I first became aware of Jacqueline Lucid and her husband Russ in a usual New York way, although none of us started out here. Russ and I got stranded at the Rockefeller Plaza subway station platform and killed the time talking about how we got here. He and Jackie were theatre people with, for me, a fascinating story. I’ve tried keeping up with them ever since.
by David Stone
The Roosevelt Island Daily News
So, What Jacqueline Lucid Up To Now?
Over the last few years, we’ve covered Jackie Lucid’s work with teens and the shows produced showcasing their talent. This year, it’s A. R. Gurney’s The Dining Room, and it’s time to find out a little bit more about her, the kids and the play.
We asked hers some questions.
What got you started in theatre? Did you pursue it, I mean, or did it grab you?
I would say it grabbed me. We had a two- week mini-course in drama in 7th grade. Our assignment was to choose two contrasting monologues to memorize. The teacher then recorded us performing them and then class watched them together on close-circuit tv. I chose Kate’s final speech from The Taming of The Shrew and then I weaved together a Yente monologue from the Yente/Golde scene from Fiddler on the Roof. I had a blast working on them and then it was very satisfying to receive positive feedback from my teacher and classmates. So, then I was hooked. I continued to do community theatre and High School plays and musicals, competed in Speech and Drama Tournaments, everything I could find!
What’s your experience in the work? I received my BFA in Theatre from the Professional Actor Training Program at SMU in Dallas, TX. I worked professionally in Dallas and Colorado before moving to NY where I continued working both locally and regionally. It’s been over 30 years in the business acting, teaching, and directing.
In recent years, you’re much more into directing and teaching than acting?
Raising my family on Roosevelt Island and becoming a part of MSTDA opened up teaching and directing for me – which worked very well for a stay at home mom. Directing has been a wonderful experience that I did not anticipate doing until I started back in 2005, upon then-Executive Director Mary McCatty’s invitation to direct the adult musical workshop. That led to directing children and teen theatre, as well outside projects. However, I still continue to act, the choice of jobs is more fine-tuned, since it is in terms of the family and not just the individual.
How do you decide which plays to bring into your classes for future performance, The Dining Room for example?
I try to pick shows with the group I have in mind. At the end of each season or over the summer, I will reach out to students to see if they will be returning. I try to pick shows that feature our graduating seniors. I also make sure to vary genres and time periods. I feel it’s vital that they have a varied and stimulating learning experience.
This year I have a larger group, 23 actors. So I had to find a play with lot of characters.
The Dining Room is a series of 18 vignettes, with 57 speaking roles. The production is originally conceived to have 3 men and 3 women play all the parts. However, the playwright did allow for multiple actors to play the roles as well. So, it was a perfect solution for my needs!
It’s also a great play, nominated for the 1982 Pulitzer Prize in Drama. I want to make sure my students are challenged in their work with good material.
Do the teens grow in expected as well as unexpected ways through the theater experience?
Absolutely! That is certainly what brings me joy in this work. There is the student born with that innate ability that continues to grow and hone their skill. Then there is the wonder of seeing someone very quiet and introverted find their voice, feeling validation from others and an audience.
The Dining Room Synopsis Courtesy of Jacqueline Lucid:
A finalist for the 1985 Pulitzer Prize for Drama, the play is set in the dining room of a typical well-to-do household, the place where the family assembled daily for breakfast and dinner and for any and all special occasions.
The action is a mosaic of interrelated scenes—some funny, some touching, some rueful—which, taken together, create an in-depth portrait of a vanishing species: the upper-middle-class Americans of the last century.
The actors change roles, personalities and ages as they portray a wide variety of characters, from little boys to stern grandfathers, and from giggling teenage girls to Irish housemaids.
Each vignette introduces a new set of people and events; a father lectures his son on grammar and politics; a boy returns from boarding school to discover his mother’s infidelity; a senile grandmother doesn’t recognize her own sons at Thanksgiving dinner; a daughter, her marriage a shambles, pleads futilely to return home, etc.
Dovetailing swiftly and smoothly, the varied scenes coalesce, ultimately, into a theatrical experience of exceptional range, compassionate humor and abundant humanity.
The Committee Man
Committees are supposed to be where outcomes are shaped. They are meant to be the place where questions slow decisions down, where competing interests surface, and where public responsibility is exercised before anything reaches a formal vote.
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