About

BILOXI BLUES

Montana Rep, an Equity company based at The University of Montana in Missoula, has been touring since 1968. Over the past fifteen years the company has toured its productions of It’s a Wonderful Life, The Diary of Anne Frank, Death of a Salesman, The Miracle Worker, A Streetcar Named Desire, Steel Magnolias, The Trip to Bountiful, Lost in Yonkers, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, To Kill a Mockingbird, and Leading Ladies, presenting more than 600 performances in nearly 500 communities from California to New York.

Montana Rep operates under an agreement with Actors’ Equity Association and the University/Resident Theatre Association.

Principal roles are played by actors whose past credits have included both Broadway and national touring productions of A Chorus Line, Crimes of the Heart, Into the Woods, Biloxi Blues, Steel Magnolias, Pump Boys and Dinettes, My Fair Lady, Cabaret, and The Will Rogers Follies; major motion pictures; and productions at the nation’s leading regional theatres.

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Repertory

Twenty-five years ago, I was sitting in a rehearsal hall on Lower Broadway with Neil Simon. We were about to begin rehearsals for the national tour of Biloxi Blues. I was a young theatre artist who had just served a stint as a stage manager for the Broadway production of the show. Mr. Simon didn’t say much: he just added a word here and there or helped with a line reading. After all, the play had garnered Mr. Simon his first Tony Award, crowning an already-heralded career as the number-one Broadway writer of all time, so the play needed little work. I do remember very clearly what Gene Saks, the Tony Award winning director of the Broadway show and now guiding our production, said about the play. He shared, “This is not an Army comedy.” Those six words burned into my consciousness and whenever I think of Mr. Simons work I remember this sage advice.

Biloxi Blues is a comedy about young men going off to war. These men are universal soldiers facing the same fears, anxieties, and loneliness that grip all young recruits who encounter the ultimate test of combat. Mr. Simon brings his great sense of humor and humanity to every word of this magnificent play.

Years later, when I was directing another Simon play for Montana Rep (Broadway Bound) I asked Mr. Simon for advice as I approached the material. He advised me to “always play [the scenes] as real as possible and don’t try to make them funny. The funny takes care of itself in the text.” That, combined with Gene Saks’s advice, has guided my direction of comedy ever since.

Biloxi Blues is the middle play of the Simon trilogy about his growing up. Beginning with Brighton Beach Memoirs and ending with Broadway Bound, Mr. Simon explores the life and times of Eugene Morris Jerome as he struggles to find a path for his talents and his way in the world. These three plays mark a high point in the career of a master writer. We are very fortunate and proud to once again bring Neil Simon to our national audience with one of his masterpieces: Biloxi Blues.

Greg Johnson
Artistic Director

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Residency and Outreach Activities

Montana Rep offers workshops taught by the company. “Life in the Professional Theatre,” “Acting and Improvisation,” and “Auditioning Techniques” are just a few examples of possible master class activities. Follow-up materials are available for teachers.

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