Mulled But Not Aged

‘Jefferson Bottles’ pops cork on new company

Chris Hecke and Laura Shatkus originate new roles in “The Jefferson Bottles.”
Chris Hecke and Laura Shatkus originate new roles in “The Jefferson Bottles.”

Which came first -- the play or the company presenting it?

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Courtesy Photo

Bill Rogers and Laura Shatkus, both well-known in the Fayetteville theater scene, rehearse for “The Jefferson Bottles,” a new play by a new theater producer, Block St Theatre Co.

Both "The Jefferson Bottles" and Block St Theatre Co seem to have sprung fully formed from the head of Todd Taylor.

FAQ

‘The Jefferson Bottles’

WHEN — 8 p.m. today, Saturday & Sunday

WHERE — Kimpel Hall Studio 404 on the University of Arkansas campus in Fayetteville

COST — Free

INFO — Jefferson Bottles at indiegogo.com

"I initially tried to write 'The Jefferson Bottles' as a straight drama -- a play of ideas, if you will -- but abandoned it when I realized it was too rhetorical and academic," says Taylor, who completed his master of fine arts in playwriting at the University of Arkansas almost two years ago. "I was then approached by some fellow UofA theater MFAs about writing a comedy which they could perform as a summer project -- and only then had the realization that the play could work as a comedy.

"The idea of calling ourselves Block St Theatre Co sprang up around the play," he adds. "Even though we are using the university's space, lighting instruments and scenic properties -- for which we are profoundly grateful -- we wanted a way to differentiate ourselves from an actual UofA production. Referencing Block Street seemed a nice way to emphasize our connection to Fayetteville."

Unlike a fine wine, "The Jefferson Bottles" didn't spend any time aging on a dusty shelf.

"The MFA actors who had requested a comedy gave me a very tight deadline for writing it, about two weeks, which I met so that they could give it a read and see if it would be a good fit for a summer project," Taylor says. "The reading went very well, and I could tell they were having a lot of fun with the material and all wanted to go forward with it."

In the theater company's IndieGoGo funding effort, Taylor says "The Jefferson Bottles" is "a play that needs to be performed now -- not in 10 years, not in five years, but now. The issues of individual privacy versus national security have never felt more urgent or more relevant than they do in this moment."

Director Jason Shipman, also a recent graduate of the university's MFA program, agrees.

"There is something wonderfully topical about the issues in Todd's play, security versus privacy, and coupled with his biting wit, it just made it seem like a no-brainer," he says. "I think satire is an incredibly hard thing to do successfully but also an extremely necessary thing to have in society."

The plot revolves around "five bottles of centuries-old wine unearthed in a forgotten Paris cellar, wine believed to have been owned by Thomas Jefferson." Of course, there's an enigmatic Russian dealer who wants to sell the wine, a billionaire energy magnate who wants to buy the wine, a down-on-her-luck professor and a "loyal but conflicted agent of the NSA," investigating the pending sale for reasons of national security. Taylor describes the result as "equal parts political satire, espionage thriller and raucous black comedy."

Grant Hockenbrough, who will be enrolled in the MFA program this fall, says "the challenge of creating a new character in a new play is a fun but daunting one. Oddly enough, this is the third show in the last year that I have done that is a brand new play, and thus this will be the third time this year I will be playing a character that has never been played before.

"There's something very exciting about knowing that you will have the honor to originate a character, but there is a lot of responsibility as well," he adds. "You feel a responsibility to represent the character that the playwright has so carefully designed, but you also have to realize that you are the one bringing this character to life, so it's important to be confident in who you believe he is and what his values are.

"This character [the NSA agent] has been a very interesting one to play, because he is kind of the straight man in a world of crazy and obsessive people. But it has been a blast to watch and learn from the entire cast as we bring this thing together in a very short rehearsal process."

Where the play and the company go next is anybody's guess.

"Our notion is that because this is a university town, there's a surplus of talented theater artists living here," Taylor says. "I think it's fair to say we are looking at this production of 'The Jefferson Bottles' as a trial balloon that will help us gauge the level of interest and support for new works going forward."

NAN What's Up on 07/17/2015

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