Contains adult language and situations. Recommended for ages 17+

The world is ending and a nerdy marine biologist posts a personal ad to find the girl that will ensure the survival of the species. But saving life on earth on the first date proves to be a bit of a challenge! Will they survive? What about the tank full of fish? And who is that woman pulling levers and playing the timpani?

A funny, slightly warped, and ultimately hopeful look at the apocalypse.

Directed by Artistic Director Randy White

Running Time: 90 minutes with no intermission.

SPONSORS

Sponsored by Sterling Real Estate and Maxim Real Estate

Thank you to our sponsors for their support of boom!

Reviews
Student Discount
Special Events and Talkbacks
Cast and Creative Team

PLAY REVIEWS

“Sex! Planet-ruining cataclysms! Loads of booze! We’re ready for whatever strange places boom wants to take us.”—Variety

“UPROARIOUSLY FUNNY. It’s literate, coarse, thoughtful, sweet, scabrously inappropriate, wracked by existential anxiety, and wonderfully humane...Actually it’s mostly just wonderful: I haven’t had quite so much fun at the theater, or been quite so consistently surprised, in who knows when... this is one end-of-the-world story that’s likely to leave you grinning from ear to ear.” – City Paper

“An imaginative piece of social satire… a clever play that's both experimental and entertaining.” – Backstage

"Peter Sinn Nachtrieb's play flips from pants-around-the-ankles comedy to hipster Twilight Zone takeoff... boom is imaginative and easy to like." – The New Yorker

“A grandly wacked-out apocalypse fantasy! This is boy-meets-girl stuff that's not just twisted, but gleefully torqued. The writing is terribly smart...” – The Washington Post

STUDENTS
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“takeoffyourpants”
FOR A VERY SPECIAL DEAL
ON TICKETS

SPECIAL EVENTS

Post-Show Talkback
Playwright Peter Sinn Nachtrieb will join director Randy White in a talkback after the show on Thursday, Nov. 5.

Special GLBT Night November 6
Join the playwright, director, and the cast for a party at The Bishop following the performance.

CAST

DIANE KONDRAT (Barbara) is delighted to be once working again with Cardinal, where she is an artistic associate. Diane has appeared in Cardinal's Our Town, Unveiling, O Lovely Glowworm, and Doubt. She most recently appeared in The Heavens are Hung in Black at Indiana Repertory Theatre in Indianapolis. She spent the summer of 2009 traveling and performing in the two-woman comedy, Assholes and Aureoles. Local audiences may remember her as Bella in Lost In Yonkers at Brown County Playhouse, or as Winnie in Samuel Beckett's Happy Days, or perhaps in the 1989 Oasis production of Dario Fo and Franca Ramé's Orgasmo Adulto Escapes from the Zoo.

Mike Price (Jules) is Cardinal's Associate Artistic Director. Cardinal roles include Inherit the Wind, Unveiling, Oliver!, Amadeus, Doubt, The Diary of Anne Frank, A Year with Frog and Toad, and Treasure Island. He recently performed at Brown County Playhouse in There Goes the Bride. Mr. Price has an MS in Instructional Systems Technology and has worked as a video director and instructional consultant. Mike assists Cardinal with various media work and production sound design.

Emily Goodson (Jo) is thrilled to be involved with Cardinal Stage for the first time. She is a graduate of Indiana University with a degree in English and Sociology. Her most recent shows include playing Sally Talley in Lanford Wilson's Talley's Folly at the Bloomington Playwright's Project and Julie in John Green's Doubting Thomas. Emily is a member of the Bloomington Playwright's Project Ensemble of Artists.

