Stage and Screen

Jake has won award for both stage and screen and Jake's return to the stage this past fall is potentially awarding. 

Today it was announced that Jake was nominated for the Lucille Lortel Awards, which honors achievements in Off-Broadway performances.

Jake was nominated for Outstanding Featured Actor for his New York stage debut in If There Is I Haven’t Found It Yet. Also nominated for Outstanding Featured Actor are: David Wilson Barnes (“Don’t Go Gentle”); Chuck Cooper (“The Piano Lesson”); Zach Grenier (“StorefrontChurch”) and Mark Nelson (“My Name Is Asher Lev”).

If There is also received a nomination for Outstanding Scenic Design as well as a nomination for Jake's co-star Annie Funke for Outstanding Featured Actress.

The awards will be handed out May 5th.

Good Luck Jake,  Beowulf, and Annie.

Sandy Scenes

Hurricane Sandy didn't just affect the physically affect New York, New Jersey and Connecticut, it also had an impact on Off Broadway too.

One of the main story lines in "If There is..." is about global warming and after Sandy,  the story and the audiences response took on a different meaning.

Before "If there is..." finishes up on Sunday, Broadway.com spoke with the cast when they came from their hiatus and how the play is different post Sandy.

Let's Put on a Show

While it might be Jake's first time working off-Broadway, he has been going to Broadway shows since he was a kid.

Check out this out from a his recent interview with the NY Times:

"Growing up in Los Angeles, with frequent trips to New York to see relatives, Mr. Gyllenhaal was a theatergoer long before he stood on a stage himself. Sitting in nosebleed seats as a boy, he was dazzled by Patti LuPone vamping through the opening number 'I Get a Kick Out of You' in 'Anything Goes' for Lincoln Center Theater; he then promptly fell asleep. From other musicals he graduated to serious drama like 'Angels in America,' though mostly he went to school plays featuring Maggie, now 34."

[ You 've got to admit there's some irony that Jake reminisces of a childhood memory that involves Cole Porter, legend LuPone and Broadway ; ) ]

There isn't a video of LuPone doing the opening of "Anything Goes" but there is one of her doing the closing number for the Tony's.



Makes you wonder if Jake got the chance to catch the latest revival of the show (with Tony Award winning Sutton Foster who just moved on) and stayed awake.



We know that Jake has been and continues to be a big fan of musicals, so when is he going to do one? Come on Jake - you've put up with you wearing that damn hat, when are you finally going to do Damn Yankees? 

Growing Pains

With Jake's play opening tomorrow, it signals a change for Jake. New challenges and more into a different part of his career.

 After career defining highs and less that critical success, Jake found himself in an uneasy place.

 “I wasn’t really listening to myself about the kinds of projects I wanted to do,” he said in a recent interview, reflecting on the past decade. “I had to figure out what kind of an actor I wanted to be and feel confident going for that.”

 And what we have been seeing this past year is Jake working on being the kind of actor he wants to be.

 "Nominated for a supporting actor Oscar for 'Brokeback,' said he still revels in experimenting with his take on characters from scene to scene and performance to performance. But acting rigor is increasingly his goal, and perhaps the respect that comes with it. “Early in your career it’s hard to know everything for yourself, and asking questions isn’t always a welcome thing in Hollywood, where everyone seems like they know what they’re doing,” he said during an interview over tofu salad and squid sashimi at a Japanese restaurant in the West Village.

 “Around the time I hit 30, I asked myself if I was respecting acting as a craft,” ...."and if I was doing the right projects that deserved my attention and where I’m learning in a way that you might not feel at 15. So now it’s like I look at acting more as building little delicate cricket cages, with care and more thought.” In the past 18 months Mr. Gyllenhaal parted ways with his longtime manager, signed with a new agency and began devoting more time to selecting and preparing for projects."

 Projects like EoW, The Enemy and the play are part of Jake's journey. Even Berlinale.  And there seems to be a paradigm shift from acting and the celebrity, to acting and the craft that it is, and with that maturity, commitment, and challenge.

