Whisper in the Wings Episode 1553

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And welcome back into a fabulous new whisper in the wings from stage whisper.

We are so excited to be welcoming back on the playwright Reginald T. Jackson on our program

today.

He's here to talk to us about his latest work when we practice to deceive.

Now this is part of the Fresh Fruit Festival, and it's playing April 23rd, 24th, and 25th

at the wild project.

And you can get your tickets and more information by visiting freshfruitfestival.com.

We love to get to future works of this amazing event that happens here in New York City,

and we're so excited to get to feature this wonderful artist once again.

So please join us in welcoming in, Reginald, welcome back to a whisper in the wings from

stage whisper.

Thank you.

Thank you so much.

I'm excited to be here.

I am so excited about this show and the festival.

It's my first time being in the festival, and I'm so excited.

Everyone I tell, they go, oh wow, fresh fruit.

That's a big deal.

Yeah, it's got to be one of the best LGBTQ festivals in the city, if not the best.

So I'm excited that you're part of it, and I'm excited to learn about this piece when

we practice to deceive.

Why don't we start first by having you tell us a little bit about what the show is all

about?

Sure.

When we practice to deceive is a romantic comedy full and play, it runs about 90 minutes,

no intermission.

Basically, I give you the elevator pitch, Kevin and Jasmine or Lady Jasmine, if she's known

as, have been dating for six months, but he's been keeping it a secret from his mother.

He decides he wants to finally introduce Lady Jasmine to his mother, so he invites her

to a fancy restaurant.

While the mother shows up, she's from Baton Rouge, Louisiana, very conservative, and she

meets Jasmine, who's there waiting, they don't know who each other are.

Jasmine excuses herself and goes into the bathroom.

The mother follows her into the bathroom a minute or two later, his Jasmine peeing standing

up, runs out the bathroom to the bartender, and Jasmine comes out, she, the mother is confused

because women don't stand up and pee.

So she finds out there's something going on with Jasmine, just as that's happening,

who shows up her son, Kevin, only to say, surprise, this is my girlfriend, and this is

my mother, and they both go, you're the mother, you're the girlfriend, and that's how the

place starts.

Wow.

That's amazing.

What a story you were telling me.

Yeah, that's just, that's just to set up.

Right.

And then we go from there, it's like, yeah, it's a hard introduction, and for the mother

about trans, she learns all of it at once, that's incredible.

So what is lots of comedy?

What inspired you to want to pen this piece?

It's a love letter to the trans community, and I've been working with the trans community

for years.

I did a film piece, and I'm called Epidemic, and I was all about the trans community,

the women, and they are being murdered by their intimate partners.

It was so, the reason it's called Epidemic is because it was so prevalent, the American

Medical Association called it an Epidemic, and it's still being called an Epidemic.

They meet these guys online or whatever, they tell them who they are, the guys meet with

them, and then they have what's called Bios remorse after they've been intimate with

them, and they get violent.

And there's a large amount who don't make it through that night, or that encounter.

So that's how I started with the trans community.

I have a number of friends who are trans, and they're going through it.

Now the government's on their backs as well, they made it illegal in Florida to be trans

or to even dress outside of your gender, whatever that means.

So I thought I needed to help them out.

So I decided to write something about being trans, make people laugh, because laugh there's

the best bomb, and you can easily introduce people to something that would normally be

kind of difficult or kind of controversial.

But with some laughs and some jokes, there's some serious moments in the play as well, because

we have to deal with reality and what's going on with the trans women.

But it's all as well as the ins well.

And so it's a love letter for the trans community.

That's incredible.

I love that.

And I mean, I think we're coming off of the national day of trans visibility.

Yes.

I think it was a week ago or two weeks ago, and I think this subject matter, these stories

are so important to tell you know, and I'm excited to say we have an actual trans professional

actor who's playing the lead role.

We did not get, we did, we did an exhaustive search of all the actors in the Tri-State

area.

We could only find eight.

And out of that eight, I believe we got the best of the best and her name is Sunny and

she's wonderful.

You're going to fall in love with her from the first scene.

Oh, I keep the trans actress and that was important for me.

I didn't just want to get trans.

I want to make sure it was an actress as well.

And she delivers both.

And I love the example you were setting because anyone out there who's like, well, we just

couldn't find it.

You didn't look hard enough.

Exactly.

