My good friend and Jeff Award winning director, Nat Swift, has just opened his latest directorial opus with the Midwestern premiere of The Sweetest Swing in Baseball. In case you missed it, I've had a long standing link to his blog which followed the shows developement up until previews. Now, the show's open. Forgive me as I steal the show description straight from the website: “The Sweetest Swing in Baseball follows the story of Dana Fielding, a successful artist whose latest exhibition flops along with her personal life. To dig her self out of her crisis, she is admitted to a psychiatric hospital and seeks inspiration from the unlikeliest of sources — the bad boy of America's favorite pastime, Darryl Strawberry.”

Nat is an ensemble member of the Eclipse Theatre Company, a Chicago based company who has gained recognition through their commitment to a single playwright with each season. This is a very bold approach for any theater company because the run the risk of committing to a potentially shitty season. Good thing for them (and their audience) they know what they’re doing and, they have a long list of accolades and awards to prove it.

Nat has been with Eclipse for almost eight years and, he has been involved with a lot of strong theater because of that relationship. The Sweetest Swing in Baseball runs through April 23rd at the Victory Gardens Theater. If you’re in the neighborhood, check it out.