An Interview with the Director Jade King Carroll

Edited for Length and Clarity by Rachel Ropella

Directing and Dramaturgy Apprentice Rachel Ropella sat down with director Jade King Carroll to talk about Carroll’s connection to August Wilson’s plays and how she learned as a theatermaker.

Rachel Ropella (RR): What was your first exposure to August Wilson's work?

Jade King Carroll (JKC): I went to SUNY at New Paltz and the drama department was predominantly white, but I really wanted to direct Ma Rainey's Black Bottom. I had to apply, but it didn’t go very far. I ended up doing The Death of Bessie Smith by Edward Albee. I still had to go to the music department to find black actors, because I needed a percussionist. That was my first attempt to direct August Wilson. Later when I was an intern at McCarter Theater, I was matched with Ruben Hudson-Santiago, who was directing Gem of the Ocean by August Wilson. Shortly after, Signature Theater was doing a whole August Wilson season, but when August passed away, they reexamined how they were doing it.

Ruben wanted me to come as an assistant director, which led me to continue to assist and do dramaturgy on Wilson’s for a whole season. In 2010, [Wilson’s] widow, Constanza Romero, named me the Paul Green Outstanding Emerging Artist. The award was because of all the dramaturgy I had done on August Wilson; people were hiring me not just to assistant direct, but to do the research and visual boards for productions. And it was that award that allowed me to start getting hired as a director.

RR: How do you feel those early experiences when you were just starting professionally, of being an assistant director and dramaturg fuel your process as a director now?

JKC: I think it fuels my process as a theatermaker because I spent time assistant directing from the ages of 24 to 29, and then from 32 to 35, I was an Associate Director on Broadway. I was also directing my own shows, but that was 11 years of helping other people's visions. I think, when nobody knows what your future is gonna hold, and you're in a position of [being] somebody else's assistant, you often are able to see things in a truer way than other people. I hate to say it, but people discount younger assistants. That invisibility let me kind of see how people worked best and I used that to my advantage. I just took over this job as Producing Artistic Director for the Chautauqua Theater Company, and one of the reasons I really wanted it was because I deeply value making a bridge for training artists to join the professional world. The most important early opportunities for me were working not just with peers, but also working with more established artists who get to truly know you.