Jess Garrett plays “The Woman” in Christopher Durang’s play Laughing Wild.
Jess Garrett is a voice over actress, educator and author. Her voice is uniquely friendly and youthful, and has been featured in audio books, podcasts, and narrations, as well as multiple promos for kids shows on WGBH. She has just co-authored a hilariously slimy book for 8-12 year olds, called “Oh Ick! 114 Science Experiments Guaranteed to Gross You Out!” She travels around the country entertaining large groups of students with slime and other “icky” science experiments. Visit Jess’s website at: http://www.jessgarrett.com.
From Jess: “I had a wildly cathartic time inhabiting this nutty character, who obviously has a rough time coping with life, and especially dealing with other people. All of us struggle with our own inner demons, so it was a chance to explore my own, and let them all come out through the hilarity of Christopher Durang’s writing. One of the methods Wren used to help us understand our characters was asking us to move to a piece of music until our bodies danced out the story. I chose a spastic rendition of ‘Melancholy Baby’ and was shocked to find that that I was dancing as a child, doing everything I could to get emotionally distant parents to notice me, and feeling forever feel invisible. My character compensated by becoming overly dramatic, with an underlying, seething anger based on the fear that no one ever has, or ever will truly SEE her. Though it was a monologue, I imagined that I was telling the story of the tuna fish incident to a psychologist, who has been trying in vain to help me manage social interactions. Several of the lines describe how she ‘tried’ to be patient but ultimately couldn’t because the other people were just so “insensitive” and didn’t notice her. The monologue contains so many feelings that were fun to explore: embarrassment, guilt, anger, sadness, and pleasure in being ridiculously dramatic, out of control and ‘Laughing Wild.'”