Belfast Blues opened January 20, 2005, off-Broadway at The Culture Project on Bleecker Street. Originally produced by The Virtual Theatre Project at The Black Dahlia, Los Angeles, in 2003, directed by Charles Haid the current production remains a timely piece.
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The creation of Belfast Blues was a highly collaborative process, one that began in April of 2002 and culminated on November 23, 2003 with Geraldine winning the 2003 LA Ovation for best solo performance, the first in a series of awards garnered by Belfast Blues. It went on to win the Garland for best performance, and two Los Angeles Drama Critic Circle awards . . . one for writing and one for best digital imagery.

In March of 2002, several members of The Virtual Theatre Project began working with Geraldine, who had been interested in telling her stories for many years. Our first step was to have Marc Solomon record Geraldine's spontaneous telling of those stories. It was an amazing session, one that allowed us to capture and begin work on Hughes' vast tapestry of tales, tales told from her perspective as a child coming of age in the war-torn Belfast of the 1980's.

Soon after that session, Geraldine and Kim Terrell headed to Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. There they worked with Sharon Andrews and Jonathan Christman, both professors in Wake's Theatre Department. It was at Wake Forest that the order of the stories, the transitions and structure, and the tone and feel of what was to become, Belfast Blues, emerged.

Sharon Andrews directed the first series of workshop productions and Jonathan Christman developed the initial stage design.

Back in Los Angeles, Geraldine and Kim worked daily. Writing, rewriting, researching, discovering, stumbling, experimenting . . . keeping what worked, discarding what didn't.

It was time for an audience.

Belfast Blues was performed for six different audiences, some in North Carolina, some in Los Angeles. Encouraged by constructive feedback, Geraldine launched into a second set of stories and The Virutal Theatre Project put together a team for the Los Angeles premiere.

Geraldine asked Steven Klein to produce. Charles Haid agreed to direct the Los Angeles Premiere. Matt Shakman graciously allowed The Virtual Theatre to use his theatre, The Black Dahlia. At this point Jonathan Christman decided to continue with the project and design the second act and Jonathan Snipes agreed to come on board to design the sound.

Theatre is a journey . . . from the mere shadow of an idea held in the mind and heart to the staging of that idea, there are many, many twists and turns in the road. Developing "Belfast Blues" has been an amazingly worthwhile journey for all concerned.