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At Home on the Stage For Jordan Friend, putting on plays is a passion—and he’ll do it wherever he can By Maura Mahoney
Actor Jordan Friend at his parents’ house in Chevy Chase
unconventionality of it.” That winter, he officially formed 4615 Theater Company, a “found space” group that moves from venue to venue (the name is a nod to his parents’ address). The group has used about six different spaces in the past two summers, including friends’ backyards and classrooms and a theater at GDS. He raises funds through ticket sales ($15 each), donations at each show, and via an annual solicitation letter. Audiences have ranged from about 30 to 60 people, depending on the venue. The 4615 Theater Company was back in Chevy Chase this past summer for Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night and the Jacobean tragedy ’Tis Pity She’s
a Whore. It also performed Rajiv Joseph’s Gruesome Playground Injuries at GDS and Martin McDonagh’s The Pillowman at the Woolly Mammoth Theatre in the District. Throughout the summer, the company—which now includes roughly 25 members— rehearsed several times a week at Friend’s parents’ home. Sonenshine loved hosting the group, although she jokes that keeping the dog quiet during performances was a challenge. Friend, now a senior at Ithaca, plans to travel back and forth between New York City and D.C. after graduation, pursuing acting gigs and keeping the theater company going. “This is my passion project,” he says.
Photo by mike olliver
Jordan Friend takes Shakespeare’s words, “all the world’s a stage,” more literally than most. For the past three summers, he has put on and performed in ambitious plays such as Twelfth Night and Othello in a variety of unusual locations—most frequently at his parents’ home in Chevy Chase. Currently pursuing a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in acting at Ithaca College in upstate New York, Friend, 22, says he came home in the spring of 2013, after freshman year of college, looking for a way to spend his summer. He decided to produce The Duchess of Malfi, a classic Jacobean tragedy, with friends from the theater program at his high school alma mater, Georgetown Day School (GDS). When he realized how expensive it would be to rent a performance space, he persuaded his parents, Gary Friend and Tara Sonenshine, to let him use their house. He and his troupe put up lights, set up a sound system, moved in set pieces, and turned several rooms and outdoor spaces into miniature theaters. The audience moved from space to space to accommodate changing locations in the show. “It was a magical experience,” Friend says. “People who came and saw it were very taken with the
60 November/December 2015 | BethesdaMagazine.com
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