How the Bard (and Biggie) saved a young person’s life
Jacob Ming-Trent in the world premiere of How Shakespeare Saved My Life — an autobiographical solo show with music at Berkeley Rep’s Peet’s Theatre through March 1. Photo by Kevin Berne
A staple of the one-person show is explicating how difficulties in one part of life led to evolution in another – it’s a relatable dramatic arc that allows a performer to conjure a world of people and difficulties while connecting and inspiring/enlightening/entertaining the audience.
Jacob Ming-Trent, a graduate of American Conservatory Theater’s MFA acting program and a veteran of the Berkeley Repertory Theatre stage (Continental Divide), has a fascinating story to tell in his solo show, How Shakespeare Saved My Life, now having its world premiere at Berkeley Rep in a co-production with the Folger Theatre in Washington, D.C., and the Red Bull Theater in Manhattan.
Ming-Trent’s story is one encompassing a rambunctious youth in Pittsburgh that led to banishment from his broken home and then life on his own as a teenager trying to making his way out of the literal streets.
Jacob Ming-Trent’s autobiographical show is infused with music and Shakespearean verse. Photo by Kevin Berne
When someone is telling their story from the stage of a major regional theater in a slick production with top-notch lighting (Alan C. Edwards), overactive projections (Alexander V. Nichols), original music (Jake Rodriguez) and a basic but still beautiful set (Takeshi Kata), you know there’s likely a happy ending of some kind on its way.
For Ming-Trent, there were many and varied saving graces along the way, but his lifeline was art. More specifically, words that mattered. Even more specifically, Shakespeare…and Tupac and The Notorious B.I.G. and James Baldwin and anyone whose words spoke to a bright, ambitious, resilient young man who needed something to cling to and words to wield almost like weapons.
Ming-Trent offers his story as a testimony and addresses his audience throughout the show’s 95 minutes as Congregation. There are call-and-response moments, including the oft-repeated “Play on” to enhance the sense that this communal experience will traffic in salvation at the hands of writers, teachers, rappers, drag queens, casting agents and ill-equipped parents whose failures will be carefully considered.
Directed by former Berkeley Rep Artistic Director Tony Taccone, a reliable shaper of solo performance, How Shakespeare Saved My Life is a captivating showcase for everything Ming-Trent has to offer. He’s warm, funny and easy to like, and as the show progresses and his story unfolds, he also reveals himself to be a fascinating artist and deft performer.
Jacob Ming-Trent in the world premiere of How Shakespeare Saved My Life — an autobiographical and music-filled tour de force. Photo by Kevin Berne
Unlike a lot of solo shows, Ming-Trent mostly plays himself. He’ll dip into other characterizations, like his mom, dad or someone he met during a brief jail stay (triggered by a production of Othello, but that’s a whole story), but mostly we get Jacob, whom we meet at 12 years old in 1992 when he stumbles into a Shakespeare class and before he knows what hit him, he’s reciting the St. Crispin’s Day speech from Henry V. The words feel powerful and important and give young Jacob stature. “I used Shakespeare like Popeye used spinach,” he says. Jacob decides from that point on that his lot in life is to be a Shakespearean actor.
He maintains that goal through the turbulent years ahead, and (spoiler alert) that is what he becomes…and then some. His most recent Broadway credit was the Audra McDonald revival of Gypsy, and now he’s telling his own story from his own version of a pulpit. He asks his audience to talk back to him, but he also brings them into the story. One woman in a front-row seat is asked to play the girl to whom young Jacob lost his virginity (“American theater ain’t got no money,” Ming-Trent says by way of explaining why he’s the only performer and there’s not a live band). But as the congregation, we’re also asked to take some action ourselves.
Based on Ming-Trent’s compelling testimony, it’s hard not to be caught up in his fervor and do exactly as he says.
FOR MORE INFORMATION
Jacob Ming-Trent’s How Shakespeare Saved My Life continues through March 1 at Berkeley Repertory Theatre’s Peet’s Theatre, 2025 Addison St., Berkeley. Running time: 95 minutes (no intermission). Tickets are $25-$135 (subject to change). Call 510-647-2949 or visit berkeleyrep.org.
