10 Questions
Take Ten - JESSICA LEFKOW
19th century math whiz Ada Lovelace is known as the first programmer for her work with her mentor and friend Charles Babbage and his “Analytical Engine,” considered the first computer. She was also the only legitimate child of the womanizing English poet Lord Byron. Playwright Lauren Gunderson’s telling of her story, Ada and the Engine, is currently onstage at Avant Bard Theatre. DC native JESSICA LEFKOW plays both Ada’s mother, Anabelle Byron, a jilted wife who tries to push her daughter into an advantageous marriage, and the Scottish mathematician and astronomer Mary Somerville, who helped Lovelace in her career. In this week’s Take Ten from theatreWashington, Lefkow (who has been nominated for a Helen Hayes Award for outstanding supporting actress in We Happy Few Productions’ Lovers' Vows) talks about incredible costumes--one with people hiding under it, one that caused an accident, and one that was “brazen in its scrumptiousness”--the arresting imagery of her favorite play, and the job that was bad enough she daydreamed of crashing her car to avoid it. Ada and the Engine, directed by Megan Behm runs through April 5 at Gunston Arts Center.
1) What was the first show you ever saw, and what impact did it have?
I was taken at age eight or nine (?) to see Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat at Catholic University’s Hartke Theatre, and what stayed with me was the COAT!!! It was so brazen in its scrumptiousness, an apt symbol for the whole groovy spectacle. Theater was clearly the place to be if you wanted to break all the rules of ordinary existence.
2) What was your first involvement in a theatrical production?
Performing in the 2nd grade, as Mother Cloud, in The Friendship of Mother Cloud. My mom made a huge skirt-dress-bubble-garment-thing out of a queen-sized sheet that she tie-died grey, out from under which seven raindrop-clad classmates rolled when I took center stage. It was epic.
3) What’s your favorite play or musical, and why do you like it so much?
Today, it’s Romeo & Juliet, probably because we were just talking about it in rehearsal. My introduction to R&J made me want to be an actor, but I am only returning to it- really reading it deeply- at this time in my life. The sheer wealth of arresting imagery and unique characterization in the writing, in every emotional register, is jaw-dropping.
4) What’s the worst day job you ever took?
I was driving one day through Rock Creek Park on my way to the law firm where I’d been hired as a filing clerk, and found myself dispassionately thinking, ‘If I crash, I won’t have to go to work today.’ I quit before the morning was over. Give me the service industries for grunt work, every time.
5) What is your most embarrassing moment in the theatre?
One of them: I was on tour as the Lady Olivia in Twelfth Night with The National Players, when early in one performance, I climbed the upstage steps, swept through the stage right arch of our steel-framed traveling set, and my voluminous brocade skirt caught. The entire set juddered three feet to the left - BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! - sounding like a chorus of wrecking balls as it went, before releasing me. Not the effect I was hoping to create for the entrance, and for the rest of the evening, everyone in Illyria had to struggle to make it on and off stage.
6) What are you enjoying most about working on Ada and the Engine for Avant Bard Theatre?
Playwright Lauren Gunderson’s script is full of juice, and director Megan Behm brings so much pleasure to the extraction of it, that it’s just really fun to be in the room. We’re a small cast (Matthew Pauli, John Reynolds, Dina Soltan, me) and with stage manager Tsaitami Dulchicela making six of us every night, we’re able to get down deep into the piece in a supportive, happy way- lots of love and laughter around the work.
7) Other than your significant other, who’s your dream date (living or dead) and why?
My kids and their sig os, after a show. Every one of them has such singular, smart and trenchant things to say about every aspect of our work/craft that I really value their feedback. And then we’d get to gossip, catch up, and rebuild the world while I fill my eyes up with them.
8) What is your dream role/job?
These days I’m thirsty for as many dynamic playmates across the entire production team as I can get. No matter the role, great things always happen when good leaders and answerable management support rooms full of curious minds and open hearts.
9) If you could travel back in time, what famous production or performance would you choose to see?
The first production of Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar, for Marc Antony’s surgical dissection of the conspirators, (and, by extension, us) in the funeral scene. How electrifying it would have been to be so blatantly, expertly, gorgeously manipulated without having the slightest foreknowledge of the script’s workings.
10) What advice would you give to an 8-year-old smitten by theatre / for a graduating MFA student?
Always Be Learning. Take every chance you can to seek the edges of your experience, and fall forward with relish into the unknown.
JESSICA LEFKOW is a performer, director and teacher, whose local credits include performances at Olney Theater Center, 1st Stage, Keegan Theatre, Taffety Punk Theatre Company, We Happy Few, Brave Spirits Theatre, dog&ponydc. Regional and touring credits include appearances at American Shakespeare Center, Gulfshore Playhouse. She is currently nominated for the Helen Hayes Best Supporting Actress in a Play Award (Helen) for her work in We Happy Few’s Lovers' Vows. This is her third Helen Hayes nomination, (2011, Outstanding New Play or Musical for dog&ponydc/Beertown and 2018 Best Ensemble for 1st Stage/Swimming with Whales). Jessica is a Lecturing Professor at Montgomery County Community College in Rockville, MD. She holds a BFA (Acting) from The Catholic University of America and an MFA Degree in Classical Acting from George Washington University. Jessica is an Equity Member Candidate, a member of AFTRA, and is Mom to DJE. Other projects and credits can be found on her website; www.jessicalefkow.com
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