We've listed everyone on the front page of the website, so I won't bother listing them again here. In the future I will probably reserve blog entries for more thoughtful, reflective notes, rather than press releases and so forth. I'm hoping to start posting some fun production photos and stuff as well.

I've tried on several occasions to install the ability to leave comments on blog entries; I may be upgrading the website in the near future which will allow you to leave feedback. Until then, if you do want to say something, I'd love to hear your thoughts on what you might want me to write about, or who else you might want to hear from in the future; so for the moment, please just email me and let me know your thoughts.

Meantime, none of us can wait to get started on the show, but we'll just have to enjoy the summer first! What a shame.

All the best,
Jesse Strachman

Dear friends,

Wow, last night was a lot of fun! The IRNE (Independent Reviewers of New England) Award ceremony was last night, and Blue Spruce was in attendance to cheer Danny Bryck on for his nomination for Best Actor in a Musical (Small Theater).

A good portion of the Hedwig team was able to reconnect and hang out, and we all got to cheer on our (other) favorites in the New England theater scene. I was particularly glad to see that some relatively far-flung theaters had been recognized. The IRNE folks do tend to gravitate primarily to groups in the Boston area, but there were many nominations for a group in Connecticut (Hartford Stage), and another nomination for a notable production company up in Maine (Ogunquit). It's exciting to see that vibrant theater is still alive and kicking far outside the urban centers of New England.

So, we didn't win the award, but we were thrilled to be there and be part of the celebration of area theater companies. Onward and upward, and looking forward to 2010! Auditions for Once on this Island are filling up!

Best,
Jesse Strachman

Dear friends,

As most of you have probably already noticed (it's right on the front page of the website), we're holding auditions for our next production, Once on this Island. What a fantastic show this is. If you don't already know, it's a story of love, loss, divine intervention, culture, dance, and ultimately, a story about stories. It's a fascinating blend of Calypso and Broadway Pop with lots of great opportunities for performers of all types. It's also going to be our most challenging show to date; with a cast of roughly 11 (and those of you who know how small the Arsenal Center Black Box is know how interesting that's going to be), and very a challenging costuming concept (I don't want to give it away just yet), this is a stretch for any small theater company.

So, we're really excited to be taking our company to the next level in terms of bringing in larger numbers of people. That being said, right now Blue Spruce Theatre is made up of a very small core group of brilliant individuals, but we're going to need a lot more hands involved in this production than we have had in the past. So, if you are interested in volunteering, please This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it and we will almost certainly find something with which you can help.

So far, we're about 1/3 full for the audition signups; we still have a month to go, so I would expect that we are going to be full up by the time we get to May. So, please sign up early!

In other news, we had a bit of flooding in our storage space (yes, it's my basement) and we thought that we had lost the PA system that we used for last season's Hedwig and the Angry Inch. After a couple of weeks, we let everything dry out, and even though the PA system had been under about 4 inches of water, it seems to be working fine! So, that's a bit of a miracle. Perhaps it has something to do with the gods? Hmmmm....

Anyway, I'd like to thank you all for reading, and be sure to keep in touch. We're now a bit more actively promoting activities on Facebook and Twitter, so you can find us there if you'd like.

All the best,
Jesse Strachman

Hi all,

Just a quick note to let you know about two very exciting upcoming events for Blue Spruce! First, this Monday, March 22, Blue Spruce Theatre joins the rest of the Boston Theater Community in presenting "Let's Duet for Haiti" at the Boston Center for the Arts, Calderwood Pavilion. Tickets are $29 (includes fees) and $25 is tax-deductible (to extent allowed by law - our lawyers made us put that). The list of performers is mind-boggling; if you miss this, you have missed the Boston event of a lifetime. Unless we do something similar next year. I don't know. But it's a can't-miss event, and we're co-sponsoring it, so we're psyched and it's for a great cause; all the proceeds (the $25 per ticket) go directly to Doctors Without Borders, which is providing essential and timely emergency services even now in Haiti as we speak.

So, be there. This Monday night at the BCA. Click the logo for tickets.

And in other news, if you haven't noticed on the front page of our website recently, Blue Spruce Theatre garnered its first IRNE nomination ever: Danny Bryck was nominated as Best Actor in a Musical (Small Theatre) for Hedwig and the Angry Inch! We're all proud of Danny and will be cheering for him at the IRNE Awards ceremony, Monday, April 19, 2010, at the Boston Center for the Arts Cyclorama.

More to come soon! Big announcements after the Duet event. Please join us!

Best regards,
Jesse Strachman

Hi everyone,

First, I'd like to apologize for the long hiatus the Blue Spruce Blog has taken. Hedwig and the Angry Inch, our November 2009 production, was such a challenge to us, and to me personally, that it was all I could do to keep the website barely up to date. However, this year we hope to have a number of new faces joining the Blue Spruce team, and hopefully this will allow us to better keep in touch with our (growing!) fanbase.

Speaking of fanbase, if you haven't already done so, and you happen to be on Facebook, become a fan of Blue Spruce Theatre to stay abreast of all the news, or you can always join our mailing list by simply sending a note to This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it and requesting to be added. Our mailing list is manually maintained; if you want to leave at any time, just send us a note and we'll remove you right away. You can also follow us on Twitter !

Speaking of news, we're on the verge of making the final arrangements for our 2010 production. If you've been following us, you already know that we only do one show per “season.” This is so we can focus on trying to bring you the best black box musical theater in the area. All of the rest of the time is spent planning and raising money for the production.

Like most arts organizations, audience ticket sales only accounts for about one half of our operating costs. The other half has to come from private funding, or your donations. We're working on going 501(c)3 so we can start applying for grants, but until then we still need your help any way we can so that we can keep a good thing going. If you can spare a few dollars, you can make an easy, tax-deductible donation online (full details here – donations deductible to the extent allowed by law). We also need volunteers to help with all aspects of our next production.

Which brings me to the most interesting and mysterious portion of this blog update; what exactly is our next show going to be?

I'll be announcing that in our next blog update. Stay tuned! The announcement will come late-mid-next week, or possibly earlier. (That's an in-joke to you Hedwig fans out there.)

Thanks as always for your continued support,

Jesse Strachman
Producing Artistic Director
Blue Spruce Theatre

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Thursday, July 09, 2009
Media Contact: Jesse Strachman
Press: 978-667-0512
Box Office: 617-923-8487
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http://www.bluesprucetheatre.org

(WATERTOWN, MA)

Blue Spruce Theatre Presents:

Hedwig and the Angry Inch
Text by John Cameron Mitchell
Music and Lyrics by Stephen Trask
Directed by Kevin Mark Kline

November 12-22, 2009
Arsenal Center for the Arts
Black Box
321 Arsenal Street
Watertown, MA 02472