Why did we see Jake up at Columbia so much last spring? He was contact his professors for advice about his role in The Enemy.

On EoW Jake got so involved giving feed back, watching dailies and things like him checking out the camera technology and showed so much commitment that "John Lesher, one of its producers, decided after filming to make Mr. Gyllenhaal an executive producer."

And he's tackling the play the same way. Taking on the challenge that is stretching him and make him give everything and more. He went out and sought the play, pursuing it and it writer and director.

 "It was Terry’s capacity for cruelty that appealed to Mr. Gyllenhaal most of all. 'The intentions of Terry are very different from anything I’ve played before, especially his vicious side,” he said. 'It intrigued me so much, and that was the sign. I want to come home at the end of the day and be wiped out and feel I’ve torn my heart out from acting and feel fulfilled. At this point I don’t have the desire to do anything other than projects that make me feel that way.'"

 It looks like Jake is growing, we will just have wait and see where he ends up.

 And Jake, Break A Leg!!

Quote Source - NY Times.

Family, Truth and The Great White Way

A bit of a bounty of Jake articles today, but one jumped out for today's post.  It is an interview with Broadway World about the play.

 
Besides Jake talking about wanting to act at an early age and how he got started, there were three questions that leaped off the page.


TS:  What drew you to If There Is I Haven’t Found It Yet?
JG: Terry is like de Tocqueville. He comes into this family and he observes and comments on what he sees. I love the character of Terry and I loved Nick Payne’s writing. It was that simple. And when I went to see Michael Longhurst’s production of Nick’s other play, Constellations, at the Royal Court in London, the deal was sealed. They are an unbeatable pair. They are the new generation of British theatre talent.

TS: What do you think the play is about?
JG: I think the play is about family. And it is about the desire we all have to be seen and heard by our family and how – for many different reasons – it can become hard to hear the people we love most and how hard it can be to be heard by them.

TS: How is the character of Terry relevant to you?  Can you share some of your preliminary thoughts about Terry with us?
JG: I love the way he talks, how he moves through the world. He is desperate to pull the truth out of everyone around him, but he is unable to face his own. He is a constant contradiction and like this broken, beating heart with legs.
Jake goes on to say, "Variation keeps me inspired. I always like finding roles that are different from the one I played before."  That might be true, but they look more like variations on a theme. 

 You can read the whole article here.

Oh Austin - don't worry we see your training- keep it up bud,  and it will be an Austin Friday - Texas Travelogue or is that Texas TriAthalon-alogue?

Classmate/Castmates

Plays and school have a lot in common.

You almost always all are new and don't know each other in the beginning.

You figure out who you are going to hang with at lunch.

Someone is going to be the jokester.

You break into small groups for reading out loud.

 And of course picture day.

Here's Jake with his new castmates from If There Is I Haven’t Found It Yet

Jake with fellow castmates (l to r) Michelle Gomez, Annie Funke, and Brian F. O'Byrne.

A cast of just 4 it's going to be a lot of work for Jake to take on as a study load.

Those aren't the teachers, that's director Michael Longhurst and writer Nick Payne.

If There is....centers around a "bullied 15-year-old Anna, whose unexpected friendship with her estranged uncle Terry (Jake) sends her parents' rocky marriage into a tailspin."

Loud and clear???

Amidst a flurry of  tweets Jake has wrapped in Toronto, left Canada and head for NYC.

Official message received.

 Now back to reality.

 Austin's Yankees cap.   Instead of a shout out could it be a hint of "where I am heading to next"

Well Jake will be in NYC for awhile with rehearsals for  If There Is I Haven’t Found It Yet start July 24.    Preview performances begin August 24, with an official opening night on September 20 at off-Broadway’s Laura Pels Theatre. The production will play a limited engagement through November 25.

Austin you might have to go with a hoodie too,  Autumn in New York, beautiful, but chillier than Cali, Tex and Carolina.

Speaking of  If There Is I Haven’t Found It Yet Jake's got the new leading lady in his life.   Meet Annie Funke (Austin no Arrested Development jokes) is has just been cast as Anna.

