Hello Beautiful People,
Jen Bender is one of my heroes. She is a Broadway director with credits on The Lion King (Resident Director), Avenue Q, The Wedding Singer, and Steel Magnolias (Assistant Director). She is also founder of Broadway in South Africa and the New York Musical Theater Festival, and a world traveler. She directed the world-premiere of Do You Hear the People Sing: The Dream Concert, a night of music by Alain Boublil and Claude-Michel Schonberg featuring Lea Salonga, Brian Stokes Mitchell, Terrence Mann, and Stephanie J. Block. Jen is currently on tour with Cirque du Soleil’s Ovo, and on her day off, Jen and I chatted about theatre, directing, life, education, and phenomenal television. I’m so pleased to introduce her to you all! Ladies and Gents, meet Jen Bender…
TWT: First things first, did you always want to be a director?
JB: No. I grew up as a dancer and a musician, and I always loved theater, especially musical theater, but I never thought I’d be a performer or a director. I thought I’d work at an organization dealing with the arts, like an opera company.
TWT: The role of an actor is a little bit more linear in terms of getting work. How would you advise aspiring directors to cement themselves in the field?
JB: Start making things. If that’s you taking a video camera, and making a weird two-minute YouTube video clip, do it. If it’s taking friends and doing a musical in a church basement, do it. I went to college and pursued a theater major, I took the classes, but you just have to do it. Most careers talk about hard skills and soft skills. You can’t learn the nuances by taking a class, you learn that through experience, and the only way to get experience when you’re young is to just start doing things. If you have friends who are writers, team up and do their shows. Or, make a thing that has been done before – just the act of doing something is useful.
TWT: If if you had to look back on your career thus far, what would the most memorable moments be?
JB: I did a production of RENT a couple of years ago that was an amazing ensemble, an unbelievable group of people. It’s two years later and this cast is still close, we’re still like family. I saw RENT as soon as it opened, so I’ve loved it for a long, long, time. I did a show called TRAILS, at the New York Musical Theater Festival, it’s a beautiful story, gorgeous music, and I adore the three writers of the show. Another memorable show for me would have to be Avenue Q. I started with it when it was Off-Broadway at the Vineyard, and to see it have grown it something so huge is unbelievable. I still think of it as the fun show we did Off-Broadway with puppets, and I forget how big it’s become. The ten-year anniversary of that show is coming up, and it still feels like yesterday.
TWT: In today’s economy, arts programs are being cut. What reasons would you give to a politician for preserving the arts?
JB: I think the missing piece of the puzzle is convincing politicians and the public at large that the arts are not a symphony or a high school drama club. It’s when you turn on the television and the radio and go to the movies. People think that they’re just taking away the arts in school, but by doing that you’ll end up taking the arts away everywhere. Ask yourself, if there were nothing on the TV, movies, radio, would you be ok with that? No. There is a disconnect between arts in schools and arts in our culture; for people think that high school arts programs are this exclusive nerdy thing that has no relation to the rest of our culture. People would freak if you cut high school sports because there would be no professional sports, and yet they cannot connect the dots when it comes to arts education and those who do it professionally.
TWT: You are one of the founders of Broadway in South Africa. Can you explain to our readers what the program and organization is all about?
JB: I think what’s unique about Broadway in South Africa is that it’s not a program that’s designed to produce theater in South Africa – it’s much more educational. There was a group of us, Sean Bradford, Lisa Nicole Wilkerson, and myself, and we were working on The Lion King. We would talk to people when working in the shows, and they would tell us about their lives in South Africa, and the difficult existence that theses kids had. Another friend of ours, Adam Kantor, had gone to South Africa with his acapella group in college, and was really changed by his experience. So we as artists wanted to help, but we weren’t sure how to go about it, and the idea for Broadway in South Africa came about. We take the skills that they already have, and help them sharpen their talents. When these kids open their mouths and start to sing it’s like they’ve reached into the earth and pulled out a peace of heavenly perfection. These kids can sing like it’s nothing. We take their stories, and find a way for them to put it into song, but by no means do we teach them how to sing. It’s not like we’re going down there and teaching 60 kids to the choreography to You Can’t Stop the Beat. The reasons it’s called Broadway in South Africa because it’s members of the Broadway community who are passionate artists who want to do humanitarian work. We’re trying to create something ongoing, so we now are training young leaders/students in the communities who can continue the work when we’re not there, and it’s happening!
TWT: Is there a particular type of space that you love directing in?
JB: The BAM or the Delacourt are amazing; I’m genuinely in love with non-traditional performance spaces. There was a space that was a church and performance space called Limelight, which closed about ten years ago. It was awesome. I love spaces that are repurposed, it stops and makes you think. When you’re in a nontraditional space, it makes you process differently. The more interesting the space is, the more I get to figure out how to make the most of it.
TWT: Just for fun, what sound do you hate?
JB: Fingernails on a chalkboard.
TWT: Just for fun, what sound do you love?
JB: The low string section of a symphony.
TWT: Just for fun, what’s permanently on your bookshelf?
JB: One book that I travel with is The Four Agreements: A Practical Guide to Personal Freedom, by don Miguel Ruiz it’s thirty pages long, and it’s profound. It’s four simple statements, and they are statements to live by. And another book I love is 1,000 Places to See Before You Die: A Traveler’s Life List, by Patricia Shultz; I bring it with me whenever I’m on tour.
TWT: Just for fun, if you were stranded on a desert island, what television shows would you love to have with you?
JB: I absolutely love episodic television. There are some phenomenal shows out there right now, Scandal, The Newsroom, New Girl, Homeland, Once Upon a Time, Nashville, Mad Men, The Good Wife, The Daily Show, Colbert Report, The Big C, SMASH, Bunheads, Downton Abbey…to name a few.
TWT: Who is/was your greatest teacher?
JB: It’s an easy answer, but my parents. They’ve always had diverse interest, they’ve always encouraged me, and they’ve always supported me.
Thank you, Jen! We can’t wait to have you back in the States.
Live, Love, Learn,
Megan &