You didn't look hard enough.

Exactly.

You have to look, you have to shake the trees and find some and find it.

It's not easy.

You have to look different places and you have to ask people.

They're out there.

They're out there.

It's just, you know, as much as they need to be found, they need to be looked for just

as much.

Amen.

Imagine how hard it is for them right now.

You're right.

It's so important that we stand with our trans brothers and sisters and not only make

them seen, but hear them and support them.

You know, because listen, trans is beautiful and it's real and it's, anyway, I'm not going

to get on that.

Also, I'll tell you something personal.

I wasn't going to say about my own self.

I came to the affinity with the trans community because I lived in your sex for 15 years

of my life from seven to 22.

I lived not knowing what my gender was because the doctors couldn't figure it out.

So I lived a kind of trans life and that I didn't know what my gender was until I was

22 from the age of seven.

So I have a lot of affinity and a lot of empathy for what they've gone through because

I've gone through it for 15 years myself.

You know, you look in the mirror and you don't know what's staring back at you.

I didn't know for 15 years.

That is amazing.

Well, at the time of us speaking, we're just in our two weeks away from the show going

up at the last project.

So what has it been like for you developing this work?

It's been a labor of love because I've been lucky for the last two years.

I've been working with the same director, QB.

And we've been just doing project at the project at the project and it's been great.

But most of the projects have been issue oriented because I am an issue playwright and they've

been shorter works, 10 minute plays.

This is my first time getting to do a full length and I'm dealing with an issue.

But it's really more of a celebration of the issue than like black in the first degree

where I was tackling young black men being killed, something more serious.

You know, this is more for fun.

So it's been a, it's been a joy to do just sort of reset because my next play is going

to be really difficult and very hard.

So this is an opportunity to just laugh and enjoy ourselves in the rehearsal process

and meeting the actors and stuff.

We have a very eclectic group, you know, the actors playing the mother, you know, she's

only done two productions before this and she never had a leading role.

So we have to really cling to her and give her as much support as we can give for her

to learn all these lines because you know, it's 90 minutes and she's in about seven

of those 90 minutes because she's one of the leads.

She's the mother.

It's all about the mother accepting her or not accepting her.

So it's been fun to shepherd that and to bring these young talents.

And what I find is once we develop it, it becomes a bond and we stay.

Two of the actors in this show were in my last show in February at the players' theater.

We just recycled them and said, come on back.

You were so good at that show.

Let's do this show.

I like to build relationships with people.

I don't like to just work with someone once and then you never see or hear from them again.

If we work together and it works and you're a great person to be with, especially at this

level, it's not about if you have talents or not.

We all have talent.

Can I spend, you know, time with you working on a project?

Are you amenable?

Are you nice to be with?

Those great things.

Absolutely, that is a stalwart thought that exists in the theater.

I love that.

With such an important story that you are telling, is there a particular message or thought

you're hoping audiences will take away from this piece?

Oh, absolutely.

Well, two, one, I have the mother saying over and over again, I'm capable of growth.

And I think that's one of the messages that I got from my mother, who actually was

from Baton Rouge, Louisiana.

She was extremely accepting of me when I did find out my gender and I did decide to be

a gay or queer.

She was extremely accepting.

She had was, but she wouldn't expect it.

I didn't expect it because my mom was conservative from Baton Rouge, Louisiana, Roman Catholic.

You know, I didn't know how she would want to feel with her, the baby boy wanting

to be with men.

She was capable of growth.

She changed.

And it was wonderful.

And I want people to see that.

Also I want people to see that there's a happy ending for trans women, for queer people

period.

You can have that.

I have it with my husband.

And I know a lot of other couples that have been together 20 years and more.

It exists.

The happily ever after does exist.

It isn't a myth.

I love that.

I love that.

I feel like that's the 2.0 version when I was growing up of the, it gets better.

Yes.

Not only does it get better, now the happily ever after does exist, you know.

Yes, it does.

It does.

And we need to hear that because all we hear about is, oh, you know, they're lonely.

They're, they're single.

They, you know, they have miserable lives.

It's not true.

They're some, but they're, they're just about the same amount as it will be in the

straight community.

In fact, I think it's worse in the straight community.

You have all these in cells now who are lonely and angry and bitter about women because

they're not meeting them and they're not being socialized or sexualized the way they

want to be.

