Some young and aspiring actors might bridle at the work ethic of Princeton Summer Theater, where all members of the company are expected to rotate through a variety of jobs during the season. ##M:[more]## A repertory company composed of recent graduates plus students from Princeton and other colleges all interested in pursuing careers in drama, Princeton Summer Theater duties may include set design, lighting, and running the box office, in addition to the glamour jobs of acting and directing.
Elliott, a 2000 graduate of West Windsor-Plainsboro High School and a 2004 alumnus of the College of New Jersey, is in his fourth year with the group and currently serving as business and box office manager. Last summer he directed the play, “Private Lives.” He has spent time onstage this season acting in the play, “Picasso at the Lapin Agile” in the role of a potential “third genius of the 20th century” which features Einstein and Picasso, numbers one and two. And he is also directing “Godspell,” the 1970s musical that will open Thursday, July 14, at the Hamilton-Murray Theater on the Princeton University campus.
“We are all very young and it’s very autonomous,” he says, reveling in the opportunity to be “this young and this absolutely in control of a theater company.”
For Elliott, the experience gained from wearing multiple hats has merit. He believes that theater professionals should be thoroughly grounded in all areas of the business. “You can’t just excel in any one aspect of this — at least at the beginning of a career.”
Elliott is also a playwright. His play, “Forward Motion,” is the story of two high school spelling bee champions who pretend to be romantically involved and wind up exploring platonic love. Recently published, it has had six productions at colleges so far.
Another of his plays, “Tales of Wonder,” four multicultural fairy tales melded into a one-hour show, will be produced by Princeton Summer Theater as one of two offerings for children this season. It opens Thursday, July 21. (Elliott won’t direct it; he will be working the box office.)
Elliot feels his experience juggling roles at the company helps him write better plays. “As a playwright it infinitely helps me to be able to visualize how something I’m writing will translate to stage. I can picture a space it’s happening in and the tools used to create that show.”
Elliott has been intrigued by writing and theater since he was a kid growing up in West Windsor. His grandfather, Lewis Meyer, was a bookseller and author in Oklahoma, whose book, “Preposterous Papa,” sold more than 6 million copies back in the 1960s and ‘70s. His parents (his father is a businessman who lives in Hamilton and his mother is a physician at Children’s Hospital in Philadelphia who lives in Princeton Junction) fostered an interest in reading and writing at an early age.
Then, just before eighth grade, Elliott recalls, he signed up for Tomato Patch, the three-week theater camp at Mercer County Community College. “I was looking for a focus for my writing,” he recalls. “I was trying to find my voice as a writer and it just clicked — something about the way a play works within a certain amount of time and space.”
At High School South Elliott took advantage of every theatrical opportunity that presented itself, doing four shows in each of his four years. He then enrolled at College of New Jersey, which didn’t have a theater program.
How does he explain that? “Well, financially it was a great deal,” he says, “and I also figured that theater might not be such a great career choice. That lasted all of about six weeks.” An English and classics major, he also plunged into theater activities, directing eight productions and founded the V-Day initiative at TCNJ, part of a 600-college effort to end violence against women through productions of “The Vagina Monologues.”
Elliott, who in December will complete a master’s in arts administration at George Mason University in Virginia, now says he can’t imagine himself “doing anything other than working in theater.”
His immediate challenge is bringing to stage the musical “Godspell,” a production that was chosen by the Princeton Summer Theater board mostly by default. Size dictated a small scale enterprise. With a core of 15 people, seven guest artists round out the company. “This was the one that was left,” says Elliott, explaining that “The Fantasticks” and “You’re a Good Man Charley Brown” had already been produced and “Little Shop of Horrors,” another possibility, required the onerous job of building an enormous plant.
Elliott explains that things work differently directing a song-filled universe. “Musical theater is a world in which the volume is cranked up to 11 — emotion comes 10 times bigger in this world.”
“Musical theater has this very different esthetic to it — it’s almost soap operatic. When people hit a certain level of emotion, they just burst into song. You need to figure out a way to make those builds natural. There is a very clear direct flow from one into the other that you can arc out in emotional peaks and valleys. When you hit a peak, that’s where the songs come in.”
Elliott sees Princeton Summer Theater as just the first few steps along the path. “Eventually, a couple of years down the road, my dream is to actually form a theater company and then keep doing this until I’m old and gray.”
— Caroline Calogero
Godspell, Princeton Summer Theater, Hamilton Murray Theater, Princeton University, 609-258-7062. 8 p.m., July 14-17, 21-24 and 28-31. Tickets: $13-15, $10-13 for seniors and $9-10 for students. www.princetonsummertheater.org
Tales of Wonder, children’s production by Jonathan Elliott, 609-258-7062. Thursday through Saturday, July 21 through 23 and 28 through 30. Thursdays at 2 p.m.; Fridays and Saturdays at 11 a.m.
