Bloomington's new theater company, Eclipse Productions, brings forceful theater

Eclipse Productions opens its first performance at Bloomington's John Waldron Arts Center Rose Firebay Theater next month, bringing Sam Shepard's evocative "True West." A finalist in the 1983 Pulitzer Prize for Drama, this American dark (as in moonless night in the desert) comedy-drama highlights two competing — surprise, surprise — brothers. Lee reads people; Austin reads books. Lee steals TVs; Austin steals time to write screenplays.

Unbearable and inexplicable sadness — "dosta" in Russian — might just pull this start-up theater through those first years of financial grind. Bloomington's brand new theater company is Eclipse Productions Company and its cofounder Kate Weber, a Bloomington resident from St. Petersburg, Russia, is used to life on a microscopic budget.

Theater for grownups

Fluent in Russian, Weber delights in works by Nabokov, Chekhov and Tolstoy. She and partner Jeremy J. Weber, along with colleagues Konnor Graber and Ashley Prather, are on the verge of bringing Bloomington some solid, proven theater for the determined play craver. That means Shakespeare and other classics as well as new plays (in 2025). Some day they may include children's theater and musicals, but for now the company strives to present authentic masterpieces.

Of course, that's what scads of theater companies want — beefy plays — although they often settle, choosing kids' and mainstream shows. Those sell tickets.

"We technically have titles (for the partners) for nonprofit status," Kate Weber said. "But we don’t use them as we firmly believe in equality among the four of us."

The advantages of being used to being broke

Entrepreneur Kate Weber has an advantage: "I lived in Russia till I was 9," she said. "I've lived in New York City and worked as a server (long sigh). I directed, acted, designed costumes. In Bloomington, I hustle, with lots of side jobs. I paint houses, enter (and win) poetry contests, do some screenwriting."

In other words, she's accustomed to being broke. She says, too, that she really, really is not in theater for money.

Beloved bird: Owner mourns loss of Charlie Bird, Bloomington's green-winged macaw

When she travels back to Russia, she said people find her impossibly optimistic. On her return to America, people find her just the opposite. Living in Russia has fortified her.

In Russia, she said sometimes one waits in line to buy milk, only to find it sold out. "Is there going to be food?" is a question she hears.

How Kate Weber directs

As a director of other actors, Kate Weber's own acting experience cycles up through her bare feet and into her grins. "OK, Konnor, that was great. Really great. I love what you're doing with the golf clubs. Trust your instincts and then give me 100 times more." She slides across a bare floor to show exactly where she wants Jeremy's entrance. "More of a pause there, Jeremy."

The two men take her direction, scribble notes, nibble fingernails, check scripts and proceed.

Fine, but someone's got to ponder credits and debits

Indiana University theater and history grad (2016) Konnor Graber is not only working with the group to establish Eclipse, but stars in "True West." He and Kate Weber met in Brown County this year when Weber directed "Boeing Boeing" for Brown County Playhouse, and Graber played a lead.

Since 2021 Graber has been immersed in running his and his brother's business, which supports children with autism, Rise Autism Therapy Services. He's also been coaching football and hadn't done theater since 2016. On a whim he auditioned for Weber's "Boeing" and got re-hooked. Now he's helping Weber with Eclipse's financial side. Also his Ball State masters' degree in applied behavior analysis is coming in handy for character-development research. He is a board certified behavior analyst.

It was during a production of Shakespeare's "Henry V" that Weber met her husband and now business partner, Jeremy J. Weber. "We knew we wanted to start a theater company. We. Are. Going to. Build. Our Theater" (emphasis Kate Weber's).

Graber is the company's "business mind." He keeps reminding the Webers of the power of profit.

"Eclipse is not tailored toward families," he said. "We're getting the adults out there." And he has been meeting plenty of theater folk who seem to fancy the real stuff.

Local people have expressed interest in donating to the new company. "We have massive support," he said.

Two sides, same person: Cain-and-Abel tale in "True West"

In "True West" Graber plays Lee, petty-thieving (and possibly worse). Jeremy Weber is Austin, who's been enjoying the life that accompanies lucrative screenwriting gigs. Now the brothers — maybe two sides of the same person, in playwright Shepard's vision — are preparing to write a screenplay as a team. They select the perfect office: the home of their Alaska-vacationing mother.

Lee, who brags he can write a “truer” Western than Austin due to having lived a Western type life, convinces Austin’s producer. The brothers begin to switch roles.

It's a rendition of Cain and Abel from the Bible, in a ferocious, dark-humor telling. A satire, too, it allows us to watch playwright Shepardzing it to us about our double-sided natures. Shepard explores, too, our exaggerated notions of the Wild West including its idealized bonding of males.

Full disclosure: The journalist for this article will perform in Eclipse's first production.

If you go

WHAT: "True West," by Sam ShepardWHEN: 7:30 p.m. weekends Nov.1-Dec. 10. Check website for details.WHERE: Waldron Arts Firebay, 122 S. Walnut St., eclipseproductionscompany.com/TICKETS: $30 Friday-Sunday, with Thursday performances are "pay what you will." For tickets, go online to https://tinyurl.com/yck7zpcx

This article originally appeared on The Herald-Times: Bloomington's new theater firm Eclipse Productions performs 'True West'