So I mean, it's a, it's a crapshoot in whether your queer are not, but it does exist.

I'm a living wonder.

I'm happily married.

Absolutely.

I love.

Yeah.

I got friends who have been happily married for decades.

Exactly.

Well, we've been talking about a lot of ideas, a lot of issues, and I'm curious to know,

is there a particular message or thought you hope audiences take away from this piece?

Sure.

Sure.

One, you have to give people a chance as I said before, the mother, she keeps saying,

I'm a capable of growth.

You have to trust that if you put it out there and you put it out there in a clean, unbiased

way, people can come around.

People can change.

Even people who you think are the most close-minded.

You know, the lead character said, my mother thinks the most progressive thing she ever

did was changing from regular Coke to Diet Coke.

So she's not very progressive, but she does, she does grow.

She's given the opportunity at first, it's thrust on her because she doesn't know anything

about Jasmine and she has her being up, standing up, and she's like, oh, my God, what

is this?

But it she learns throughout the play.

She learns.

And the other thing is what I said before, we do have happy endings in the trans community

and the queer community and the bi community.

We have happy endings.

We have relationships just like everyone else.

We're not all miserable and lonely and in therapy and all this stuff.

We're having long-term relationships where we're married and we're accepting marriage

equality and, hey, we're getting marriages like everyone else and living lives and building

families.

You know, I'm a grandfather.

I have five grandkids.

I have a daughter and a son and they're 40s and I'm a grandpa, they are grandpa.

That's what my grandkids call me, grandpa.

That is wonderful.

What great ideas right there and a beautiful set up for my final question of this first

part, which is, who are you hoping have access to this show?

I'm hoping everyone who's even had an inkling or a question or a doubt about the queer community

in general and the trans community in specific because they're under attack, come to the show,

come to the show, experience, give yourself the opportunity to experience the life, the

experience of the characters, unblemished, unbiased and then let it wash over you and

see how you feel when you leave.

I guarantee you, you will laugh, you will have a good time, but you might change your mind.

It may unburden your mind about some of the reservations you might have had about the

queer community or the trans community.

It may just unburden you with that because it is a burden that I think carrying around

any kind of misfortune or any kind of bias or hurt or hate for a community, it's not

good.

You don't want to rent that kind of space in your brain for something so negative.

You have so much beauty in this world.

Don't rent that space so let it live rent free in your brain.

Come and explore the community, let it wash over you and see how you feel after.

You have to feel after.

Maybe you're lifted.

Maybe you're inspired.

Well, on the second part of our interviews, we'd love to give our listeners a chance

to get to know our guests a bit better.

The last time we had Yuan was for the International Human Rights Festival, so we'd love to know.

But this time, it's just you, so I want to start with our...

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Regular first question and ask, what are who inspires you?

What playwrights, composers or shows have inspired you in the past or just some of your

favorites?

I told you this before and I'm going to tell it again because I've already said I'm

a team-neutranger of creative writing.

When I was six, five or six years old, my biological father took me to a block party.

Pretty common.

I grew up in Jamaica, Queens, very rural and very normal.

And there was this big trailer truck there and at one point, the front of the side of

the truck came down and there was musicians standing there and they were playing music.

And then my father grabbed me and he was only about five, seven, but for some reason,

he grabbed me and put me on his shoulders so I could see the show.

And out came this supernova and silver and gold fringes and started dancing across the

stage and singing out loud and it was Tina Turner.

And I was mesmerized.

I was like, oh my God, what is that?

Who is that?

How is she doing that?

My God.

I've been and I've been a navigator ever since.

She's inspired me to get into show business.

I got into show business at like 14.

I was just in love with it and love with her.

Hence, I call myself the Tina Turner of writing because of that.

I mean, I have other serious ones.

I'm a big fan of Tennessee Williams, big fan of check-offs.

I love check-offs.

Work, I like Ipsin.

Ipsin is really great.

I like number of writers, people who push the envelope, firestein, another one, it goes on.

I love, I remember that story too.

And that's just what an amazing memory.

And what fabulous inspiration to their Reginald.

Yeah, that was like five or six to have that wash over you.

It was like, wonderful.

I was like, what is that?

Who is that?

And that's what the theater bug was placed.

And here we are now.

Yes, yes, it's stuck with me all these years.

And I still use it as my inspiration today without hesitation.

