Interview: Jess Chayes and I WILL LOOK FORWARD TO THIS LATER at New Ohio Theatre 4/4-4/23

The Assembly is presenting the World Premiere of I Will Look Forward to This Later, with text by Kate Benson and Emily Louise Perkins, directed by Jess Chayes with dramaturgy by Stephen Aubrey, and production design by Nick Benacerraf. The show will run at the New Ohio Theatre on Christopher Street in New York City from April 4th to April 23rd.

I Will Look Forward to This Later is a bitingly funny and tragic examination of art-making and evolution. Inspired by Kabuki theater and interviews with the company's mentors, The Assembly and a multigenerational ensemble ponder the mysteries of bourbon, coffee, and what makes a meaningful life. Broadwayworld.com interviewed Jess Chayes about her career and the upcoming show.

Chayes is a Brooklyn-based director and founding co-Artistic Director of The Assembly, with whom she has co-created and directed eight original productions. Recent directing includes: New Georges, Ars Nova, Dutch Kills and workshops at NYTW, Williamstown Theatre Festival and The Vineyard Theatre. Associate directing: Peter and the Starcatcher (Broadway and New World Stages), Misery (Broadhurst Theatre).

When did you first take an interest in theatre/performing arts?

I have always loved writing and the arts. I was very serious about writing poetry when I was younger. My obsession with theatre started when I first attended French Woods Festival, a performing arts camp, when I was about eleven. I was introduced to incredible plays and musicals, and a whole range of possibilities of telling stories onstage, and I fell in love with the theater. During high school, I tried acting, directing and writing musicals, and found that directing was the best match for my personality and strengths.

Important mentors?

I learned an immense amount about directing and theater from two of my professors at Wesleyan University - Claudia Tatinge Nascimento and Yuri Kordonsky - and those lessons have formed the DNA of how I direct and even how I think about theater. In New York, I've learned a great deal from directors I've assisted, including Neil Pepe, Will Frears, Anne Kauffman, Alex Timbers and the late and beloved Roger Rees. I got to work very closely with Roger during my time working on Peter and the Starcatcher on Broadway and at New World Stages, and it is one of my most treasured memories. As a producer and artistic leader, Susan Bernfield, artistic director of New Georges, has been an incredible mentor and support.

Do you have any favorite performers or performances?

I love the Assembly company actors: Ben Beckley, Edward Bauer and Emily Louise Perkins (and frequent collaborators Anna Elliott, Kate Benson, and Moti Margolin). I love them because each of them brings an utterly distinct presence as well as tons of intellect, craft and heart. I love having a shared language. Actors outside the Assembly I love include Elizabeth Marvel, Keilly McQuail, Susan Pourfar, and many others. Of things I have seen recently: I thought Sophie Okonedo was incredible in The Crucible.

Why is working on I Will Look Forward To This Later unique to your career?

I Will Look Forward to this Later was developed by the New Ohio Theatre and IRT Theater as a part of their Archive Residency program, which means the project was commissioned and supported by those two theaters. This incredible support has allowed the company to build the show incrementally over the course of a year, alternating script revisions, movement workshops, interview and research periods, and more traditional staging workshops. The knowledge that our world premiere was scheduled and supported is a very new experience for The Assembly, and allowed us to create in a very safe and supportive space. For each new project The Assembly embarks on, we try out a new process of working. This time, the company worked with two lead playwrights, Emily Louise Perkins, an Assembly company member, and Kate Benson, a frequent Assembly collaborator. This process of creating a new play with two head writers, but a mandate to create collaboratively, was a unique opportunity. I think it results in a project that feels both collective and has a unified voice.

Tell us about the excitement of being a part of a World Premiere.

There is nothing quite like working on a new play for the first time. World premieres are exciting because you are making the first set of decisions about how a play can be done, what the bounds of the world could look like, and what container might best fit that particular play, even as the play itself is evolving - it's a moving target and your understanding needs to evolve with it. It's a great challenge and a great privilege.

What would you like Broadwayworld.com audiences to know about I Will Look Forward To This Later.

I Will Look Forward To This Later is a play about how people keep evolving - through losses and gains and great pain and triumph. It's dark and complicated, but also whimsical and funny, and it comes from a discomfort and curiosity about the notion of legacy. What do we leave behind, and why are we so preoccupied with that?

Tell us a little about the cast and creative team of the show.

The cast includes three long-term Assembly members, Emily Louise Perkins (also co-writer), Ben Beckley and Edward Bauer (Assembly co-artistic director) joined by Linda Marie Larson, James Himelsbach and Vinie Burrows. The Assembly is an ensemble of young artists (we're all in our 30's), and for this play, we wanted to explore what it is like to be an artist over a longer period of time. We have brought in three incredible guest actors, and they have been an invaluable addition to the play and the creative process - the roles were tailored to and developed by them over the course of this past year. In terms of creative team, Nick Benacerraf, an Assembly co-artistic director and our production designer, has created an absolutely brilliant world of the play which reflects beautifully our themes of evolution and attempt. Stephen Aubrey, our dramaturg, helps me make sense of everything, and I've been thrilled to bring on board a movement director, Katie Rose McLaughlin, who has helped to build and refine the movement vocabulary of the piece. I am also thrilled to collaborate again with Asa Wember, our resident sound designer and Kate Fry, our costume designer. And I'm working for the first time with Christina Watanabe, our lighting designer. It's an incredible team working together to tell a very intricate and detailed story.

For the future?

I will next be directing a play for the excellent company Lesser America, and then The Assembly will be taking our critically-acclaimed play HOME/SICK to the Odyssey Theater in LA in June.

For more information about Jess Chayes, visit her web site at www.jesschayes.com.

Performances of I Will Look Forward to This Later will take place at New Ohio Theatre, located at 154 Christopher Street between Greenwich and Washington Streets in New York City. The theatre is accessible from the #1 train to Christopher St. or A, B, C, D, E, F or M train to West 4th St. For info visit http://www.NewOhioTheatre.org. Tickets are $18 and can be purchased online at http://www.NewOhioTheatre.org or by calling 212-352-3101. Like them on Facebook and follow them on Instagram and Twitter.

Photo Credit: Courtesy of Jess Chayes

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