INTERVIEW: Jasai Chase-Owens on his journey with ‘Sanctuary City’
Photo: Jasai Chase-Owens and Sharlene Cruz star in New York Theatre Workshop’s Sanctuary City. Photo courtesy of Joan Marcus / Provided by Matt Ross PR with permission.
Few plays in recent memory have taken the circuitous journey that Sanctuary City has. The show, written by Martyna Majok and directed by Rebecca Frecknall, features a stellar cast consisting of Jasai Chase-Owens as B, Sharlene Cruz as G and Austin Smith as Henry. The plot centers on the ever-topical issues of immigration, friendship, safety, responsibility and love.
The reason the journey for Sanctuary City has been so unique is because the COVID-19 pandemic delayed the opening indefinitely in 2020, but the show’s creative team, including the New York Theatre Workshop, dedicated themselves to sticking with the play. They were finally able to open this past September, and although live performances have concluded, the performances live on thanks a streaming option available through Nov. 21.
For Chase-Owens, whose theatrical credits include roles at the Public Theater and Yale Repertory Theatre, the journey has been an elongated one, but a necessary one.
“It was a little surreal,” the actor said in a recent phone interview. “I went in summer of 2019 for an audition. I had an audition and a callback with New York Theatre Workshop … and then didn’t hear anything until January of 2020. I was in Toronto shooting The Expanse maybe three weeks before rehearsals started. For the first week of rehearsal I was flying back and forth between New York and Canada to begin rehearsing, so it was a very strange process.”
When Chase-Owens first read the play, his thoughts were profound. He definitely wanted to audition for the show, but more importantly he wanted to make sure that the show was produced, with or without him playing the character of B.
“I thought it was very important for it to be done,” he said. “I was very struck by how it didn’t force feed an audience this political immigration story but a very personal one. For me, this was a huge story about friendship and sacrifice, and I believe those two are rights that we have as humans — and how the world robs us of those things, and how this country specifically has robbed a very specific group of people of love really, and made them sacrifice love.”
The cast and creative team worked with a dramaturg to better understand the current issue of immigration in the United States and around the globe. Also, Chase-Owens was able to rely on personal stories from his own family members, who emigrated from various parts of the world.
“So that was the main research that I did was just talking to them and talking about their experience,” Chase-Owens said. “Granted, for them it was a long time ago. Laws were different, but what it’s like to be here alone, feeling alone, that level of survival. Then the headlines. … The news cycle was immigration in February of 2020. Headlines every day, and then we get to 2021, and it’s no longer in the news until halfway through our rehearsal with Haitian immigrants at the border. So that was really interesting to not only prep for the play with research, but as we were rehearsing the play just kind of let the research fall into our laps because it’s still happening. Some things have changed, but not a lot has, if you really think about it, and not quick enough.”
For Chase-Owens, who in addition to appearing on The Expanse was featured on HBO’s The Deuce, this play doesn’t want audience members to walk away feeling sad or pity. Instead, when he thinks about the stories that are brought to life in Sanctuary City, he feels a great deal of pride.
“These are people who are willing to sacrifice so much of their lives,” he said. “They have to try and strive for something that they feel is better for whatever reason, whether it’s safety, financial, quality of life. In their eyes, they’re trying to achieve that, so this play has actually weeded out sadness for me. It’s much more … maybe anger if we’re being frank, something a little more active than sadness is.”
Chase-Owens added: “I think when theater can really affect people is when students, younger kids, even if they’re not students, are introduced to the theater for the first time, and they’re able to hear stories at a formative age. I remember being at the theater and seeing versions of productions, and it changed my path in life. … We had so many audience members come up to us after the show and said, ‘This is my experience,’ and for those people to be sitting next to people who it is not their experience, I think in itself is bringing people together in a very special way.”
By John Soltes / Publisher / John@Hollywood Soapbox.com
Sanctuary City, featuring Jasai Chase-Owens, is available to stream through Nov. 21, courtesy of New York Theatre Workshop. Click here for more information.
