The e-mail had a sense of urgency, to put it mildly. The words “PLEASE HELP ME!” appeared in the subject line.
No, it was not a kidnap victim. It was a high school senior who wanted, well, to direct King Lear.
The e-mail recipient was Colette Rice, artistic director of Actors Shakespeare Company, the professional company in residence at New Jersey City University.
The desperate e-mailer was Jessica Perez, a 17-year-old senior at McNair Academic in Jersey City.
Sara Solberg, a Shakespeare scholar, had taught at McNair and sparked Jessica’s love for King Lear. Solberg has since died of brain cancer, but her example lives on for any adult who wants to awaken artistic passion in a young person.
“It was the first play Sara taught us,” Jessica recalled, “and it was interesting to see how she interpreted Lear.”
Jessica hoped to direct a version of the play on behalf the Actors Shakespeare Company.
“This is a young woman who is very serious about what she wants.” – Colette Rice
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The play
Jessica says that when Solberg taught her Lear class, it was a pretty complex choice for a starter play.
“It was a very interesting play to be introduced to when the only thing you know is Romeo and Juliet and maybe Julius Caesar,” Jessica said. “Caesar is about politics and loyalty, but Lear goes deeper.”
She added, “It explores the relationship between father and daughter in that time period. It’s complicated. It brings you to family, then to country, then to what’s expected of you in general.”
For those who may have forgotten the play or maybe didn’t have Sara Solberg to walk you through it, here’s the gist:
King Lear, in old age, retires and divides up Britain among his three daughters. He asks them how much they love him. The two oldest, Goneril and Regan, flatter him and are rewarded with land and marriage. Lear’s youngest and most beloved daughter, Cordelia, refuses to flatter her father, proclaiming only that she loves him as much as a daughter should. Lear, unjustly enraged, gives her no land.
As with a lot of Shakespeare tragedies, chaos ensues — blindness, insanity, death.
Directorial debut
But none of it daunted Jessica Perez.
“I’ve acted in some very small things,” she said, “but being able to direct allows me to see it as an outsider. It’s a complicated position to be in. I know what’s going on and I’m seeing the story unfold. It unfolds the way I want it to unfold, but also the way the actors want it to unfold.”
Ah, now there’s the rub. How can a bunch of very experienced adult actors take direction from a teenager who has never directed a play before, let alone King Lear?
“To take on the entire play would be a bit much,” Rice acknowledged. “It’s not like starting with A Comedy of Errors. Even I haven’t directed King Lear.
The solution was to do six to seven scenes with “connective material” that Jessica would write. Rice and her crew “talked about what would be a realistic project to undertake and how to go about telling the story.”
Jessica was on the case. “She produced the script in about four and half days with a lot of thought,” Rice said. “This wasn’t someone having a whim. This is a young woman who was very serious about what she wants.”
Several actors from the company stepped up to the plate. “They volunteered their time to help this young woman realize her dream and learn about Shakespeare,” Rice said. “Directing will give her an experience she will always carry with her.”
Rice said the process would be like a classroom situation, in which Jessica learns how to run a rehearsal and how to talk to actors.
She will be fully mentored with three ASC directors on hand to help.
A learning experience
“It’s very scary,” Jessica acknowledged.”It’s new for me. But I’m not telling them what to do. They’re telling me what I should be telling them to do.”
Rice said they’ve had their first two “design meetings,” a term that had to be explained to Jessica. It means a meeting about the set, props, and wardrobe.
“She’s learning a lot about the world of being a director,” Rice said.
ASC is very serious about being “text-centered.”
“We look at the text of the play,” Rice said. “We argue the material from the words on the page.”
In other words, any change you make as an actor or director will be challenged.
“You have to prove it with the words,” Rice said. “Where did you find it? How do you know it is real and true?”
Peter Galman, who plays Lear, echoes that sentiment. “We go back to the basics, the original folio to dissect clues and get the true intent of what Shakespeare was trying to present,” he said.
Jessica’s vision
Within the framework of Shakespeare’s original intent, Jessica has a very original vision for the production.
“She has a noir film theme for her work, which is very interesting,” Rice said. “I’m very impressed with her. She has amazing follow-through, strong ideas, and she’s thought things through. Any college would be fortunate to have her.”
Jessica isn’t sure yet if she will pursue a career in the theater.
Though she wants to steer clear of math and likes to float words like “auteur,” she says, “The theater isn’t going to go away, but you can’t just go into theater and expect that to hold you. You have to have some other work, some other profession.”
The words of one of her teachers haunt her. “My teacher told me that most of the waiters in bars in New York are out-of-work actors. It’s a pretty tough racket.”
But for now, both the professionals and the student are happy with the arrangement.
For her part Rice says, “We are right on mission. We are helping someone who is already passionate about Shakespeare.”
Though she admits to being nervous, Jessica is very excited about the experience. “It’s very interesting to see what goes on behind everything,” she said. “Everyone is extremely talented. I have no regrets at all. It’s really really cool.”
The play runs April 8-10 at the West Side Theatre, 285 West Side Ave., Jersey City, 7:30 p.m. Friday; 3 p.m., Saturday and Sunday. For more information, check out www.ascnj.org.
Kate Rounds can be reached at krounds@hudsonreporter.com..