BIOGRAPHY
JESSICA BATES is an actress, singer-songwriter, choreographer and teacher. She trained at the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama in London, and her twenty-year career has taken her all over the country. Theatre abroad includes; The River Merchant’s Wife (Edinburgh Festival), Miss Julie (London Fringe Festival), The Tempest, Midsummer Night’s Dream (Cambridge Shakespeare Festival) Mind the Gap (UK Tour). New York Theatre includes; Hamlet, Twelfth Night (National Shakespeare Company), As You Like It, American Dreams Lost and Found (The Acting Company),American Dreams Lost and Found (Off-Broadway Lucille Lortel) The Magnificent Cuckhold (East River Commedia Theatre), Medea (Riverside Theatre) Love in the time of Unemployment (Solo show; Gershwin Hotel), 365 Days 365 Plays (Women’s Project). Regional theatre includes; Henceforward, Tonight at 8:30, Travesties, The Seagull, The Mask of Moriarty (Pittsburgh Irish and Classical Theatre), The Voysey Inheritance (Milwaukee Rep), Noises Off (Idaho Shakespeare Festival), Cyrano De Bergerac (Hangar Theatre), After the Revolution, The Lyons (Aurora Theatre), In a Word, 123, Washed Up On The Potomac (SF Playhouse), Waiting Room, The Rainmaker (Gloucester Stage),Or (Capital Stage), Swimmers (Marin Theatre Company.) Film includes; The Far Near Shore, Warsaw, The Mystery Plays.Television includes; May Peace Prevail on Earth, Love Kills, Law and Order.
THE CREATION OF WAITING ROOM
This play is the result of 27 years of songwriting and 20 years as an actress. Having arrived at the 20 year mark as an actress, I was overcome with a feeling I that needed to renew my artistic vows in order to keep going. But how? As I set out to answer that question, a concept for WAITING ROOM started to emerge. I was given an incredible gift by Robert Walsh, the AD at the Gloucester Stage in Massachusetts, who literally gave me a slot in his NEVER DARK SERIES before I had a first draft. The first song I wrote for the show was inspired by a conversation I had with Austin Pendleton many years ago, in which he said to me; "your job is to show up to auditions and plant a seed. If you do that, you are a success, whether you are cast or not. Actors always make the mistake of expecting to see those seeds grow immediately. " As I began to write, I soon realized that in order to tell the story of hope and perserverence I desired to tell, I would need to weave in some of the major obstacles that have shaped me, including the early loss of my dance career and my breast cancer diagnosis, which have both ultimately guided me to a place of renewed faith in my chosen path. I am thrilled to bring together all of my worlds as a dancer, choreographer, song-writer and actress in my first one woman show!
I'll see you at the theatre!
Jessica Bates