30 Days of NYMF 2008: Love Jerry

By J.T. Arbogast (Producer and Cast Member)

Red cowboy boots…that’s what I remember about my first meeting with Megan Gogerty, who penned book/music/lyrics on Love Jerry.  It was 2001 and we were both entering graduate school at the University of Texas at Austin, all the new MFA students were attending this outdoor BBQ and here’s this playwright with red cowboy boots on as though she may have been Lori Singer’s stand-in during the filming of Footloose.  Those boots made me smile.  And Megan, with her quick wit and infectious laugh, did as well.

Later that fall, I attended the first reading of Love Jerry as a part of the Monday Night Reading Series and was blown away at what I was watching and hearing.  On the surface this was a play about child sexual abuse, but in reality as I listened and found myself becoming invested in these characters, I realized very quickly it was so much more than that.  It’s a play about love and forgiveness, tragedy and hope.  I spoke to Megan afterward and expressed my interest in being involved in any way.  Shortly thereafter, my journey working with Megan and Love Jerry began.

As an actor, we so rarely get the chance to do work that has the power to change the world.  And now, as I am surrounded by this amazingly talented and enthusiastic cast and creative team, I am reminded everyday just how much power this play holds.  It’s a truthful and heart wrenchingly beautiful depiction of a family in crisis and the love that binds then together.  It humanizes an epidemic in this country in a way that only theatre can.

Love Jerry makes us laugh, Love Jerry makes us cry but, more importantly, Love Jerry makes us think.  Is it possible to hate someone and love them at the same time?  Love Jerry asks that question and I hope that those reading this will come to the show and answer it for themselves.