Performance Details
2025 Summer Season ∙ May 27—June 15, 2025
Bob & Jean
A stirring and romantic world premiere that tells the remarkable story of an exhilarating courtship. Production photos: Tim Fuller
Lightning strikes and sparks fly when Bob and Jean meet in New York City, 1941. But their instant attraction is cut short as World War II drives the pair thousands of miles apart. While Bob is off to the Pacific as a bomb disposal officer, Jean is headed to boost troop morale as a USO actress. Is their connection strong enough to withstand the winds of war? Travel through their passionate, funny, sometimes desperate correspondence as they navigate battle, Broadway, and the complexities of the human heart. A new play written by Pulitzer Prize- and Tony Award-winning and Emmy-nominated playwright Robert Schenkkan, “Bob & Jean: A Love Story” is a stirring and romantic world premiere that tells the remarkable story of an exhilarating courtship. Production photos: Tim Fuller
Playwright
Robert Schenkkan
Director
Matt August
View Bios
Robert Schenkkan
Playwright, Bob & Jean
Robert Schenkkan (Playwright) Pulitzer Prize, Tony, WGA, and Humanitas Award winner, three-time Emmy nominated writer. Author of twenty plays: All The Way (Tony, Drama Desk, Outer Critics, Steinberg, and Edward Kennedy Awards); The Kentucky Cycle (Pulitzer prize); The Great Society; Old Cock; ReCON$truxion; The Trojan Women at Sandy Hook; The Investigation; A Search for the Truth in Ten Acts; Building the Wall; Hanussen; Shadowplay; By the Waters of Babylon; Handler; A Single Shard; Devil and Daniel Webster; Lewis and Clark Reach the Euphrates; Final Passages; The Marriage of Miss Hollywood and King Neptune; Heaven on Earth; Tachinoki; The Dream Thief; and a musical, The 12. Films: Hacksaw Ridge, The Quiet American. TV: All the Way, The Pacific, The Andromeda Strain, Crazy Horse, Spartacus. Robert is a board member of the Orchard Project, a member of the Dramatists Guild National Council, National Theater Conference, and a New Dramatists Alumnus.
Matt August
Director, Bob & Jean
Matt August (Director) is the Kasser Family Artistic Director of Arizona Theatre Company, where he has directed the World Premiere of BOB AND JEAN: A LOVE STORY, a new version of Leslie Briccuss’s SCROOGE adapted from an unproduced screenplay, the regional premier of KING CHARLES III and the World Premiere of DISCORD (w/Geffen Playhouse). On Broadway he directed HOW THE GRINCH… for two seasons which broke Box Office records and then played three seasons at MSG, two seasons at Grand Ol’ Opre, a UK Tour and sixteen years of National Tours. Other projects: LA BOHEME; Regional Premier of IN THE HIGHTS, MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING (Pioneer); TWO GENTLEMEN OF VERONA, TIME FLIES, PIG FARM (Old Globe) SIXTEEN WOUNDED (Long Wharf, Cherry Lane); among many others. Fellowships from: Drama League, OSF Killian, Robert Wilson Watermill Center. Finalist for TCG Alan Schnieder Award. Resident/Associate Director for Broadway productions of HENRY IV, INVENTION OF LOVE, IMAGINARY FRIENDS, THE FULL MONTY. www.MattAugust.com
Featured Cast
Mary Mattison
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Scott Wentworth
View BioArtistic Team
Stephen GIFFORD
Scenic Designer
KISH FINNEGAN
Costume Designer
MIKE BILLINGS
Lighting Designer
JOHN GROMADA
Original Music & Sound Design
KELSY DURKIN
Production Stage Manager
Critics Reviews
“A Triumph!”
“Because there’s no immediacy – via cell calls, texts, social media, email, Facetime, etc. – the tale of Bob and Jean’s deepening bond is instead filled with a legitimate constancy and longing.”
“When they were young, Bob and Jean had everything ahead of them—until life got in the way. This production invites us to revisit the fragile, formative moments of love.”
“That simple rectangle of paper with an image of his true love printed on it represents the torture that Bob and Jean must endure as they stress test their long distance relationship.’”
FAQs
This show runs approximately 2 hours with one 15-minute intermission.
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