Peter Sinn Nachtrieb is a San Francisco-based playwright whose works include boom, Hunter Gatherers, Colorado, T.I.C. (Trenchcoat In Common), and Multiplex. His work has been seen off-Broadway and across the country at Ars Nova, SPF, Woolly Mammoth Theatre, Seattle Repertory, Actors Theatre of Louisville, Cleveland Public Theatre, Brown/Trinity Playwrights Rep, the Bailiwick Theatre, Wellfleet Harbor Actor’s Theatre, Dad’s Garage, and in the Bay Area at Encore Theatre, Killing My Lobster, The Magic Theatre, Impact Theatre, and The Bay Area Playwrights Festival. Hunter Gatherers received the 2007 American Theatre Critics Association/Steinberg New Play Award for best new play to premiere outside of New York and the 2007 Will Glickman Prize for best new play in the Bay Area. He is under commission from South Coast Rep and is a Resident Playwright at the Playwrights Foundation, San Francisco. Peter holds a degree in Theater and Biology from Brown and an MFA in Creative Writing from San Francisco State University. He likes to promote himself online at www.peternachtrieb.com.

Read an Interview with Peter in The Seattle Times >

CREATIVE TEAM

Randy White (Director) has directed Inherit the Wind, Treasure Island, The Santaland Diaries, The Diary of Anne Frank, O Lovely Glowworm, Oliver!, A Crime in a Madhouse, Amadeus, Unveiling, A Year with Frog and Toad, and Our Town for Cardinal Stage Company. Originally from Canada, Randy received an MFA in directing from University of Alberta and has directed extensively across Canada and the US, including the off-Broadway productions of Max and Ruby and Underneath the Lintel and productions at Actors Theatre of Louisville (Humana Festival), Portland Center Stage, and Shakespeare Santa Cruz. Randy was an assistant on Broadway’s The Lion King. He has directed and/or taught at Yale, Penn, Fordham, The Guthrie and Indiana University and was resident director at New Dramatists in New York for two years. Randy currently lives in Bloomington with his wife, Ellen McKay who teaches Renaissance Drama in the English department at Indiana University and his son Graeme.

Mark Frederic Smith (Set Designer) is happy to return for his second show with Cardinal Stage. He previously designed the sets for last season’s A Diary of Anne Frank. Mark holds a MFA degree in Scenic Design from the IU Department of Theatre and Drama. His design credits for opera, dance and theatre include Woyzeck, Maria de Buenos Aires, Death of a Salesman, The Pirates of Penzance, La Boheme, Picasso at the Lapin Agile, Children of a Lesser God, Chess, Cole, and La Traviata. Mark is a scenic and properties staff artist for the Indiana University Opera Theater, where he designed the sets for the Studio Opera’s production of Susa’s Transformations at the BCT and was assistant designer on the world premiere of Ned Rorem’s Our Town.

Lara Southerland Berich (Costume Designer) is currently the draper for the theatre department of Indiana University, has draped in the costume shops of many theatres across the country including (in reverse chronological order) the Santa Fe Opera, Huntington Theatre Company in Boston, Opera Boston, Utah Shakespearean Festival, Shakespeare Santa Cruz, Texas Shakespeare Festival, Weston Playhouse in Vermont, North Shore Music Theatre, and American Stage Festival in New Hampshire. Her design work has been seen on tour and at home with California Theatre Center, in Memphis at the Circuit Playhouse, in Boston at the New Repertory Theatre, in New Hampshire at indoor and outdoor venues for the American Stage Festival, and lately in several dance pieces on the Ruth N. Halls stage in the IU Dance Theatre's Winter Concert. She holds a BA in Theatre Education from Greensboro College in North Carolina and an MFA in Costume Production from Boston University.

Sarah Sandberg (Props Designer) is a professional artist licensed to teach art. As a student at Indiana University in the 70's, she studied stage technology at the Musical Arts Center and then spent over a decade in television production before returning to Bloomington. She has worked on Cardinal productions of The Diary Of Anne Frank, Santaland Diaries, Treasure Island and Inherit the Wind. She designed the sets for the BPP’s Guys and Dolls Jr. and for Bloomington South’s Thoroughly Modern Millie. A master of found objects, she is heartily welcomed at thrift shops and antique malls in the tri-state area!




An early sketch of the set by Mark Smith