Emily Drew is admittedly obsessive about Shakespeare and classical theater. So, when she was called upon to direct a play that didn’t fit neatly into that box, she felt a little out of her environment.
That moment of reluctance spawned an idea.
'Well, I have something that is Shakespeare adjacent,” she remembers saying.
Drew brought forth “LEAR” as the spring production for SUNY Jamestown Community College’s JCC Uncommoners, and the theater group is preparing to put their spin on Young Jean Lee's 2010 absurdist tragedy that is inspired in part by Shakespeare's “King Lear.”
Showings are scheduled for 7 p.m. on March 27, 28, and 29, and on April 3, 4, and 5 at the Jamestown Campus Scharmann Theatre.
And though “LEAR” wasn’t necessarily Drew’s immediate instinct, she does have a history with the play.
“I saw the premiere of LEAR at Soho Rep in New York when I was 18 years old,” Drew said. “I went to college in the city, and it was one of the first shows I saw when I got to New York. It stuck in my head because it is a strange play. It's confusing and absurd and funny. And I left the theater feeling strangely moved, even though I wasn’t sure how I got there. So, it's always been in my mind as something that was powerful in my past, but I never sort of imagined myself directing it.”
The play is set in the middle of “King Lear,” following the daughters of King Lear and their contemporaries through the journey of guilt and grief after they've alienated their ailing father.
“LEAR is an exploration of parental betrayal and loss,” Drew said. “But it's a play that's meant to turn your perception of an age-old story on its head, and to shock you a bit, leaving you feeling the pangs of loss and grief and love that a parent and child relationship holds.”
Drew warned of “many challenging themes in the play” that may not be suitable to all audiences.
"LEAR contains explicit language and allusions to explicit sexual situationism,” she said. “These elements are used intentionally to emphasize the absurdity and emotional chaos of the sibling relationship within the context of losing a parent. While this content can at times be jarring, it serves as a powerful tool to convey the complexities of grief, inheritance, and personal identity."
The cast includes JCC students Warren Butcher, Alyson Danielson, James DiStrola, Camden Drayer, Colin Drayer, Summer Jones, Rachel LeRoy, Keaton Noller, and Sunnhi Suber, and 2022 graduate Rachael Davis.
Because “LEAR” only has five characters, Drew has “double cast a lot of those roles.”
"We have multiple actors playing one role, which so far in rehearsal has created a lot of discussion, a lot of variety, a lot of diversity in interpretation, which I think is a really healthy, really exciting way to start a rehearsal process,” she said. “And the goal is just to continue creating that kind of spontaneity, and authenticity that you get when you have all these different perspectives tackling the same subject.”
Drew, who previously directed Romeo and Juliet and Hamlet at JCC, is an actor, director, and teaching artist based in Jamestown. Her experience includes a wide variety of theater and film. She is a founding member of Madness Most Discreet Theatre, a performance collective adapting and performing First Folio original practice Shakespeare, and a co-creator of Crying Out Loud Productions, a producing force founded in collaboration with her late husband, Aaron Perez.
Drew trained in drama at NYU's Tisch School of the Arts and has worked professionally with Theatre Under the Stars, Shakespeare and Company, LiveSource Collective, The Paradise Factory Theater, and others. In 2024, she succeeded her husband and creative partner as one of JCC's artists in residence through Creatives Rebuild New York. Drew is also an adjunct instructor for theater and art and design classes at JCC.
Tickets to “LEAR” can be purchased at the Scharmann Theatre box office or online. Use code EarlyBird10 for 10% off through March 1. Call 716.338.1166 or email ScharmannTheatre@mail.sunyjcc.edu for more information.