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This July, kidsActing teacher extraordinaire Jai Suire will be directing the phenomenal comedy The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, Abridged as the Summer 2011 Advanced Play Production, and she couldn't be more excited.To be frank, neither can the rest of us here at kidsActing Headquarters!This is truly an ideal marriage of artist and material, because in addition to being a talented teacher, a fantastic director, and an all-around charming person, Jai is pretty darn funny... AND a Shakespeare scholar, to boot-- with some serious world-class training under her belt.We took a moment to catch up with Jai in the Center Stage Texas lobby to get the straight scoop on this thrilling new chance for our young actors to (as Hamlet might say) "hold as 'twere the mirror up to nature"...
KA: Hi, Jai! So let's get right to it--WHY should students sign up for The Complete Works this summer?
Jai: First of all, Complete Works is really funny, but it's also brilliant - just like the plays Shakespeare wrote.But more than that, this is an accessible and fun way to experience work that will always be around, will always be done, and that's important because of what it is and what it references... Shakespeare is completely different from the new things that are being done now, and, actually, from all the other movements that have happened in Theatre History - there's been nothing else like him before or since, or even during... not in the English-speaking world nor really anywhere else.Even his contemporaries weren't writing the way he was writing.... It's just fascinating to me how different and fresh he was and is.It's work that, as an actor, is important to know and to do - and which can so readily translate to what's going on right now.For a high school student, the chance to connect something from so long ago to what's going on now - that's something that just helps you grow tremendously as an actor.
KA: Tell us a little about your own history with "The Bard."
Jai: Well, two years ago, I studied in Stratford-Upon-Avon, England, with the Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC).It was a month-long process - two weeks in Texas and two weeks in England; we studied the language, we studied how to perform it, how to break it apart, what is really being said, and how to have that suspension of disbelief that is required for Shakespeare... So this year, I'm going back to the same program - but I'm not going to be a student, I'm going to be a coach, assisting the students in the process of learning their Shakespearean monologues and scenes, coaching them on acting, and how to read and say the language... because Shakespeare was really meant to be performed - it makes such a huge difference when you get to see it and to do it, to go from the page to the stage.
KA: Wow.This is going to be quite a Shakespearean-themed summer for you, then.
Jai: I can't wait!The day after I land back in the U.S., we start The Complete Works... I'll be living Shakespeare all summer long; for myself, of course, I'm excited that with the RSC I'll be seeing Patrick Stewart at the Globe in London, among other shows there, and I'll be studying again with the amazing Jane Lapotaire, who I took master classes with before.But most of all, I'm so excited to work with this high school age group at kidsActing, a group with whom Shakespeare can really resonate.It will be the first time I've had the chance to teach it, to explain what to do with it. When I first went into performing Shakespeare, I thought: "I'm going to make this really naturalistic, really real," and I'm sure every actor does that - I mean, it's not exactly a novel idea.But once you learn to trust the language and to have the suspension of disbelief, you can really appreciate the heightened language and heightened emotions, and it just works.It's all there in the language:the actions, the characters, the stage directions, the subtext...And so I'm excited about getting students to that point - to discover why it's written that way, why something is in verse or why it's in prose, and what it really means.
KA: Do you have a favorite Shakespeare play?
Jai: Yes.The Winter's Tale is my favorite, and within that, Hermione is my favorite role, a part which I actually got to play at RSC.I went in with Jane Lapotaire to do this very intense monologue - where she's bloody and has lost a child, and has been falsely accused, and has been cast out from everything she knows -
KA: Pretty high stakes!
Jai: No kidding!And I myself, I hadn't had a child, I hadn't been through what that character had been through, but still, Jane got me there... you know, it was one of those moments as an actor when you're really present, when you're fully in it - and that's why we do it... and so that will always be a very special play to me.
KA: What's made kidsActing a special place for you as a teacher?
Jai: You know, it's amazing... sometimes you forget as you get older what you were like as a kid, and what a kid's mind can actually handle.I do a lot of character work now with my shows here, and have my students move as their character and answer questions about their character, and they are totally capable of that - of thinking like that, inhabiting their character.It works!We didn't have access to this kind of training in Beaumont, where I grew up. We had community theatre, but it wasn't like this!kidsActing offers an opportunity for kids to develop a craft early on, and which is going to make them stand out if they want to continue pursuing this.
KA: Any parting thoughts?
Jai: This summer will also be a great learning experience for me - and the ability to see the kids transform, that is always so rewarding--it always makes it all worth it; to be that person that at the beginning of a student's journey who made an impact-- well, Complete Works is the kind of play you can really do that with.Everyone will have a chance to shine in this show.I'm really happy about it.
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