THE BLUE-SKY BOYS Extended at Florida Studio Theatre

Florida Studio Theatre's Southeastern premiere of The Blue-Sky Boys has been extended through March 15, 2026. Written by Deborah Brevoort, this inventive and high-energy play invites audiences inside the extraordinary imagination behind the race to the moon.

When President Kennedy vowed to put a man on the moon, the task landed in the hands of a band of maverick engineers – once the misfits of American science. With no rulebook, they embraced “blue-skying,” drawing inspiration from Buck Rogers, Greek myths, Louis Leakey, and even Snoopy and the Red Baron.

"When the moon mission was announced, we saw pictures of guys in lab coats with slide rules, when in fact there was an imaginative engineering process that was taking place behind the scenes,” explains playwright Deborah Brevoort. “The guys were drawing inspiration from Buck Rogers comic books, Snoopy cartoons, Greek mythology, African paleontology, on and on."

The Blue-Sky Boys is directed by FST's Producing Artistic Director Richard Hopkins, who has helmed over 40 productions in FST's five theatres and has received numerous awards, including the Arts Leadership Award from the Sarasota Arts Council and the Richard G. Fallon Award for Artistic Excellence from the Florida Professional Theatre Association.

“Music, set design, costumes, projections – the work is all wildly original,” says Hopkins. “I think it's because the play invites our talents to go off the rails in the best way. I knew [the play] was powerful when I read it, but I didn't expect it to resonate so deeply with so many people.”

The cast features Greg Balla* as Buck Rogers/Dr. James Towers/Tycho Brahe/Icarus, Danny Bernardy* as Jed Berman, Gil Brady* as Apollo/Louis Leakey/Snoopy, Howard Kaye* as Galileo/The Red Baron/Reporter, Patrick Noonan* as Howard Haggerty, Johnny Shea* as CJ Caldwell, and Kraig Swartz* as Vencel von Volp.

Making up the creative team is Richard Hopkins (Director), Kate Alexander (Associate Director), Music Composer (Jim Prosser), Isabel & Moriah Curley-Clay (Scenic Design), Rob Perry (Lighting Design), Nicholas Christensen (Sound Design), Janice Pytel (Costume Design), Dylan Uremovich (Projection Design), Choreographer (Ben Liebert), Dialect Coach (Paul Meier), Ian Scheele (Specialty Props), Shira Lebovich* (AEA Stage Manager), Ashley Nolt (Stage Management Intern), Lexy Hatch (Assistant to the Director), and Tori Martinson (Rehearsal Stage Management Fellow).

*Indicates members of Actors' Equity Association, the Union of Professional Actors and Stage Managers in the United States.