A break from tradition

Blue Room shatters Broadway cliche

By Mike Kieran

The Blue Room Theatre is performing another season of edgy, unusual productions despite a thorough personnel rearrangement this spring.

Gail Holbrook, the new executive director for the theater, is working to maintain the theater's tradition, and working to bolster attendance and profitability.

"I think the attendance right now is growing, but there is a lot of competition and we're not selling out," she said.

There are 10 theater arts groups in and around Chico area, Holbrook was quick to point out.

Holbrook is a professor emerita and a part-time theater arts professor at Chico State. She started her position with the Blue Room Theatre in June.

The roots of the Blue Room Theatre began with an acting troupe named the Cosmic Travel Agency. They first rented the space that is now the Blue Room Theatre.

"The tradition goes back almost 20 years, the Blue Room name about 15," Holbrook said.

Actress Amanda Detmer, who had a major part in 2001's "Saving Silverman" performed at the Blue Room Theatre, Holbrook said. Various other actors have gone on to success in New York, Los Angeles and Washington, D.C.

What the Blue Room offers the audience that some other local theater companies don't is modern, atypical and quirky material, she said.

The Chico Theater Company and Chico Cabaret do good jobs, but their approaches are more traditional, Holbrook said. The Blue Room Theatre deals with more modern and unconventional material.

"People don't come here expecting to see 'Annie,'" -- Gail Holbrook

Responding to a question about controversial plays, Holbrook mentioned "Quills," a play about the quintessential pervert, the Marquis de Sade.

The play featured male full frontal nudity, and the script contained a plethora of perversities, and a variety of vices.

While the performance of "Quills" was quite provocative, it wasn't controversial, Holbrook said. At the Blue Room Theatre the audience knows they may be in for something strange or remarkable.

"People don't come here expecting to see 'Annie,'" she said.

"Another Day in Baghdad" is the next production to premiere onstage at the Blue Room Theatre, beginning on Nov. 1.

Dylan Latimer's return from New York for "Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde" will provide the Blue Room Theatre's stage with a second exciting production in November, Holbrook said. There will be two performances only, on Nov. 2 and Nov. 3, at 11 p.m.

Selecting new plays is definitely the best part of her job, she said.

"I'm a big reader and I go to the theater a lot," she said.

"Doubt: A Parable" has been her favorite play at the Blue Room Theatre so far this season, Holbrook said. She directed the Pulitzer-prize winning script by John Patrick Shanley.

Her favorite production last season was "Nixon's Nixon" in every area - acting, script and set construction, she said.

The Blue Room Theatre also has special events, such as the Bloomsday event, which takes place annually on June 16. It's currently in its 12th year of production.

There are currently four paid staff and a dozen volunteers working at the theater, she said. The acting staff is currently all volunteers.

"There used to be an acting company, but people like to see new faces," Holbrook said. "Each show has separate auditions."

Lisa Schmidt is in charge of the Young Company, which works with the Blue Room Theatre to provide the experience of theater arts to children. She's worked with the Young Company for more than five and a half years.

Currently the Young Company has 40 to 80 participants from ages 8 to 18, Schmidt said.

"We're blending the Young Company with the main stage," she said.

The production will combine adults and children performing onstage at Laxson Auditorium, Schmidt said.

The combined production should feature a range of performers, ages 8 to 80.

Holbrook said her mission is to bring the people of Chico "something new, something different and hopefully something powerful."