SHS Grad Jess Chayes Directs home/sick in Williamsburg

Jess Chayes, a 2003 graduate of Scarsdale High School is currently directing home/sick , an ensemble-devised piece of political theater that explores the history of the 1960s radical group, The Weather Underground. The play is a presentation of the Assembly Theatre Project and can be seen at the Collapsable Hole Theatre in Williamsburg, Brooklyn.

Disgusted by the Vietnam War and the government's repression of those seeking equality domestically, a handful of leaders from the 1960s student movement seized control of Students for a Democratic Society and reshaped it in the name of overthrowing the United States government. Believing violence to be the only means to a true and lasting peace, these passionate idealists accelerated a movement to its fervor, but left a country behind.

According to Timeout New York, home/sick is “impressively researched and clear-eyed and shows us the Underground’s internal contradictions … we see Bolshevik passion lapsing into self-delusion and then flaring up again, until we are unsure what to admire and what to deplore." And offoffonline says, “Jess Chayes's direction is daring and engrossing. The lines between actor and audience, play and reality, right and wrong, become so blurred it is hard not to get caught up in the fervor and passion of these romantics- even if you whole-heartedly disagree with their actions. Chayes intricately blends movement, dance, lighting and sound to capture not only the counterculture of the 70's but also the complex struggles and political questions these very real people were grappling with.”

Jess’ (SHS ’03) love of theater and the arts took root and flourished in Scarsdale High School where she student-directed You’re a Good Man Charlie Brown, led the Drama Club, wrote poetry and founded the a cappella group, For Good Measure. She graduated from Wesleyan University with a B.A. in Theater and English with Honors, and was awarded the Rachel Henderson Theater Prize as well as an Olin Fellowship for her work on Hartford.

Chayes is a co-founder and resident director of The Assembly Theater Project and a freelance director. With The Assembly, she has co-created and directed We Can’t Reach You, Hartford (Edinburgh Fringe First Nominee, The Scotsman), Daguerreotype (The Abingdon Theater), What I Took in My Hand (The Ontological Theater, the Brick Theater), Clementine and the Cyber Ducks (The Ontological Theater, reading at P73), The Dark Heart of Meteorology (UNDER St. Marks), The Three Sisters (The Red Room, The Cherry Pit), and home/sick.

The play will be performed from July 20 -23 and July 27 – 30 at 8 pm. Purchase tickets at brownpapertickets.com and visit theassemblytheater.com to learn more.