BEHIND THE SCENES
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SYNOPSIS
In the dead of winter, we meet Jack, a limo driver who has vague dreams of landing a job with the MTA, a mild obsession with a reggae song, and has begun a half-hearted attempt at growing dreadlocks. He spends most of his time hanging out with his best friend and fellow driver, Clyde and Clyde’s wife, Lucy.
The couple sets Jack up with Connie, a co-worker of Lucy’s at Dr. Bob’s Funeral Home in Brooklyn. Being with Connie inspires Jack to learn to cook, pursue a new career, and take swimming lessons from Clyde so he can give Connie the romantic boat ride she wants. But as Jack and Connie cautiously circle commitment, Clyde and Lucy’s marriage begins to disintegrate. From there, we watch as each couple must come face to face with the inevitable path of their relationship.
Recommended for high school and adult audiences.

PRODUCTION HISTORY
Jack Goes Boating began as a staged reading of LAByrinth Company member Bob Glaudini's play at LAByrinth's 2005 Summer Intensive.  Two years later, Artistic Directors Philip Seymour Hoffman & John Ortiz, along with fellow members Daphne Rubin-Vega and Beth Cole, brought the script to life for a 2007 off-Broadway LAByrinth production at the Public Theater.  After the extremely successful run, Glaudini adapted his work to the screen and brought along three original cast members for Jack's new incarnation. Since its premiere,  Jack Goes Boating has been produced by Chicago’s Thunder & Lightning Ensemble, had a sold-out run  in Berkeley’s Aurora Theatre and made its Australian premiere at Red Stitch Actor’s Theatre in Melbourne. Other American productions include at Cleveland’s Sometimes in the Silence Theatre and Sacramento’s B Street Theatre.The film made its premiere at the 2010 Sundance Film Festival and will be released by Overture Films with Philip Seymour Hoffman making his directorial debut. Bob Glaudini will adapt the play for the screen.Most of the original cast will reprise their roles, though Amy Ryan has replaced Beth Cole as Connie. The film will be released September 17, 2010.

The Oregonian's Marty Hughley recommends Jack Goes Boating with his review, calling it "A romantic comedy about a big lug with a heart of gold," praising the cast, direction and design.
Read the full review here.

"Let's hear it for likable losers... Jack is a stoner with his hair twisted into halfhearted nascent dreads, who plays the Melodians' "Rivers of Babylon" so often that the cassette has stretched and the music warbles ominously. As played by Todd Van Voris ... he comes across as a genuinely nice guy, whom you'd be happy to have haul your rich self around," says Willamette Week's Ben Waterhouse. Read the full review here.

Bob Hicks of Art Scatter writes: "The story's small and sweet and unlikely, or maybe likely after all, just not a story very often told-about the meek inheriting the earth, or a little corner of it, and quietly nurturing it so that something good can grow amid the wasteland." Read it here.

Barry Johnson of Arts Dispatch highlights the characters and the actors who play them well: "...the account they give of their characters turns out to be deeper than we expect. Especially in a romantic comedy." He continues, "This is what we have come to expect, though, in an Allen Nause-directed play...how to make a moment true and meaningful." Read his blog here.

The Oregonian's Marty Hughley pulled this telling script quote for his preview story on one of the two relationship storylines in Jack Goes Boating. "A lot happens," Lucy tells her friend Jack about what it's like being in a relationship for a long time. "A lot of good things. A lot of things you wouldn't wish on your enemy." Read the full preview here.

“An endearing romantic comedy …witty and knowing and all heart.” - Variety

"Sweet and snarky is a tough combination to pull off, but it adds up to what could be the feel-good romantic comedy of this and a future summer." - San Francisco Chronicle