FEATURING
Bill Rogers
Bill Rogers returns to Block St Theatre Co where he previously appeared in The Jefferson Bottles. He will soon appear in TheatreSquared's upcoming production of It's A Wonderful Life: A Live Radio Play. Other TheatreSquared credits include Detroit, All The Way, Amadeus, The Quest for Don Quixote, Superior Donuts, Sons of the Prophet, and Sundown Town. Other regional credits include Nice Work If You Can Get It, Unnecessary Farce (Tent Theatre), the Dupont series, Radio Dazed: Dracula vs Old Man Winter (Ceramic Cow Productions), Alley 38 (Artist’s Laboratory Theatre) and other productions. University of Arkansas Theatre credits include Eurydice, Twelfth Night, The Foreigner, Kin, Time Stands Still, Translations and She Stoops To Conquer. Film credits include Parker’s Anchor, Your Local News, Neapolitan and Gordon Family Tree. He received his MFA in Acting from the University of Arkansas.
Krapp's Last Tape is a classic one-act play from Samuel Beckett, and if you're going to take it on, you better have two things--an actor up to the challenge of carrying a single-performer show and a theatre space capable of conveying all of Beckett's existential angst. This Block St Theatre Co production has both of those things in spades!
Bill Rogers a true fixture of the Northwest Arkansas theatre scene whose work will no doubt be familiar to area playgoers. This is a role that demands an actor ask himself the very toughest questions about what it means to be a human being. In a truly special collaboration with director Jason Shipman, Bill has fearlessly thrown himself headlong into the challenge of bringing Krapp to the stage.
And it's being performed in the most unusual and unusually intimate of spaces--The Nines speakeasy where the bike trail crosses Center St. The corrugated metal of The Nines' quonset hut setting will provide plenty of subterranean atmosphere to evoke Krapp's lair. And it's here--sequestered in a cave of his own design--that Krapp replays the crucial moments of his misspent life in the form of reel to reel tapes he's recorded every year on his birthday.
Best of all for those attending the show, the cozy confines of The Nines means that no audience member's eyeballs well ever be more than a few feet from Bill's face. Due the extraordinarily intimate setting, audience capacity for each performance will be capped at 25 patrons.
This is a play filled with Beckett's trademark ambiguity, and it's the type of show that almost demands some conversation afterwards about what it all meant. Luckily, The Nines bar will be open both before and after the show--serving beer and wine in a comfortable lounge-type atmosphere with mellow lighting and conversation-friendly sound design.
Due to the extremely limited availability of tickets, Block St strongly advises patrons to reserve their seats in advance. Missing the chance to see Bill Rogers take on this iconic role in this remarkably intimate setting would likely condemn any serious theatre-lover to an existence--much like Krapp's own--of never-ending regret.
Jason Shipman
Director
A founding member of the company, Jason has been a driving force behind Block St productions in virtually every capacity -- including director, actor, and producer. He is so looking forward to the upcoming Chicago presentation of Flamingo & Decatur. Other Block St credits include directing both Krapp's Last Tape and The Jefferson Bottles and acting in Butte. Regional credits include the World Premiere of Windfall, director Jason Alexander, and Peter and the Starcatcher (Arkansas Repertory Theatre); Intimate Apparel, Peter and the Starcatcher, Hamlet, The History Show and the Arkansas New Play Festival (TheatreSquared); The 39 Steps, Metamorphoses, Stones in His Pockets, The Elephant Man, Cloud Nine, Reckless, Almost Maine and Hamlet (Warehouse Theatre); Taming of the Shrew (Distracted Globe); Venus in Fur, World Premiere of Gems of Brazil (Arkansas Staged); The 39 Steps, Miracle on South Division St, Kitchen Witches - 2016 BroadwayWorld 'Best Actor' Award Nominee, and Cards on the Table (Cortland Repertory Theatre); Charlotte’s Web (Trike Theatre) among others. Jason is also a founding member and an Artistic Associate of Spectrum Theatre Ensemble, a neuro-diverse company comprised of performers on the Autism Spectrum and neuro-typical performers, based out of Providence, RI and in association with Trinity Repertory Company. STE had its inaugural production, Identity Spectrum, premiere in August followed by taking their second production, The Hotel Plays, to the Provincetown Tennessee Williams Theatre Festival. Originally from the DC area, Jason has worked as a teaching artist for Trinity Repertory Company, The Warehouse Theatre (NEA Shakespeare in American Communities program), The Classical Edge (Brown Chair, English Department at The University of Arkansas), South Carolina Children's Theatre, and the Palmetto Dramatic Association. He holds a BA in Fine Arts from University of South Carolina Aiken and an MFA in Drama from the University of Arkansas.