Annie  joins Jake (Uncle Terry), Michelle Gomez as her mom Fiona and Brian F. O’Byrne as her dad George.

 Annie "has appeared on Broadway in Hairspray and in the San Francisco company of Wicked. She currently plays Catherine Martin in off-Broadway’s Silence! The Musical. Her additional theater credits include Steel Magnolias, You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown, Fame, Grease, The Producers and Once Upon a Mattress."

 Jakey can you say duets?   Broadway karaoke  Jake and Annie will take it.

 Please Please please say we can do Dreamgirls!  But Effie is mine sista!

Whew....That was close....

Sometimes it's good when things don't work out....

Like when Jake's name was floated out there for Rock of Ages and it didn't work out.  

or  Austin not getting the part for Adam Sandler's That's My Boy which looks his USO pal Milo

Sometimes looking at things in the present  they don't make a lot of sense, but it the long run it all fits.

We might not know why things are they way the are right now... but it will make sense in time.

That could even describe this past weekend. ...Austin in TX and Jake....in airports?

Now some more information about Jake upcoming US stage debut.

Two more actors have been named to the cast of If There Is I Haven't Found It Yet  Michelle Gomez and Tony Award winner Brían F. O'Byrne, will join the previously announced Jake Gyllenhaal in the American premiere of Nick Payne's If There Is I Haven't Found It Yet later this summer at Off-Broadway's Laura Pels Theatre.

There is only one cast member left to announce and that is main character Anna, the bullied teen who the play is focused around.

 Michael Longhurst (making his New York debut) will direct the Roundabout Theatre Company production with previews beginning Aug. 24 toward an opening of Sept. 20 in a limited engagement of 13 weeks through Nov. 25.

Teen Seen

While Jake is getting ready to start working on Enemy in Toronto, and in parts unknown, (or are they?) others are thinking ahead and trying to find the perfect girl him.

But it's not what you think. It's for 'If There Is I Haven’t Found It Yet’.

SEEKING 1 teenage girl to play ANNA.
ANNA IS AN OVERWEIGHT 15 YEAR OLD GIRL. SHE IS
BULLIED AT SCHOOL AND TENDS TO KEEP TO HERSELF AT
HOME. SHE IS A LONER STRUGGLING TO NAVIGATE THE
PERILS OF ADOLESCENCE. SHE LIKES TERRY VERY MUCH
AND OFTEN CONFIDES THINGS IN HIM SHE WON’T TELL HER
PARENTS. SEEKING AN EXCEPTIONAL ACTRESS WITH A
STRONG ENGLISH ACCENT. SEEKING AN ACTUAL TEENAGER.
NO ONE OVER 18 PLEASE.

Please submit headshot and resume by 5/12 to:
IfThereIsCasting@gmail.com

Actual teenager, so all the WB "teenagers" need not apply. Not sure where they will find their Anna. But it sounds like an unknown or up and coming actress might get a chance of a life time.

Can't go without a trip to the way back machine, they might have been a little bit older than 18 but still teenagers.

And Jake was working the backpack way back in 1999.

Playing Around

 A little background more information about If There Is I Haven't Found It Yet.

The play debut at the Bush Theater in London  from October 17-November 21, 2009, and won rave reviews.  The play won Nick Payne the George Devine Award for Most Promising Playwright 2009.

 School's tough enough, and harder when you're overweight.  Add your mom's a teacher, it's hell.  Then your Dad's obsessed with saving the world and your  uncle camping out on the couch. 

So when Anna hits back at the bullies, she finds herself suspended from school and stuck at home with  her hapless uncle trying to save her. But he needs saving himself, and as the bond between the two deepens, Anna finds herself swept up in a friendship she can't live without.

With the play to coming to the US it looks like there will be a few revisions for American audiences.  But will be Jake be hanging out on the couch in his boxers like the original?

Nick and the cast went to a road trip to get a feel for the play during rehearsals and little insight on a guy like Uncle Terry.



And here is a little peek of the technical rehearsals from the play's debut run.