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Christopher Jackson Inspires High School Students
Oct 27, 2022
As part of the weekly speaker series, about 30 high school students attend a Zoom session, hosted by former Knicks star Allan Houston, alongside a celebrity guest - most recently Christopher Jackson. During the insightful and inspiring chat, Jackson opened up about his journey to becoming an actor, the importance of collaboration and more.
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0:00
You know, we got to talk about Hamilton
0:05
When I, when you talk about that whole dynamic and how there's such a connection, like, when I first saw it, I'm like, there's so many things that are so working so well together
0:18
And, and then, and then before you know it, you're like, wait a minute, they're actually rapping these lines on top of all this
0:25
They're performing these lines in hip hop, and it's like that, it's just a whole other level of experience
0:34
And so I guess talk about, like, did you know in preparing for Hamilton
0:40
When did you, because when did you know it was just going to, it was just extraordinary? Well, I confess, I knew that it would be extraordinary before he even happened
0:50
I was actually on stage with Lynn Miranda when he told me he had the idea
0:55
I was on stage doing another Broadway show in that same theater we were doing in the Heights, which was also at the Richard Rogers
1:01
And there was a point in the show where his character my character would go upstage while another scene had come downstage and they were the actors were doing their number And so we were up there and you know the three and a half minute song Lynn one of my best friends So we talk you know what I mean
1:19
We like, we're not in character, but we're there. And we get right to the end of that song
1:26
he's like, oh, by the way, I got my next thing. I was like, great
1:31
You know, and in my mind, I'm like, well, who am I going to play? What am I going to do? You know, because I'm an actor
1:36
Yeah, yeah, yeah. But we had to go out on stage at that moment
1:42
and he didn't get to finish telling me anything about what he was thinking about
1:46
That was cool. That was in 2009. So this is, I think, a really important thing to understand
1:54
and that is really good things sometimes take a long time. Really good ideas can take years to cultivate
2:05
You know, you'd think it's like, oh, okay, I've got this idea
2:09
Six months later, we're working on the first act. Another six months we're working on the second act
2:14
Then we do a workshop and we do another workshop. And then all of a sudden, we're on Broadway
2:20
And it could be further from the truth The development of this took five and a half six years right And that a lot of sitting around a table and recording demos and reading things out loud and for no money
2:38
Like, no money, maybe a hundred bucks for a week worth of sitting around a table
2:44
And that happened at a time where I was, you know, we had our first child
2:48
we were about to have our second child and as we're working through all of this
2:53
like work was tricky right? Like you gotta eat, you gotta find work
2:58
I did four Broadway shows in the amount of time that Lynn had told me about it
3:03
to the time that we opened at the public theater with Hamilt. And in fact
3:09
I didn't even participate in the two workshop productions that they did, which was basically
3:13
most of the show is written. There's a lot of choreography. be learned, there's not an audience that goes to see it, but it's like producers and industry
3:23
people who are, who would be interested in, you know, and understand what's happening with it
3:28
But because I was doing two separate shows when they had done the other two workshops
3:33
and so I didn join the company until the public theater run You know unfortunately Lynn wrote Washington for me to play And so the other really great lesson in this is that I had always been invested since 2002
3:47
in our friendship and encouraging one another and being available when Lynn had a project
3:54
to work on when there wasn't any money. But you do it because it's about the collaboration and it starts to fuel the other things
4:02
that you get to do. And so when this, you know, all of that to say that when this thing finally came to the time we were about to mount the production, off we went
4:14
And it just sort of just kind of snowballed from there. But I have to tell you, I believe it was going to be special because that Lynn's a very special artist
4:24
And he's doing something that nobody else does. And hip-hop is a language that speaks to him authentically
4:30
And so when you're collaborating, you just go. you know, and you throw every bit of intention and energy you have into it
4:40
So I believe it was going to be special because the experience was already special
4:44
The fact that it was popular and got popular was attributable to a lot of different things
4:50
But that was the reason why I thought it would be a special experience
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