Quick Chats: Jennifer Latimore

Welcome to our Quick Chat series where we'll dive into the life and times of some of APT's finest. Each interview will supply insights ranging from the obviously relevant to the vaguely insane. Sounds fun, right? Today we're chatting with APT Acting Company member Jennifer Latimore!

A recent graduate from the University of Georgia, Jennifer joins APT for the first time this summer. She was a 2014/2015 Emerging Professional Resident at Milwaukee Repertory Theater and can be seen this season in The African Company Presents Richard III, An Ideal Husband and Arcadia. We spoke with Jennifer about her time so far at APT and The African Company Presents Richard III. Thanks for joining us this summer, Jennifer!

APT: How are you enjoying playing in the woods for the first time?
Jennifer Latimore: It's really, really awesome! This is one of my first really big gigs. Before this, I was at Milwaukee Rep doing a few shows there last season and the season before that I was an intern there. So this is the longest contract I've had so far in my professional career and it's exceeded all of my expectations of what I thought it would be. It's given me a great artistic expression. It's great being around so many talented actors and so many passionate people at one time and we're just all secluded in this little campus LITERALLY in the woods. It's wonderful.

APT: So you just got done working with our A.C.T. (Acting for Classical Theatre) Camp a few weeks ago. How was that experience?
JL: It was absolutely terrifying! I am so terrified of teaching and directing. I can act, but teaching somebody to do it and trying to see the full picture from a director's standpoint is something I'm not super experienced with. But I figured if I'm terrified of it, then that probably means I should do it. It was really exhausting in the greatest way, because I badly wanted to keep going and keep pulling stuff from the kids because they were really great. They were a lot better at Shakespeare than I was at their age!

APT: Let's talk about The African Company Presents Richard III. Did you know of the play before coming to APT?
JL: I did not. When I first heard the title I thought, 'Is this what APT is calling the people that are going to do Richard III?' So yeah, I was a little confused at first, but it absolutely clicked when I read it. It's so imperative to do, especially at this point in the world-where we are with race relations and where APT is with being more diverse and more inclusive. It's important now more than ever to be doing a play like this.

APT: Do you feel a connection with any particular characters or moments in the play?
JL: There are so many moments. I think I feel a connection with each of the characters in certain aspects of my life. Like my character, Ann Johnson, is kind of tormented by how much she loves her co-star, Jimmy Hewlett. I've felt that before-where I didn't want to let myself like or love somebody for fear of that love being unrequited, so I can pull from experience when I play her. I also connect with the plight that all of the black actors in that show go through-wanting to show that they're just as capable of performing heightened texts, and that they're people and just want to be respected as people. I feel that deep connection just being a young African American female in the 21st century in the United States of America. There are too many moments to count.

APT: Your character spends a lot of the play rehearsing her role of Lady Anne in Richard III. Have you ever played or wanted to play Lady Anne?
JL: No, I want to play Richard! That is the role of a lifetime. I've done Lady Macbeth so I've had a little experience with not so morally centered characters, but Richard is just so dynamic and so manipulative. He's so good at twisting things, and I think it would be so much fun to play him. I mean come on-a black, female Richard III? That's going to sell some tickets!

APT: Would you rather only be able to speak in song or only be able to say ten words per day?
JL: Oh my goodness! Hmm-this is like forever, forever? I think I would have to speak in song because I can't only do ten words. Not that I talk a lot, but definitely more than ten words. And if I need to say something then everybody is going to have to deal with me singing it. That's just it. At least I can sing well!