Meet Jessie Field | Playwright & Director

We had the good fortune of connecting with Jessie Field and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Jessie, what led you to pursuing a creative path professionally?
I pursued an artistic career for two, equally good reasons.

First, because I have something to say. Quite a few things, actually! I want very ardently to grip every living person’s shoulders and make a lot of meaningful eye contact and say directly to their faces “hey, you are okay exactly as you are. In fact, you are perfect. On top of that, you hold in yourself the potential to change and become even better or more yourself or more alive, and isn’t that all so unbelievably extraordinary? Aren’t we so lucky to be here alive on Earth exactly right now??” Sadly, I do not have time to go visit every living person individually and so making art is the next best way to get those messages out.

Second, because I love it. Theatre has moved me and changed me and helped me and healed me more than any other art form. I believe that when we see aspects of ourselves depicted onstage, it can make us feel profoundly less alone. People have reached out to me from onstage, and now I reach out to people from onstage. With words, I mean. I’m not going up there myself, whoa, no thank you!

Let’s talk shop? Tell us more about your career, what can you share with our community?
I started writing plays for performance in the backyard of my rural New Jersey home as a teen with some very dear and very bored friends of mine. It was all rather unconsciously done, and I went into college thinking I wanted to be an ACLU defense lawyer. This is because I was obsessed with the play “Inherit the Wind.” I took one theatre course on a lark in college and realized, “Oh, I am less infatuated with the law part and more with the play part of this play.” I immediately switched my major to theatre arts with a concentration in directing. As a director, I was dissatisfied with most of the work I was asked to direct and so ended up coming full circle back to writing. I love it very much and am grateful to not be a lawyer.

I think simultaneously there is nothing easy about being an artist, and also it’s the easiest thing in the world. You know why it’s not easy probably, but it is easy for me because I love it. I think there are all sorts of ways to love a thing or a person, but I tend to love hugely and certainly and irrevocably. Sorry to my close friends and/or lovers if that ever feels overwhelming, but congrats to writing, which I pursue with a need and tenacity that would never allow me to neglect it for long. Writing is its own reward for me. I think you need to really love and believe in what you do in this career, or else the ups and downs and endless rejections of it all are going to get to you. But you can build a solid foundation in yourself and know that even if this script only ever becomes a silly backyard reading where you have fun with your friends, that will be enough. And then, irony of ironies, when you write from that place it tends to come out very honest and gorgeous and have a larger life anyway.

I think all good art is grounded in truth. Honesty and vulnerability are the greatest gifts we can give each other.

My truth lies somewhere in the realm of, hey, maybe you’ve been told something about you is wrong but probably that’s not true. Probably you are exactly right, and you always have been. As a queer woman, a primary mission (and delight) of mine is creating more nuanced stories centering queer characters and queer joy. I also revel in unpacking issues of body image and reminding larger bodied individuals that we are all absolutely gorgeous 24/7.

My predominant work is in musical theatre. “Charlotte Lucas is 27 and Not Dead,” which I wrote in collaboration with James Martinez Salem, was a revelation to me personally. Getting to tell a fully queer story in the world of regency romance was so silly and fun but it also felt like a revolution. Sometimes Joy is a revolution. I write the world I want to see, and not always per se, the one I currently live in. But I also have the audacity to believe that we can just be compassionate to those around us and that will ripple outwards through the larger community always. It’s pretty neat. We’re all very powerful actually.

I’ve had a hand in a variety of other musicals, plays, and soon to come operas! I hope always to keep learning and growing and changing, and know that regardless of where those changes take me, I’ll always be writing.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
In Flatbush, Cafe Madeline is the place to do some crazy lovely brunch.

In midtown Manhattan go to DBL for cheap drinks that are wow very strong and also the loveliest queer environment (we always sit at the outdoor round wooden tables. I love them.)

Prospect Park is a perennial delight.

In Central Park my fav bit is The Ramble. If you’re missing trees, go to the middle of The Ramble and you almost can’t see any city for a minute.

And then the best restaurant in the world is El Centro. Go and get the Chilaquiles. Probably I will already be there with my friends and you can say hi.

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
Every day I am pushed to grow as an artist and a person by my friend and collaborator James Martinez Salem. I wouldn’t be half the writer I am today without his support and his own work constantly inspiring me. I’m also lucky enough to be surrounded by a cohort of brilliant artists/writer/actor/friends who challenge me, so in addition to James, I’d love to shoutout a big ol’ thanks to my fav wordspeople Brandy Hoang Collier, Gabrielle Mirabella, Danielle Koenig, & Andrew Strano.

I’ve also been profoundly lucky to have been advised and mentored by Mindi Dickstein and Rachel Sheinkin, and I owe much of how I think and write currently to the two of them.

Shoutout also to one of my fav playwrights Mallory Jane Weiss. Who not only pens gorgeous plays but also a very inspiring semi-regular email series of essays on writing that always get my brain whirring.

Lastly (but not leastly) to my brother, Jared Field (a genius composer but even more importantly an incredibly stalwart support system for me all on his own) and my parents (them that so kindly wrought me.)

Website: jessiefield.com

Instagram: @jsfieldtheatre

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/jessie.field.3/