KPU Students, Faculty, Come Together to Present Jag and the American

Plastic Theater Company’s debut performance brings together Hemingway classics

A year of hard work came to fruition this month for Plastic Theater Company as the brand new theater troupe, formed by KPU students and english department faculty, gave their debut performance at the Cultch on August 5 and 6.

Their play, Jag and the American, was directed by John Rowell and Fred Ribkoff, both english professors at KPU. The play was written by Ribkoff and KPU student Paul Tyndall.

Jag and the American is a loose adaptation of Ernest Hemingway’s “Hills like White Elephants” and “Cat in the Rain.” Although the two stories are not connected as Hemingway wrote them, they are linked together in this version through the character of Jag, who replaces Jig from the original “Hills like White Elephants” and the lead character in “Cat in the Rain.” The play also adds a new backstory for the character of the American, an area left unexplored in Hemingway’s original.

“The Hemingway stuff comes from our interest as literature people,” Ribkoff said before the show. “We wanted to start with our own version of a classic piece of literature and Hemingway’s stories seemed well-suited, so we built a whole world around it.”

The play diverges from its source material in several key aspects. This iteration of the stories incorporates heavy South Asian themes, which are not found in the original Hemingway pieces. A version of Billie Holiday’s jazz classic “Strange Fruit” played on a sitar featured prominently. Acts were broken up by modern dance segments.

“It’s this jazz American classic played to a South Asian instrument, and it’s kinda jazz vocals but very much Indian,” explains Ribkoff.

“[Jag] being South Asian plays a big role in how she is and the person she’s become,” says Sawkshi Sharma, who brought Jag to life in the play.

The music was performed by vocalist Jahnavi Singh and sitarist Anju Bedi. Performing the dance segments were Jayde Reuser, Elmer Flores, and Anushruti. Choreography was put together by Amber Kingsley.

Putting this production together from scratch was no easy task, especially for a brand new theater company. Throughout the year, Plastic Theater Company has been working out of the lecture hall in the Surrey campus’s Fir building. The play changed and evolved throughout the process, with rewrites happening constantly, as both the production and company found their identities.

“The challenges just keep on coming,” says Ribkoff. “We all do it on a volunteer basis, and you’re talking about major commitment at the very least, rehearsing once a week for a year without any financial return.”

Sharma, the lead actress of the production, began performing in high school, and has also written two award winning plays herself. Jag and the American was her first lead role and also her first time performing in a drama, as opposed to a comedy.

“I’m still learning a lot about [Jag],” said Sharma in an interview leading up to the show. “It took me a while to get to know her. To understand her. I think I’m almost there.”

Co-starring with Sharma is Jordan Reuser as the unnamed American. Reuser has been acting on stage since high school and has worked with Ribkoff in the past. Nancy Mackie and Rawan Ramini make up the supporting cast.

The show went on without a hitch. The company’s very first audience filled the small but historic theater. A year of hard work and challenges paid off in an excellent debut performance.

Plastic Theater Company expects Jag and the American to be the first of many performances. The young company is already looking to the future as a follow up titled Bastard Son, a reimagining of Tennessee Williams’ The Glass Menagerie, is already in the works.