And I tell people whether I'm reading my poetry or my spoken word,

or whatever, it's going to be nice and rough, right, Tina.

And I also want to let them know, I can't resist a good shimmy.

Yes, Tina would love that.

Whenever I'm feeling a little something, give myself a little shimmy.

Yes, you feel so much better.

You can't resist a shimmy, honey.

That is fabulous.

Well, Reginald, I would love to know what you're being a part about working in the

theater meeting new people to work with.

It's so great to be able to go from project to project and meet new creative, exciting

people, both young and seasoned people.

It's so great that each time you form sort of a bond or a little family while you're doing

the project.

And like I said, I don't let go of those bonds.

If I could find stuff with you in the next show or the show after that or whatever, I maintain

those relationships and bring it forward.

So I meet some wonderfully creative people.

And my thing is I always say, I bring my genius to meld with your genius, with the director's

genius, with the actor's genius.

And by the time we hit the audience, it's genius times three times four.

And I feel excited about that to present each time to our audience, something like that.

There's something that we know is incredible.

And we can't wait for them to experience it.

And because it's something uplifting, I think that's our responsibility as theater artists

now or artist period because there's so much going on, you know, that if someone takes

time out of their busy day and puts down the phone and unstreams and actually gets a baby

setter or whatever makes buys a ticket and comes to sit in an actual live theater and

see live people, we better bring a great show.

We better do something incredible to let them know.

We love that.

We can't thank you enough for giving up that because it's so easy to sit at home and

just stream a hundred channels.

Come out and see some live art and we're not going to let you down.

You know, T Jackson is not going to let you down.

I'm going to write a show that is genius and I'm going to make sure you enjoy yourself.

When you leave, you're going to be, I'm glad I came out tonight.

That's the thing I love to hear most.

I'm glad I came out tonight.

I'm glad I saw this piece.

That's my reward more than silver and gold.

I'm glad I came out tonight.

I'm glad I saw this piece.

I'm glad I was experienced this.

Doesn't get better than that.

Doesn't especially in 2026.

There's so much competing for people's attention for their time.

Nothing's better than here in the audience that I'm so glad.

Thank you for the experience.

Thank you for the evening.

You're welcome.

I love that.

That is a great feeling.

Absolutely.

You have to be appreciative of a people's time and attention because it's hard to get

these days.

Even on Broadway, it's hard to get.

It's hard.

If you get butts in the seat, you need to make sure those butts in the seat have a great

time.

Great time.

Remember, that's what live art is.

That's what live dance is.

Live theater.

Oh, this is why we come out.

Amen.

Well, that is a beautiful set up for my favorite question, of course, which is what is another

of your favorite theater memories?

I remember I went to see with a friend of mine, Peter Brooks did a check-offs cherry orchard

at BAM and he did a wonderful production and it was very, very scaled down.

I think he had like one chair and a very sparse furniture and everything and it was, it

was Peter Brooks.

I mean, it was fantastic, but I remember when I left the theater, I was in turmoil because

I was like, how did they not get together?

How did they not?

How did they miss each other?

They didn't understand.

They loved each other.

I couldn't understand it.

My friend said, let me take you out to coffee because you can't go home like this.

We sat in coffee and we went through it and then he exposed to me the beauty of check-off

which is why I love check-off so much.

He put the message of the play in the mouth of the uncle who was sort of like idiot Savant.

He said, avoid the illusions of life that prevent happiness and then he said, eight ball, five

pocket.

And you're like, should I, but that's the brilliant of check-off.

He blunted it, but he gave you the thing and that's what happened.

They didn't avoid the illusions of life and that prevented their happiness and so they

went, they missed each other and once I got that, I was like, oh wow, that is so profound.

I need to read some more check-off.

I need to get into this guy because that was incredible and it was true.

When you look at the play, if you think about that from the beginning or when you leave,

avoid the illusions of life that prevent happiness.

Could get simpler than that and that's check-off for you.

And I loved that production.

It taught me that as a writer and as a performer.

What an amazing production.

Wow.

Well, once he stripped it back and got rid of a lot of the other stuff and so the text really

became the bridge that you had to walk over, it really cemented it out there and you really

felt it.

You were like, why didn't they get together?

How could this not happen?

How could this not happen?

And then you think about it.

What did the uncle say?

