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Exclusive Interview: Jamie Warrow and Brady Jacot of The Ringwald Theatre's 'Equus' · The BSB Podcast

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  Peter Schaefer's Equus is a powerful and provocative exploration of identity,
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  repression, and the search for meaning.
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  Now the Ringwall Theater brings this challenging classic to the stage with
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  a production that dives deep into the complicated world of Alan
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  and the people trying to understand him.
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  Today we're chatting with director Jamie Warrow and actor Brady Jacot about this
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  production. Thank you both for being here.
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  Thank you.
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  Yeah, thank you for having us.
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  So we're just days away from opening night.
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  Jamie, how are we feeling about it so far?
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  How are we feeling in this moment?
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  w we have a show and it's coming together.
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  We have a lot of moving parts in this one,
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  a little more creative than I think Equus is usually done.
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  We're doing it in the round. So that's
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  Okay.
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  exciting. And yeah, I think it's I think it's lovely,
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  really.
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  Bree, how about for you? Is it all coming together quite seamlessly,
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  or is it like has it kind of been a challenge to bring this the show together?
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  I mean I think every show is challenging to to bring together.
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  ~ this show in particular, I think there's just always more to find in the script.
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  It's a very well written script and there's always more to find for my character,
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  listening to what other people are saying about my character,
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  what other people are saying about other characters.
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  There's there's quite a bit to always dig out and ~ I'm still finding more things.
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  So but yeah, it is coming together.
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  Jamie, what was it about Equus that drew you to wanting to be a pr a part
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  of this particular production?
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  Well, ~ you know, when so Joe Bailey,
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  the Brandy Joe and Joe Bailey and I go way back.
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  I was one of the original founding members of the Ringwald back when they first
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  started. I lasted there,
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  that's awesome.
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  yeah, I lasted for about nine years ~ for a lot of reasons.
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  I decided to break off and do other things.
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  So Joe Bailey and I specifically,
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  though, have remained close friends and we have breakfast every Friday.
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  at the fly trap, I'll plug that.
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  And ~ Joe Bailey said to me one day,
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  ~ I would like you to read this.
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  And I was like, no, I hard pass on this one.
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  And it's why? Because the text,
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  as Brady noted before, it it's a it's a dense play.
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  There are a lot of words, but the but the themes and the storytelling
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  and the and the the experiences of the characters are are very hard.
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  And ~ I was like, I I just
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  Had
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  a hard pass on it. So I wasn't drawn to it at all.
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  And then, ~ so this was March of this year,
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  and in May, I was writing ~ in my journal,
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  and I was sort of still thinking about the play,
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  and I was starting to relate to the main character of Dysart.
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  And one of the themes that came up for me was this idea of create
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  of ~ abandoning creativity for security.
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  So I started thinking about that.
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  I was writing about that. And as I was doing that in May,
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  two months later, having not spoken to Joe Bailey about it at all,
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  ~ he emails me a picture or a photograph from the London production,
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  which is currently going on or had been going on at the time.
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  And he said, you know, Happy Thursday.
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  And I was like, Okay, let's do it.
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  And he was like, seriously?
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  Yeah.
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  And I was like, Yeah. So I think that there's a long way around of answering.
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  This concept of what Dysart is doing,
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  which is trading his creativity,
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  or what I would call trading his authentic life,
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  or what he would like to be doing with his life,
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  his true self, if you will, for a safe,
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  secure, false way of living,
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  ~ really started to resonate with me and really started to inspire
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  my imagination on how we could tell this story.
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  So that's what
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  ultimately roped me in.
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  So it was like an eventual yes.
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  It was like it was like go before you think about it,
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  yes, two months later.
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  Sure.
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  No, but I love that because it obviously shows that there's something about
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  it that just as you're kind of thinking about it,
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  your mind was like, yeah, there is a something here that I can not just relate to,
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  but I want to tell the story about.
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  Yes. Yeah, no, it's it's like Brady said,
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  it's a very well written play.
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  The story is very intense and ~ yeah,
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  it captured my imagination. I think it started subconsciously and then
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  it just kept going and going and now I can't stop thinking about it.
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  So
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  Brady, how about for you? Was it you know,
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  was it love at first sight for this play,
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  or did you need a little bit of coaxing to become part of the the production?
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  I've al I've always loved this play.
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  I've always sort of ~ w I've I've wanted to play this role for a while.
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  ~ I just I I think I like a challenging role.
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  I like a role that ~ will push me out of my comfort zone,
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  which this role definitely does in in a lot of different ways.
