“IN IMAGINARY CIRCUMSTANCES”: Jacqueline Knox’s Adult Acting Collective students work on an improv exercise in McCarter’s Berlind Theatre Rehearsal Room, as they step out of their comfort zones and hone their skills every Wednesday evening from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. (Photo by Genevieve Bouchonville)

By Donald Gilpin

It’s 6:15 p.m. on a cold January evening, and the students are starting to gather in the rehearsal room at McCarter’s Berlind Theatre for their weekly Adult Acting Collective class. This is not a typical group of students, not even a typical collection of aspiring actors.

Ranging in ages from their 20s to 80s, this group is diverse. “We come from all different walks of life and different backgrounds,” said Simone, who has spent a long career in corporate life and has been taking classes at McCarter for the past few semesters. “We have pharmaceutical executives, writers, lawyers, scientists, and more.”

The teacher, Jacqueline Knox, an experienced actress and founding member of 12 Mile West Theatre Company in North Jersey, explained that the common denominator in this group of 17 seems to be “I wanted to try something new,” and “I wanted to challenge myself.” The class is clearly fulfilling both needs.

“There are very few places where adults can go and have a shared experience in a safe environment, learn something new, and then feel good enough about that program to keep coming,” said Simone. “We show up. Here you’re on for two hours, and you can be unedited and free and in a safe environment to learn new skills that you can apply in other things. I have a law background and I owned an event company for 20 years, but here I’m learning problem-solving and using a different part of my brain.”

Knox added, “There’s an opportunity here to express that part of yourself you’ve always wondered about, to have it seen and be reflected back. And people say, ‘I like that. It makes me laugh or clap or feel.’ That’s an opportunity to maybe explore that further.”

Both the Adult Acting Collective and the Adult Scene Study Class, which meets on Monday evenings, are oversubscribed with waiting lists, and McCarter has launched an adult improv class, which is also full. “And this time last year we were struggling to fill one full adult class,” said McCarter Director of Education Brooke Boertzel.

Boertzel is a strong believer in welcoming students of all ages. “Some are brand new to this,” she said. “Some are more seasoned and actually doing this professionally, but we’ve built a really amazing community with Jackie taking the lead. Through these classes, some have gone on to land roles in commercials, movies, and plays, even securing agents.”

“In this class you’re figuring it out,” said Simone. “You can’t prepare. Just think how edited you are on a daily basis in what you say and what you write. In here it’s very freeing to be able to express yourself and learn and fail and cheer and support and do many of those things that make it a joy to be a human being.”

Reflecting on the value and popularity of her acting collective, Knox added, “I think post-pandemic there continues to be a real need for people to connect in person, to remember what it’s like to have that experience together in a space, in person. There’s a deeper appreciation of it.”

She continued, “We come into that experience together with a collective understanding that we didn’t have this during the pandemic and we could lose it again, and isn’t this beautiful.”

Knox described the overarching goal for her acting students. “This is the place where students learn to use themselves truthfully, spontaneously and actively,” she said. “The exercises are designed to help explore those ways of using ourselves in the work. We work from Sanford Meisner’s definition of acting as ‘living truthfully under imaginary circumstances.’”

Bharami, a scientist who has worked in the food industry and now works in the fragrance and flavor industry, described his experience as a student in the class. “I’m very analytical in my usual thought process,” he said. “I have two kids, 12 and 9, and my evenings are usually spent taking them to classes.”

He watched his daughter in a McCarter class, “and I thought, ‘OK, this looks like fun. Maybe I should do something for myself.’” He continued, “This was something I wanted to try. I came to Jackie’s class last year and loved the class, and I was having fun, so I thought, ‘Why not do this again?’ I thought I would give it a try and see how it works.”

Since joining the class Bharami says he has gained the confidence and knowledge to audition for an HR simulation video at his workplace. He has also met people in the class who are voice actors, and he’s planning to give that a try too.

“So now I have exposure to things that I had no knowledge about before,” he said. “It’s a different world. The people I meet are very different from people I normally interact with, so that’s also a big positive for me.”

Priscilla, a retired clinical psychologist, had done some acting in high school and college and was eager to get back into it. “I remembered how much I had enjoyed acting,” she said. “It was one of those things that brought me joy.”

She was nervous when she came to her first McCarter class last spring, but she has thoroughly enjoyed the experience. “A great class, with such a great group of people and some really talented actors,” she said. “Each class I’ve taken I just feel myself grow each time. Some of the things we do, like improvs, are a little bit scary, but every time I get on stage I know I’m improving myself. I’m not only improving as an actor, but I feel like I’m improving as a person too. It’s been such a great experience.”

Kellie, who works remotely and now, with her husband, is an empty-nester, has been in improv classes in Pennsylvania and recently joined the McCarter class. “Unexpectedly what I’m learning is that in life you usually don’t have to be present, but in improv you have to be present. There are no phones, no distractions. You’re just focused on the person in front of you, and that’s teaching me to take that with me into my personal life.”

The second thing Kellie says she’s learned is to be more open and accepting. “Being more accepting with people is really powerful, and the diversity of this group is also pretty powerful,” she said. “I don’t know where people fall politically or on social issues, and I don’t have to know that. It’s just about being together and finding value and acceptance in one another, and that’s been really powerful.”

Leslie, a software engineer, explained her motivation for joining the class. “My company is remote, and it is very isolating. I felt I wasn’t interacting with the outside world.” She was worried because she had never acted before. And she thought that all the others would be 22 years old and that she’d be the oldest in the room, but she’s now enjoying herself and glad that she signed on.
Anastasia from Russia and Emma from Spain are both finding that in addition to the theater training this class is helping them to learn English. Natasha, who had been a professional dancer, “wanted another way of expressing myself and challenging my abilities, to grow in other forms. I wanted to step outside my comfort zone.”

Susan has enjoyed acting for many years, ever since she was a little girl. As a young woman, for many years she found herself frequently cast as an old lady. “Now I really am an old lady and I can’t get cast anymore. They’re casting young people as old ladies,” she said.

She took a break from the stage for about three years and then decided to sign up for this class. “It’s been wonderful. Jackie keeps us going and she comes up with all these fantastic ideas for things for us to do,” said Susan.

Emphasizing what a safe, encouraging place the class has become, Debbie noted, “We all feel safe, and because of that we allow ourselves to fail, and it’s in that failure that we come together even more. We understand that failure is a part of it, and it’s nice to be in a space where you can experience that and still have joy.”

Aurora echoed the word “joy” in describing the class.“I found that it’s nice to have an opportunity in the middle of a work week to experience child-like joy,” she said. “At 7 o’clock on a Wednesday we get to be silly and have fun and play.”