You think he's crazy next minute?

He spews pure gold, avoid the illusions of life that prevent happiness.

That's so profound.

We can all, that's relevant today, that's relevant right now.

How many people are caught up in illusions of life that's preventing a love relationship

or a career relationship or creative relationship because they think something that's so

infimeral and so transitory is real and it's not, it's not.

I love that is, that is not only a wonderful memory but a wonderful thought.

So thank you so much for sharing that with us.

That is great.

Hey, that's check-off.

Well, as we wrap things up, I would love to know, do you have any other projects or

productions coming in the pipeline?

I do indeed.

I have a new play called Crab's in the Barrow, which is my adaptation or a riff.

I said, so riff is not really an adaptation.

It's more of a riff from Jean Paul Softer's No Exit and it's going to be at the Manhattan

International Theater Festival in July and it's going to be on 54th Street.

It's going to be, I have the dates right here.

It's going to be July 22nd, 23rd and 26th.

That's a Wednesday, Thursday and a Sunday and it's another full-length piece.

It's dramatic.

It's on if people don't know the software play No Exit but you have three people who wind

up in hell and have to deal with each other.

They don't, at first they're not on me and then do the course of the play.

We find out why they really are there and we find out what they've done and who they

really are and then we find out that their punishment is not fire and brimstone, it's

each other.

I won't tell you any more than that, but it's each other and we find out how these people,

which I call Crab's in the Barrow, how they fight their way out if they get out.

It's a drama, it's going to be like Tina Turner, this one's going to be rough.

I'm telling you now, it's going to be rough, but I guarantee you're going to leave you

with something nice at the end so you go home, you go home happy, but it's going to be

rough.

Crab's in the Barrow, Midtown International Theatre Festival, 22nd, 23rd, 26th, full-length

piece.

To be honest, it shall we go right into auditions and so forth, so I've been working quite

steadily.

I'm excited.

Before the next one ends, before the current one ends, I'm already on to the next one.

That is amazing, what a great hook.

I hope we can have you back to talk more about it, but for now, that is a wonderful set

up for my final question, which is if our listeners would like more information about

when we practice to deceive, or about you, perhaps I'd like to reach out to you.

How can they do so?

About me, they can go to ReginaldTJackson.com, that's my personal website, it's got everything

you ever want to know about me, bios, there's video reels, you can see me at and perform,

and you can see the properties I have available and so forth that you might be interested in.

And then for when we practice to deceive, it's freshfruitfestival.com.

You can get tickets there, they have all the shows with the writers, it's not just my

show, it's an incredible lineup of incredible queer theater, and you can check all of them

out, but definitely when you practice to deceive, is there freshfruitfestival.com tickets are

only $23 for really, really incredible performances.

This is, you said, it's the creme de la creme of the queer theater community, experience

it for $23.

That's a steal, that's a steal, I tell you, our plays are steal, you can say, wow, they

did all of that on that budget, yes we did, yes we did, we made magic for you, and we

can't wait to welcome you there, and I give you a little teaser.

If you come opening night, you can meet the actual Lady Jasmine Van Wales, that the

lead character is based on, she will be attending as my guest opening night.

Have you, yes, well, Reginald, thank you so, so much for taking the time to speak with

me, and for sharing this amazing show and all your wonderful insight, this has been such

a delight.

So thank you very much.

Thank you so much.

I love being able to, I don't get to do this often to talk about theaters, talk about art,

it's great.

Well, I hope we get to have you back on so we can do more of that, is this, yes, I want

to come back and talk about perhaps in the barrel next, yes, I would love that, yes,

my guest today has been the absolutely amazing playwright, Reginald T. Jackson, who joined

me today to talk about his show when we practice to deceive, it's part of the freshfruit

festival and it's playing April 23rd, 24th and 25th at the Wild Project, and you can

get your tickets and more information by visiting freshfruitfestival.com.

We also have some contact information for our guests, which will be posting in our episode

description, as well as on our social media posts, but do not miss this incredible show.

Get in on the ground level of this, I'm sure this is not the last we're going to hear

of this show or this playwright, so get your tickets out freshfruitfestival.com for when

we practice to deceive, April 23rd, 24th and 25th.

So until next time, I'm Andrew Quartz has reminding you to turn off your cell phones, unwrap

your candies and keep talking about the theater.

In a stage whisper.

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