BWW Interviews: Jamie Farmer, A Life in the Theater

At first glance, your initial response to Jamie Farmer is to think that she is strikingly beautiful. Her expressive face is framed by a head of gorgeous curls, giving her the look of some famous artist's model, the kind of legendary figure who sent soldiers off to war, inspired great art to be created or caused would-be kings to abdicate their thrones.

Once you get to know her a little better, you probably say to yourself that Jamie Farmer is wonderfully charming, delightfully friendly and amazingly warm. When you see her onstage, pursuing her art, thrilling audiences with her tremendous talents, you begin to see a clearer portrait of the young woman: one who is totally devoted to her craft and who can lose herself within any role she's given.

With an impressive resume (for proof of her impressive range and versatility, she's played everyone from Charlotte in Charlotte's Web to Margot Frank in The Diary of Anne Frank and Izzy in Rabbit Hole), anyone would love to call their own, this season has found her, more often than not, onstage at Nashville Children's Theatre, where she's been seen as Atalanta and Medea in Jason and the Golden Fleece and will open on April 19 as Titania in Robin Goodfellow, Aurand Harris' clever treatment of A Midsummer Night's Dream. And for the past two seasons, she's been a part of the ensemble cast, playing the mother and Helen, in Tennessee Repertory Theatre's holiday season offering of A Christmas Story.

Recently, during a break from her busy schedule, Jamie found time to answer our questions, affording us all an opportunity to take a deeper look into what makes her one of the region's best actors and to allow us all a glimpse into her "Life in the Theater." Read and enjoy...

What was your first taste of theater? My first taste was playing Louisa in The Sound Of Music at the age of ten for The Cannon County Playhouse. I told my mother that if she did not take me to the auditions, that "my life would be over." I was sick with waiting after the two rounds of callbacks, and was thrilled out of my mind when I got the part. I still have friends to this day that I made as a little girl from that production.

What was your first real job responsibility in the theater? My first professional role was Juliet in Romeo and Juliet at the Michael Howard Studio Theatre in New York. I was just about to graduate from The National Shakespeare Conservatory when the brilliant teacher and mentor of mine, Eloise Watts, asked me if I would play Juliet. She said that she had been waiting a long time to direct it, and was waiting to meet "her" Juliet. She cast me after watching me do an Imogen monologue from Cymbeline. The R and J experience was one of the best of my life and priceless to me. One day during rehearsal, the director, Eloise, asked me how it was that someone so young could connect to so much sorrow so easily and completely...at that age and time I could not explain it. It was just there...as readily as joy.

When did you know you wanted to pursue a career in theater? I cannot remember a time when I did not...when I could speak I was saying I would be an actress.

Why do you pursue your art in Nashville? What are the best parts of working here? I pursue my art in Nashville, because after working away in so many places, I was terribly homesick...I needed my family and I needed to come back to the theater that had formed me as a child and teenager. I had seen enough theater in other cities to know that the theater in Nashville was just as good and usually much better than what I was seeing in other places. I am so blessed to be working with the Nashville theater community...so many incredibly talented artists here. The best part is the lack of ego in the artists...the community of sharing and the family of artists that support you. It is not enough to be talented here...you must be talented and kind...no one wants to work with mean, selfish people.

If you could play any role, direct any work, design any production, mount any production...what would it be and why? I want to play Cathy in a gorgeous, startling, spooky, dramatic, violent, unsettling and unapologetically romantic staging of Wuthering Heights. I would also love to do a one woman show about Emily Bronte.

Who would play you in the film version of your life story? Vivien Leigh.

What's your favorite play/musical? My favorite play is The Winter's Tale. My favorite musical is Showboat.

If you could have dinner with any three figures (living or dead, real or fictional) who are a part of the theater, who would you choose and why? Vivien Leigh...she comes to me in dreams and speaks to me..she has been for a long time...usually at a critical time in my life as an artist. We usually talk on a bare stage with a ghost light on...at a simple table sitting on two folding chairs. Cordelia...because of the truth in her heart and the love and adoration of her father. Paul Scofield...because I would like to tell such a humble man what a brilliant actor he was and will always be. He takes my breath away with each word.

Imagine a young person seeing you onstage or seeing a production in which you played a major role coming up to you and asking you for advice in pursuing their own theatrical dream...what would you say? First, I would thank them for asking me. I would ask them if acting and theater were like air and breathing to them...like the blood running in their veins. I would ask them if they could live without it. If they they told me no, I would tell them to go after it and never look back. I would tell them to always seek truth...in themselves...in other people...in their work. I would tell them to always go the extra mile no matter what other actors were doing around them. I would tell them that every role they are fortunate to land is a gift, and they must never take work for granted...ever. I would tell them to always say thank you to everyone and be kind. I would tell them to seek the advice of those that they trust and respect completely and not listen to anyone else...no matter what they hear or do not hear. I would tell them to listen to their own heart and soul when they came off stage after each performance...they will tell you the truth...they will tell you whether or not you were truthful out there. I would tell them that an acting career has its own highs and lows just like life itself, and to never give up.

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