mag.uchicago.edu: It was the month before he was set to graduate from UChicago with a degree in mathematics, and Jared Janas, AB’94, was feeling restless. He complained to a friend that he was sitting around with nothing to do, so she invited him to help with hair and makeup for a University Theater production of the Stephen Sondheim musical Assassins.
2 comments:
I loved this story about Jared Janas. It's funny to see how art and theatre can come into someone's life when they least expect it and completely lead them on a different route. I think a very similar thing happened to me, just a few years earlier in my life (allowing me to decide to go to school for theatre). I've always loved math and I anticipated going to school for engineering or something similar and spending my life doing something within that realm. But one day as I was building something in the theater, my TD approached me and said "you know you could do this for a job". I sorta laughed it off but as time went on, my love for theatre grew and so did that idea inside my head. And now, here I am (I am doing theatre and Engineering, but I intend to go into the theatre industry post-college).
This was a wonderfully captivating story with so many lessons to be learned. As a person that almost went into STEM myself I see everyday how arts and math interact and influence each other. Although these connections are often made in Lighting, sound and scenery they are rarely made in costumes. Jared Janes story serves as an inspiration and example of so many things. He brings up a valid point about how to the poor art is seen as a luxury which often means that so many young people are not exposed to art as a potential career. He brings up how one can take a non traditional path to get into the theater industry and still "make it". Coming to a conservatory right after high school I often feel the pressure to only immerse myself in and earn about theater Janes highlights a crucial point which is that in many ways it is the unconventional people with an unconventional path into the theatrical world that become leads in our industry.
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