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Now Playing: Q & A with Jeremy Young

Opening Scene I played a college professor accused of sexual harassment in
Madison Academic Lobby “Oleanna”, a David Mamet production. If you are not famil-
iar Mamet is a playwright who wrote “Glengarry Glen Ross”
and “The Spanish Prisoner.” Shortly after I graduated from
Tammy Yosich waits in the lobby of Madison Academic High School. She is slightly early for the hope-
fully pleasant chat with the professor. Union, I played Brutus in “Julius Caesar.” I enjoy some of the
classical pieces. My first role at Union was in the Shakespeare
Action Entering stage right is Jeremy Young, wearing a t-shirt that reads: “I can’t right now. I’m rehearsing.” play, “Comedy of Errors.” Performing in plays that have been

The two enter the large theater and take seats on the front row. around for hundreds of years you really start to feel the gravi-
ty of what theatre has been and what it can be.
ZGP Supporting Character
When did theatre start for you? ZGP

Lead Character Jeremy Before theatre, did you have a passion for other arts?
Jeremy
In Pontotoc, Mississippi, the high school did not have a theatre program per se, they had a junior and senior play My mom was a piano player and singer, gifted singer, and I’m
put on by students with the help of faculty, including an English teacher. I auditioned for the junior play and was not sure she ever took lessons. She was educated to teach art,
cast in a small role, but I loved it. Fortunately, my junior English teacher was directing the senior play and felt but once my brother and I were born she became a stay-at-
I would be good for that production. My small junior role turned into the lead for the senior production. All I home mom. But, she was always painting, drawing, singing
knew was I loved the theatre and I could figure out the rest as I went along. After high school I enrolled in Union and playing the piano. She encouraged us to take up the arts
University. Dialogue and allowed me to take piano lessons, however it did not stick.
ZGP I sure wish it had because I find the keyboard or piano would
How did you find Union from Mississippi? be great to compose on. I did take up guitar and still play.
Jeremy
A young man who played in our band and lined up gigs for us had graduated Union University. He suggested
I come and check out Union, it has a great atmosphere and a smaller university. After touring and considering ZGP
Ole Miss, I quickly found I was woefully behind the other theatre students and the program. Most of them had How important is music to a production?
several productions and training under them: including competing theatrically. I had been in two plays. So right Jeremy
after high school I enrolled in Union University here in Jackson where David Burke leads my theatre studies and Oh, it’s hand in hand, they go great together. I try to find pieces of music that exemplify what is going on with
acting. the characters. I remember one of the first shows I directed when I started at Northside was “The Tempest” by
When I got to Union and began absorbing everything, working with the Jackson Theatre Guild, and within the- Shakespeare. I was really into the band, The Smashing Pumpkins at the time and I thought there are a lot of
atre groups here including “Teen Theatre” even though I was a college student. It was the best move and provid- songs on the “Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness” album that would work with this show. So, I chose songs
ed a lot more opportunities and experience than I might have received at Ole Miss. I literally lived and breathed from that album to play for the intro, between acts, and even during a wedding scene. When I started here at
theatre from then on. Madison Academic, I wanted to do a crazy version of “Romeo and Juliet”, I’m talking post-apocalyptic, futuristic
version of the legendary tale. I allowed my students to bring in tracks that felt would fit the version of the play we
ZGP were planning, you know out there, crazy tunes that you can’t quite figure out the instrumentation type tracks.
Let’s talk about “True West”, a play you were cast while at Union. The response was great and was able to put the soundtrack to this futuristic depiction of Romeo and Juliet from
Jeremy around ten-twelve tracks from the students and myself.
The story evolves around two brothers – one is a screenwriter and the other a drifter, vagabond type character.
The drifter blows into town after their mom goes on vacation and convinces the Hollywood established screen- ZGP
writer brother to write a story he wants told. Chaos, disagreements, and historical unrest emerge between the How much input comes from you and how much is student driven for a production?
siblings. I played the drifter brother. This is probably one of my favorites shows I’ve been in. The play was direct- Jeremy
ed by a student and I had to play a drunken, unruly, half dressed person. It was a unique production for Union. I try to encourage my students to own their role one hundred percent. During auditions, I’m talking through

the characters and what I’m expecting to see from that character (the actor). However, once the show is cast
ZGP and table reads begin, we start to explore the relationship between the characters and how that should play out
What other roles have you been cast?
Jeremy Continued Next Page

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