On Thursday, April 1, “Valley Song,” a play by South African playwright Athol Fugard, will open at the ’92 Theater. The play features a professional actor, a political theme, and Devon Jordon ’04, our pick for In the Spotlight this week. Devon has been working hard on her thesis all year, and the moment has finally come. She not only acts and assistant directs the piece, but has also impressively convinced the Theater Department to pay her NYC-based co-star and Nuyorican Poets Café Artistic Director, Rome Neal. Keep an eye out for the Argus’ interview with Neal himself, talking about his work at the Café and in as an advocate for people of color in the arts community, in the next issue.
CATESBY HOLMES: Tell me about your thesis.
DEVON JORDAN: It’s about a girl who lives in South Africa, in a rural region, with her grandfather, and she has a secret desire to become a famous singer in Johannesburg, and she wants to go there to pursue her dream. She keeps this secret from her grandfather but he eventually finds out and struggles to let her go. So it has the coming-of-age storyline but it also reflects the thoughts of the people of South Africa after the end of Apartheid. I’ve been working on it pretty much for over a year now, over the summer and last semester with the help of my advisor, Gay Smith. I looked at a lot of American plays that dealt with political issues, but I wanted something a little bit different, something good for actors and character-driven, which is what an actor looks for. I came across Athol Fugart’s “Valley Song,” which a professor recommended to me, and I read it and instantly I fell in love with it. It was beautifully written; the characters drove the piece. It’s a two-person, three-character show that I’m starring in with another actor.
CH: Where else has it been performed?
It was first performed in Johannesburg but made its American premier in the McCarter Theater in Princeton, New Jersey, which is my hometown.
CH: Did you talk to any of the actors who had acted in it?
DJ: Not in Princeton, but actually in Johannesburg. It was really like fate that I met the actress who originally played the role that I’m going to play, Esmerelda Hiel. I saw a play over winter break that she starred in, and I noticed that she was the actress who originally did the role, and I approached her and told her I was going to play the role of “Veronica.” So we got the director/actor who is working with me and we got the chance to sit down and talk with her for like two hours. We talked about dialect, character, and about Fugart, who is this internationally-known, really famous playwright. As somebody from South Africa, she told me about her own personal experience and said she pretty much was Veronica, growing up in a colored township, trying to pursue a dream of being an actress much like the way the Veronica hopes to be a singer.
CH: Tell me about the professional actor you’ve brought in.
DJ: I told the department I wanted an actor who was older to play the part of the grandfather and not have to worry about the physicality of being older that might take away from the piece. I first tried to contact Fugart [who played the grandfather in the Johannesburg production]…but he said he’s really focusing on writing right now. I went a little crazy recruiting actors, actually, because I saw another Fugart play starring Danny Glover, and I contacted his agent…but I think he had a lot of other things going on, like film stuff. I think it’s best to think big first! But the actor that I’m working with, Rome Neal, is the artistic director of the Nuyuricans Poets Café in New York. He’ll be giving a talk about the history of the Café and about theater work there at Zilkha 106 on Friday, April 2. Also after each performance of the play they’ll be discussions with the director [Neal] and me, and hopefully with some students to come and talk about their experiences in South Africa.
CH: Do you want to go into acting after you graduate?
DJ: Actually, after the thesis experience I think I’m getting really into producing. I’m just hoping for the best. If not, you know, you’ve just got to make it happen. You’ve got to do it for yourself. Arts is about going out and making it happen for you. You can only learn from those experiences.
CH: Words of wisdom. Any shout-outs, political causes?
DJ: I just want to say thank you to everybody who helped with the show, with my thesis and the project.