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  But yeah, ~ when somebody sent me the info about auditions I I was jumping
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  at the bit just 'cause I I
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  Uh-huh.
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  love this play. Yeah.
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  you're playing Alan and Alan's such a complicated character.
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  How did you begin figuring out who he is beneath everything the audience sees
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  on the surface?
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  Yeah, I think ~ starting with ~ kind of everything that happens
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  before the play, everything that is referenced happening before the play,
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  there's a lot of flashbacks, there's a lot of I don't know,
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  there's a lot of different puzzle pieces of Alan's life that are kind
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  of sprinkled throughout the play.
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  And so I think the challenge is trying to put those together in a
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  way that is honest for the audience.
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  ~
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  as
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  opposed to I don't know, playing into ~ a caricature of of of what it is.
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  ~ so yeah, starting with events and piecing together a timeline
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  of everything that happens in the play and ~ trying to justify all
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  of the things that he does in the play is the the goal.
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  ~
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  Would you say that's maybe also the pi perhaps the biggest challenge,
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  or is there another challenge that you feel ~ comes with portraying Alan?
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  ~ I would say that's one of the biggest challenges.
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  ~ along with that I think is making Alan likable to the audience.
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  ~ if you know, if the audience doesn't like the one of the main characters,
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  then they're not gonna have a great time at the show.
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  ~ and I think finding finding the honesty,
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  finding the heart in what happens,
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  what Alan does is is ~
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  the biggest challenge and helps the audience sort of relate and empathize with with
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  Alan. ~ so it's it's almost like starting the show,
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  everyone's like, Okay, there's this kid that did this horrible thing.
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  I don't know how I feel about it.
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  And so my job is to change their minds,
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  if that makes sense.
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  You know, along those lines, Jamie,
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  when you have a a story kind of like that,
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  where there's maybe you have to convince people to to like a character,
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  or even with some incredibly intense or complicated themes such as
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  are present in the show, how do you approach creating a production that,
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  you know, respects those themes while still making accessible
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  to a contemporary audience?
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  ~ I think Schaefer's play is so well written that he does half the work for me.
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  There's empathy written into the play.
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  And I think as long as we're honest,
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  ~ and we're honest storytellers,
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  ~ it's going to come through. I will say,
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  Brady's audition was a chef's kiss.
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  he gave both Joe Bailey and I goosebumps in the audition.
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  So it was it's really easy. And I guess from a technical standpoint,
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  when you cast a show, ~
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  You know, if you cast it well,
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  you will have ~ you know, an an a well of talent to help tell this story
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  honestly and true to true to whatever vision you know we're going for.
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  as a director, what has been your biggest challenge to directing Equus?
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  There's a lot of moving parts with this.
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  And I I have to say it's the one of,
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  if not the most difficult scripts that I've had to ~ or that I have directed.
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  I I've I've said out loud in the rehearsal room I'm afraid of this script because
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  I because of ~ like to your prior question,
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  there it can tip very easily into dishonesty or or not an authentic
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  way of telling the story. ~ when I say moving parts,
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  there's
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  there's
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  this balance between what is fantasy and what is reality and and what sort
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  of design elements can we use ~ to best tell that story.
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  And we've incorporated certain design elements that I think are really unique
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  to our production. ~ I mentioned that we were operating in the round,
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  which I think is a a wonderful way of telling the story to keep it moving because
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  it is a longer play. And so you have this action always going ~ you know,
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  keeping the thing keeping the the ~ motion,
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  you know
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  working in circles and working and you have all the characters on stage
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  all the time. And ~ yeah,
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  there's just I without tipping my hand too much or or giving away some of
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  the ~ more exciting things about the way we're telling our story,
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  so many pieces, all the design elements have to come together and
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  ~ and to incorporate that. I've had more co-
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  ~
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  Or designers working on this play than I thought.
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  I have a vocal coach, I have a dialect coach,
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  I have all you know, your standard set,
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  ~ scenic design, lighting design,
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  sound design all have to work together.
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  So, you know, as a director, I I consider myself sort of a distiller
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  of everybody's vision and distilling it into something that's cohesive,
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  right? And also in
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  Sure.
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  and has this best storytelling.
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  So yeah, that's been hard.
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  I mean that is super incredible though and it sounds like it it speaks
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  to how you said there's a lot of moving parts.
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  There's so much there's so many layers to the show to make it go together,
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  but everything is is coming together,
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  which is the beauty of of theater.
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  Yeah, yeah.
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  So Brady, you you know, Alan has a lot happening psychologically throughout
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  the play, ~ to put it simply. How do you prepare yourself for some
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  of the more emotionally intense scenes that happen in Equus?
