Review Fix Exclusive: Jan Wallace Talks ‘Shirley And Me’

Review Fix chats with Jan Wallace who discusses her upcoming production “Shirley And Me.”

About the Production:

SHIRLEY AND ME, WRITTEN AND PERFORMED BY JAN WALLACE AND DIRECTED BY E. KATHERINE KERR, WILL PLAY THE 2017 PLANET CONNECTION THEATRE FESTIVITY, WHICH RUNS JUNE 12 – JULY 9 AT THE CLEMENTE, 107 SUFFOLK STREET, NYC.

After achieving great acclaim with this one-woman show at Florida’s Sarasolo Festival in Sarasota, Jan Wallace reprises her role in Shirley and Me at this summer’s Planet Connections Theatre Festivity. SHIRLEY AND ME is about Jan Wallace‘s relationship with the character “Shirley Valentine” (a not so young working class Liverpool lady who just takes off on holiday to Greece sans husband). Inspired from Jan Wallace‘s years of performing the award winning 1986 Willy Russell play, SHIRLEY VALENTINE, to theater audiences in Connecticut and the New York area. SHIRLEY AND ME allows Wallace to relive her experience of performing SHIRLEY VALENTINE with humor and honesty, exploring how it affected her then and how the character of “Shirley” inspires her now.

Unlike Shirley Valentine, Jan did not leave her husband, he, sadly, left her. Michael Wallace passed away from a brain tumor and Jan dedicates this series of performances to his memory. She has joined forces with The National Brain Tumor Society to honor him with a specific donation site: www.nbtsevents.braintumor.org/JanWallacedonations.

Performances are June 17 @ 5:15 p.m.; June 19 @ 7:30 p.m.; June 23 @ 5:30 p.m.;
June 25 @ 8:00 p.m.; July 2 @ 3:45 p.m.; and July 7 @ 7:00 p.m. For tickets, visit PlanetConnections.org.

Review Fix: What’s your creative process like?

Jan Wallace: I have two different creative processes – one as the writer and one as the actor.

The Writer:  Writing an autobiographical play is very different from writing a fictional play with characters, so for Shirley and Me I am telling my story of playing Shirley Valentine, of how I connected to her character at that time and how now, when I am in a very different part of my life, I am inspired by her.    The script has gone through many, many rewrites.  I am always open to changing the script and taking out what doesn’t carry the story forward.  It’s still an on-going process.

The Actor:  My process for this play is no different than from any other play I do, except being a one-woman play I have the full attention of my director, E. Katherine Kerr and we follow her four principals of acting – Relaxation, Commitment, Communication and finally Being Present.  At the beginning of my process I make sure I am relaxed so that I can start memorizing my lines.  Once they have become “an organic” part of me I can start committing myself to the character.  Communication is essential and it is very important to me that I communicate 100%. It is sometimes hard, when you are the only one on stage, to stay focused and to not go on auto pilot.  Constantly communicating allows me not to fall into this trap.  And being present in my body, allowing myself to accept where I am, in both mind and body, at the beginning of my performance and checking on where I’ve “landed” at the end, helps me to carry out all the other principals.  Obviously I also follow these principals when I’m performing.

Review Fix: What makes this different or special?

Wallace: As I said above, the most special thing is having the full attention of my director. We definitely worked in collaboration with each other.  Katherine creates a very safe environment in which to work, making it easy for me to accept feedback.

Review Fix: What did you learn about yourself through this process?

Wallace: I actually learned that I was more interesting than I thought I was.  I thought audiences would primarily find Shirley’s story more funnier and more interesting than mine, but happily I was proved wrong.

Review Fix: How does it feel to be a part of something like this?

Wallace: I feel very honored and excited to be part of this festival.  However, coming alone from Sarasota, Florida it’s also a little overwhelming and scary.

Review Fix: What are your ultimate goals for this production and for the future?

Wallace: I don’t really have any goals for this particular play.  It’s a private part of me that I have now expressed so I don’t really feel the need to find another avenue in which to perform it.  Hopefully, though, I will write another play and have the opportunity to take that to other festivals and maybe even back to Planet next year.

Review Fix: What do you think your audiences will enjoy the most?

Wallace: I think audiences will appreciate my honesty and humor.

Review Fix: What’s next?

Wallace: Audiences had such a positive reaction to my play when I performed it at the Sarasolo Festival in Sarasota and wanted to see me perform Shirley Valentine.  I am going to be doing just that (20 years after I last performed her!!!) in Sarasota next February.

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About Patrick Hickey Jr. 13819 Articles
Patrick Hickey Jr. is a full-time Assistant Professor of Communication & Performing Arts and Director of the Journalism program at Kingsborough Community College and is the chairman of the City University of New York Journalism Council. He is the Founder and Editor-In-Chief of ReviewFix.com. He's also a former News Editor at NBC Local Integrated Media and National Video Games Writer at Examiner.com where his work was mentioned in National Ad campaigns by Disney, Nintendo and EA Sports. Hickey was also the Editor-In-Chief of two College Newspapers before he received his BA in Journalism from Brooklyn College. Hickey's work has been published in The New York Daily News, The New York Times, Complex, The Hockey Writers, Yahoo!, Broadway World, Examiner, NYSportScene Magazine, ProHockeyNews.com, GothamBaseball.com, The Syracuse Post-Standard, Scout.com and the official sites of the Brooklyn Aces and New York Islanders. His first book, The Minds Behind the Games: Interviews With Cult And Classic Video Game Developers was released in April 2018 and is chock full of interviews with legendary developers. His second book in the series, The Minds Behind Adventures Games, was released in December 2019. His third book, The Minds Behind Sports Games, was released in September 2020. His fourth book, The Minds Behind Shooter Games, was released in March 2021. The Minds Behind Sega Genesis Games and The Minds Behind PlayStation Games were released in 2022 and The Minds Behind PlayStation 2 was published in January 2023. Hickey is also a contracted comic book writer, currently penning his original series, "Condrey," as well as "The Job," "Brooklyn Bleeds" "Dem Gulls" and "KROOM" for Legacy Comix, where he serves as founder, owner and Editor-in-Chief. Hickey Jr. is also a voice actor, having starred in the 2018 indie hit and 2019 Switch, PS4 and Xbox One release, The Padre (also serving as English language Story Editor), from Shotgun With Glitters. The sequel, The Padre: One Shell Straight to Hell was released in February 2021- Hickey also served as a Story Editor and Lead Voiceover performer. He has also done narration and trailers for several other titles including The Kaiju Offensive, Relentless Rex and Roniu’s Tale. Hickey is also the lead voiceover performer on Mega Cat Studios’ upcoming title WrestleQuest, responsible for nearly 90 characters in the game, as well as Skybound's Renfield: Bring Your Own Blood, where he voices both Dracula and Renfield, as well as several other characters. He also stars in Ziggurat Interactive’s World Championship Boxing Manager 2, where he performs the VO of nearly every male character in the game. He also worked on the Atari VCS’s BPM Boy.

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