Marin Arts & Culture MAC_Oct_Nov_2017_final | Page 26
Jasson Minadakis
Marin Theatre
Company
Noah Griffin
MA&C: Tell us about your home, how
you got started in theatre and your
theatre background and education.
Jasson Minadakis: I was born and
raised in Richmond, Virginia. I attended
James Madison University and began
to study Beckett and Pinter through a
Dramatic Literature course I was taking
for my English Lit major. I began to focus
my major on Dramatic Literature when
I began studying Shakespeare. Going
into the fourth year, my advisor asked
me what practical theatre classes I had
taken and when I replied that I had
not taken any, he insisted I take a few
before graduating. So, I talked my way
into a fourth level directing course and
a business of theatre course. And I was
hooked. A year later I was beginning
an internship at the Ensemble Theatre
of Cincinnati where I was the assistant
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director to Edward Albee at a premiere
of his play, Fragments. While I was
interning, I helped form the Cincinnati
Shakespeare Festival where I would be
the artistic director of for 9 years. I then
moved to Atlanta to become artistic
director at Actor’s Express. From there
I was brought to Marin to become
the Artistic Director of Marin Theatre
Company.
MA&C: Who were your favorite actors
and directors growing up?
J.M.: Peter Brook, Alan Schneider, and
Peter Hall were the directors whose
work I studied the most closely. I didn’t
really have favorite actors. My favorite
theatres were the Royal Court in London
and Woolly Mammoth in D.C.
MA&C: Who and what influenced you
the most?
J.M.: Reading Beckett and Shakespeare
were my greatest influences. My
directing mentor, Warner Crockett,
pushed me hardest and challenged me
to become a leader. Howard Shalwitz
was the artistic director who’s company
inspired me the most in the U.S. The
Royal Court was the theatre that most
inspired me to focus on new writing.
MA&C: What do you like best and least
about working with actors?
J.M.: I love working with actors. The
greatest joy is assembling a talented
cast and staying out of their way. Also
watching how a small but precise
direction can become production-
defining in the hands of talented actors.
What I like least is that we do not pay
professional actors properly in the
American theatre. The best stage actors
struggle to make ends meet working