Sophomore Jeremy Jackson studies English and chemistry, but he is no stranger to the stage. Both eager and ambitious, Jackson is ready to steal the show with his longtime passion for all aspects of theater. Jackson’s interest in theater stems from his childhood, when his parents suggested he follow in the footsteps of his older brother, who joined drama club in high school. After that, Jackson began a bit of screenwriting and acting and continues to pursue it even more seriously in college.
“I like to do everything that’s involved with theater,” Jackson said. By the end of his freshman year, Jackson had already played roles in “Romeo and Juliet” and “Tartuffe”; he also worked the soundboard for campus dance shows. His most recent involvement on campus include acting in “Anything Goes” and “Wit,” and assistant directing “The Importance of Being Earnest” last spring.
Out of the many roles he’s already played, his favorite goes back to his high school stage. During his junior year, Jackson played Richard Miller in “Ah, Wilderness!,” a play about an angst-ridden teenage boy who thinks he knows everything and spends a large portion of the play being proven wrong.
“I loved that part mostly because it was so much fun to play, but also because I rarely get to play young characters, being cast primarily as older father figures, especially in high school plays,” Jackson said.
Jackson is also active in Geneseo Chamber Singers, Geneseo Poets’ Society, Creative Writing Club and Alpha Psi Omega.
Jackson intends to pursue theater for the rest of his college career and become more serious with his writing. He hopes to put on a musical about Geneseo by the end of next year, a project he’s been working on with junior Chrissy Montelli. He described the synopsis as “the experience of being here [at Geneseo] and finding your place and having many different kinds of people with many different kinds of interests, [yet] we can all come together to make one community.”
He also plans to start a program called “Shakespeare on the Green,” a low-budget, low-commitment series of Shakespeare plays that would go up on the College Green this spring and early fall.
“I hope to one day open and run my own community theater, so I can help foster in others the same love of theater I have found,” he said.