Blogging Breaking Ground: Day Four - Six Degrees of Breaking Ground

Hi all--

We are in full-swing here at Breaking Ground 2008. As I type, both Ken Urban's SENSE OF AN ENDING and Mat Smart's THOMAS REPAIR are in rehearsal, with both casts hoping to catch a simultaneous break to see friends in the other room. The world of the theatre is very small. Let me illustrate for you...

• Ken Urban is a current Huntington Playwriting Fellow (HPF) and has been working on SENSE OF AN ENDING in HPF group meetings, which include fellow Fellow Jacqui Parker, who is playing Sister Justina in the reading of his play this evening.
• Jacqui was in the HTC production of BREATH, BOOM, directed by Michael John Garcés, with her fellow SENSE cast member Chinasa Ogbuagu.
• Chinasa and Jacqui were joined in that 2003 production of Kia Corthron's play about a Bronx girl gang by Zabryna Guevara, who will be reading the role of Sam in Mat Smart's THOMAS REPAIR tomorrow afternoon.
• Zabryna appeared in HTC's 2006 production of LOVE'S LABOUR'S LOST with fellow THOMAS REPAIR cast member Noah Bean, and with SENSE OF AN ENDING's James Fouhey.
• Noah is a 2000 graduate of Boston University's College of Fine Arts (CFA); James is a current BU senior; and Chinasa graduated from CFA in 2003.
• Not only did the 2005-2006 Huntington season include LOVE'S LABOUR'S LOST, but it also included the a production of Mat Smart's THE HOPPER COLLECTION on the Boston University stage.
• Evan Cabnet, director of SENSE OF AN ENDING, has previously directed Mat Smart's work.
• Evan also recently worked on a production of SHIPWRECKED! AN ENTERTAINMENT at Long Wharf Theatre, where THOMAS REPAIR director Melia Bensussen has helmed several productions.
• Melia has directed for Hartford Stage, where THOMAS actor Keith Randolph Smith has performed (TARTUFFE in 1992, Google says).
• Keith has appeared on "Law & Order" and "Law & Order: SVU," as has THOMAS actor Lisa Joyce.
• Actually, so has Chinasa.
• Like Keith, SENSE's Ato Essandoh and Gilbert Owuor have performed at the Public Theater in New York (Ato in MOTHER COURAGE AND HER CHILDREN and Gilbert in the recent production of THE BROTHERS SIZE).
• (FYI: Ato recently appeared in STREAMERS at the Huntington... and has also been on Law & Order.)
• Gilbert has previously performed in Boston with the Commonwealth Shakespeare Company, as has his fellow SENSE cast member Johnny Lee Davenport, who has worked at Watertown's New Repertory Theatre, like THOMAS REPAIR's Maureen Keiller.

So you see, it's like Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon -- I mean, Breaking Ground -- around here.

Later!

-L