We were lucky to catch up with Jack Cobabe recently and have shared our conversation below.

Jack, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. How did you learn to do what you do? Knowing what you know now, what could you have done to speed up your learning process? What skills do you think were most essential? What obstacles stood in the way of learning more?

Working in the arts takes training and a whole lot of hard work. I earned my Bachelor of Fine Arts with an emphasis in Performance from Westminster University in Salt Lake City, Utah. My training at Westminster was integral to my success as an artist today. The professors at Westminster are versatile professionals who are masters of their craft. They honed my skills as an actor, fostered my interest in directing, and encouraged me to work professionally. While at Westminster I acted in various professional shows with companies across the Salt Lake Valley. The classroom training along with the practical application in the rehearsal room gave me the confidence to emerge into the field as a confident professional. I believe in lifelong learning that reaches far beyond when we graduate from a program or wrap a project. It’s this growth mindset that allows me to continue to learn and grow with each project I am involved with.

Jack, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

As a Theatre Director, I work with a team of artists to craft a show worth telling for our audience members. Playwrights give us scripts, and our job it to translate the words on the page into the minds of the audience. This process takes months of planning and rehearsals. We start with selecting a design team to assist the storytelling visually, and then we hold auditions to find who can tell this story most effectively. Once we have our team of artists, I, as the Director, begin to guide the production. Mixing one actor’s choices with another so that the scene is cohesive and convincing for our audience members. We meld the design choices with the live choices of actors until finally, we have a performance. Getting the audience to bite into the story and be invested in it so that they can be affected by the morals and meanings within the text.

I believe that theatre has the power to change the hearts and the minds of individuals. Theatre has always been used as a tool to challenge society to grow. We are forced to sit in a room, and experience this play. How does that have impact on each individual’s life? What aspects of this play have parallels to your own life, where can you learn and grow? Sometimes it is a hard pill to swallow to say that we see some of ourselves in the villain of a story. But that is what it means to be human. We must be empathetic to these characters and see ourselves in them. Only when this happens, can the real change begin.

That is my goal as a director. Change and challenge the views of our society through art.

The challenge is the same as an Actor. Only when I act, I am playing one part of the whole. I must dedicate myself fully to this character’s story and present it in a way that once coupled with the other actors, designers, directors, etc. can generate an experience capable of changing the hearts of an audience.

Do you think there is something that non-creatives might struggle to understand about your journey as a creative? Maybe you can shed some light?

It might sound simple but come see the show! We aren’t performing a play because we think it’s fun. We aren’t bored and looking for something to spend our time doing. Any good theatre producer or company has chosen a season because they think the message is important for people to hear. So come hear it! When I say come, I don’t mean buy a ticket, sit in the back, and think about where you’re going to grab dinner afterwards. I mean come eager to learn this story. Come and learn the lessons and morals that are intertwined with our witty jokes. There is something to say for enjoying a show for the entertainment aspect, but if you can gain something from really hearing a story, that is our hope.

What’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative in your experience?

My favorite thing as an artist, and it doesn’t happen all that often, is hearing what people take away from a show. I’m not talking about if it was good, or if you liked it, I’m talking about how did the story affect you? What do you think we were trying to communicate to you? That is the most rewarding thing as an artist. I don’t care about the bows, or the applause, or the reviews, I care what you learned from this. How are you changed after watching a play.

What’s next? 

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.jackcobabe.com
• Instagram: @jackcobabe
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/jack.cobabe/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jackcobabe/

Image Credits

Doug Carter, Jacob Harrison