This April I am celebrating one of my first theatre friends in the Corridor – Jason Alberty!

I met Jason in the fall of 2010 when I auditioned for his adaptation of Six Characters in Search of an Author. He cast me as The Stepdaughter, which was my first role after finishing undergrad. (Fun fact: Six Characters in Search of an Author turns 100 this year! It was written by Luigi Pirandello and first performed in 1921.)

Fortunately for me, our collaboration on Six Characters was just the beginning of us working together. I got to act with Jason in The Tempest at Brucemore in 2011 and I played Hannah Jelkes in the the production of The Night of the Iguana he directed in 2012, right before I moved to Florida for grad school. We also worked together on two shows in SPT Theatre’s “Tales from the Writer’s Room” series and SPT’s premier production of Tic Tic Tic – A Timely Musical.

More recently, Jason directed me in Ugly Lies the Bone, produced by his theatre company – The Foundry Performance Laboratory – at the Shores Event Center. To this day, that is my husband’s favorite show he has ever seen me do. It was a whirlwind experience that was only possible because Jason made it so!

Jason brought me into the Foundry fold again to work with a fantastic cast on Irish accents for The Seafarer, and then during the ides of March in 2020, right before quarantine kicked in, I had the pleasure of being in a fascinating show at the Foundry called White Rabbit, Red Rabbit. I didn’t realize it then, but it would be my final live, in-the-flesh performance for some time. 

I honestly owe much of my post-college progress to Jason. He took a chance on me over ten years ago, and has continued to offer amazing opportunities for connection and creative growth ever since. I am so grateful to have him as a mentor, a colleague, and a friend.

Jason Alberty is one of the most intelligent people I have ever worked with, and he pours his heart and soul into every project. He is a massively talented and versatile writer, director, actor, and teacher, but even more than that, he is a hell of a lot of fun. My favorite thing about Jason is his sense of humor. I miss the days of going out with him and other friends to a bar or restaurant after a rehearsal or a show and laughing at his stories. Someday I hope this will be our reality again. For now I guess I will settle for following him on Facebook and laughing at his witty, self-deprecating posts!

I remember once Jason referred to the theatre as a “sacred space,” akin to a church. When I had studied sacred space in my capstone course in college, I came to the conclusion that “sacred spaces” were such because of how we imbue them, the meaning we bring to them. Shared theatrical spaces, whether physical spaces like the outdoor stage at Brucemore or virtual spaces like a Zoom meeting, become sacred when you have someone like Jason Alberty there. He amazes me with his ability to think outside the box, and he is the kind of person who finds way to make art and create meaningful experiences with other people no matter where he is or what the circumstances may be. We need more folks like Jason in this world.

Jason has touched the lives of many artists in the Corridor and beyond. For years he was a teacher at Cedar Rapids Washington High School, and later he led the theatre program at Mt. Mercy University. He has worked extensively with Theatre Cedar Rapids, the Classics at Brucemore, SPT Theatre, The Foundry, and more. 

When I caught up with Jason recently, I learned that he is currently working on a podcast with Lindsay Prince, as well as a digital media series. I can’t wait to check these out when they are released!