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  ~ you know, I maybe this is a hot take,
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  but I don't necessarily prepare any sort of way.
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  It's sort of just I besides like maybe ten seconds before
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  my first entrance, just breathing into it,
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  ~ it's I sort of feel like the text carries me,
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  ~ emotionally speaking.
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  Especially I would say especially in the second act,
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  There's this really just again,
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  it's such a well written play,
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  but it's this great build of things slowly happening over time.
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  And as long as I keep that build going and sort of have checkpoints for myself,
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  then it it's it's all there at the end.
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  ~ emotionally speaking.
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  For sure.
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  It's it's it's a lot of breath work too,
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  I think. ~ you know, if you can breathe honestly to what you're doing,
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  then I think it
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  It automatically will read a lot better.
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  For sure. I mean, that makes sense.
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  And how do you approach the relationship ~ of Alan's relationship with Dysart
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  and both his and his parents? Because there's a lot of complicated relationships
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  in the show.
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  Yeah, absolutely. ~ I think,
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  you know, it's it's a little bit at a time because they're there's such complex
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  relationships. But ~ especially with Dysart,
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  ~ I've been thinking a lot about just how the how
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  the relationship evolves throughout the play,
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  ~ where it starts, where it is in the middle,
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  where it ends, ~ and trying to tweak ~
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  my tactics and what I'm trying to get from him based on that relationship
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  ~ with him. ~ so the the tactics will change if I like him a little
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  bit more than if I dislike him a little bit more.
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  ~ and same same with the parents.
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  there's also the you know all of the years that I lived with them that aren't
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  in the script. So it's how do we incorporate that?
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  ~ those sorts of things. So
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  Yeah, a little bit at the time.
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  ~ sort of just revisiting certain scenes every day and being like,
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  okay, there's something something I'm missing here.
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  Let's try and figure out what it is.
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  ~ so yeah, it's the I guess the job is is never finished,
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  but we just keep trying.
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  For sure. And you know, Jamie,
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  there is definitely a very theatrical,
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  maybe almost dream like quality to Equus.
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  And you mentioned kind of you have a village that is kind of coming together
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  to bring this, but how do you feel like the staging,
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  lighting, movement, other elements are really coming together to capture that that
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  those elements of the theatrical and the dreamlike quality?
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  It's been a very collaborative process,
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  probably a little bit more collaborative than I usually do,
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  although I enjoy having ~ everybody being able to ~ give ideas
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  and and and w play in the room.
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  But this time it's really been from everybody,
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  like what do you think about this?
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  What do you think about that? And and you know,
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  having these ideas.
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  come out and then actually play with them.
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  Like we we've said, okay, let's try that.
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  that's not working. Let's try it this way.
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  Let's try it. And ~ you know, I joke because I have actors who are actually,
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  you know, bringing so much to the table.
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  I'm like, do you want to direct this?
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  You know, like, you know, I'm just teasing them a little,
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  but it's it's
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  Sure.
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  fun. ~ everybody, I have to say the team is impeccable.
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  We all get along. There's a great energy.
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  People are excited in the room to work on this play.
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  ~
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  So I think it's a it's been a ~ a really successful experiment so far.
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  And we'll see how that manifests on Friday when we open.
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  But ~ it's been a lot of play and it's been a joy ~ to watch it unfold for sure.
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  A lot of work. A lot
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  of play.
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  So then one final question for both of you,
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  and Jamie, I'll start with you.
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  Just what do you hope audiences take away from this production of Equus?
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  ~ I want I want the audience to have a cathartic event event.
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  I want them to ~ invest emotionally in the play and walk away from
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  it ~ with some sort of catharsis.
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  Yeah.
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  Great answer. Brady, how about for you?
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  ~ yeah, I was gonna say the exact same thing actually.
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  No. but yeah.
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  Mm-hmm.
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  Copy it, right?
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  I I don't know. I I always want people to think about what they've just seen,
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  ~ and think about what how it applies to the world today.
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  ~ and whether or not there's more questions that they need to
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  ask themselves or those around them,
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  ~ about the world or the way that they live life.
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  So yeah.
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  Beautiful beautiful answers from both of you.
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  Thank you so much for being here.
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  Both it it's been such a pleasure talking with you.
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  We are so excited for the show to arrive at the Ringwald.
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  so thanks for coming on and chatting about it.
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  Thank you.
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  Yeah, thank
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  you.
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  So Equus arrives at the Ringwall Theater on October ninth
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  and runs throughout November second.
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  So get your tickets now and we'll see you at the show.