About the Show
Created and performed by Dr. Stuart Bloom, the show traces his progress from a young singing comedian in New York to a busy oncologist in Minnesota.
Along the way he grapples with ego, mortality and spirituality, in the face of pressure from health insurance companies and medical administrators who wish he’d stop swearing during dictations.
The show features 12 songs in which Stuart fills out a burnout questionnaire with his inner voice (played by local journalist and actor Eric Ringham). Throughout the show Stuart mocks, prods and palpates the pressures of 21st century medical practice.
The show was SO funny and endearing and touching. I absolutely LOVED it! I hope you will do it more.
-DC, surgical oncologist
ARTIST BIOS
Stuart Bloom (Stu)
Stuart Bloom attended the graduate acting program at NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts, where he was taught by Olympia Dukakis and Deborah Lapidus. He appeared as Mark Slackmeyer in the national tour of the Broadway musical Doonesbury. In New York, his acting credits include Side Street Scenes (for which he also wrote the songs), Next, Please! and Kuni Leml. As a musical comic, he was a regular at the Improvisation.
MEDICINE: Stuart Bloom spent 20 years as a community oncologist/hematologist in the Twin Cities, and has been voted a “Top Doc” by his peers in both Mpls/St. Paul and Minnesota Monthly magazines every year since 2008.
In the fall of 2021, he joined the University of Minnesota Medical School’s Division of Hematology, Oncology and Transplantation, where he is the Associate Director of Physician and Faculty Wellbeing
While Stuart still sees patients, his focus is on teaching doctoring skills to medical trainees, addressing burnout (go figure), and exploring the humanities in medicine as affiliate faculty of the Center for the Art of Medicine.
Eric Ringham (Inner Voice)
Eric has been using his outdoor voice on Twin Cities stages since the Nixon administration. He developed his own case of burnout working as a journalist for 40 years at the Star Tribune and Minnesota Public Radio News. He left regular employment in 2020 and now works as a freelance writer, editor and voice actor. He and his wife Ann Wagner live in south Minneapolis.
Alex Clark (Lighting & Sound Design Stage Manager)
is a freelance lighting designer and photographer with an MFA in lighting design from the University of Minnesota and a fascination for how light interacts with our world. Previous lighting designs include: The Uncertainty Principle (Open Eye), Singing In The Rain (Phipps Center), When The Shark Bites (Open Eye), A Midsummer Night’s Dream (UMN), American Clock (UMN / Guthrie Theatre), and Catch Me If You Can (Chameleon Theatre Circle).
Peter Moore (Director)
Peter lives in St. Paul, and has directed at the Guthrie, Torch Theater, Park Square, Actors Theatre of Minnesota, Hennepin Stages, History Theatre, Illusion Theater, Zephyr Theatre, The Playwright’s Lab, Climb Theater, the U of M, and Theater in the Round, Other directing credits include off-Broadway’s York Theater, the Coconut Grove in Playhouse in Miami, the Winter Garden Theater in Toronto, Virginia Stage Co. in Norfolk, the San Diego Rep, Commonweal in Lanesboro, the award winning film Autistic License, numerous live industrials and videos, and the Star Wars: Dark Forces audio book series for Lucasfilm. He is currently the artistic director of the Stage North Theater Company. He is also an actor, stunt coordinator and playwright; his comedy A Trick of the Light premiered recently at the Peninsula Playhouse in Door County, WI.
Andy Ducett (Poster Design)
Andy DuCett is from Winona, MN and received his MFA from the University of Illinois. He has been featured by Artforum, New American Paintings, The Daily Beast, Art Pulse Magazine, and The Huffington Post, as well as publications in Toronto, Berlin, Tokyo, and London. He is in the permanent collections of the Minneapolis Institute of Art and Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art and is on the curated registry of the Drawing Center in New York City. He has been commissioned to make work for the Walker Art Center, SITE Santa Fe, The Indianapolis Museum of Art, The Philbrook Museum of Art and is the recipient of a 2017 McKnight Visual Arts Fellowship. For more information please visit: http://andyducett.com