Powerless?: Interview with Baltimore Playwright Jacob Hellman

These days, the phonebook is pretty useless; if you want to find someone, use Facebook. I typed Jacob Hellman’s name in the search engine, and found him in a nanosecond. I also found that he was a senior at the University of Massachusetts, crossing my fingers that he wouldn’t be too busy for a phone interview. He promptly responded to the sketchy message I sent him confirming that he was the Jacob Hellman I was looking for. I immediately expressed how impressed I was that someone our age won the “Best Short Play” Award from the City Paper in their annual “Best of Baltimore” issue. Hellman’s play, Unplugged, also received a perfect score from veteran reviewer James Howard at broadwayworld.com in May when it ran at the Run of the Mill Theatre for the Variations on Power Festival for three weeks Power Festival Review.

Jacob Hellman grew up in Mt. Washington, which is northwest Baltimore, and is an alum of Beth Tfiloh Dahan Community School in Pikesville. He discusses why he chose UMass after leaving American University, and how studying theater in Amherst is a pleasurable, collaborative experience.

Finding inspiration for a play can be difficult, Hellman has little trouble coming up with ideas; if you didn’t envy him before, now you can. From his everyday life to the experiences of Sarah Palin, there’s nothing he thinks that should stay off of the stage. His awareness of people’s dependence on cell phones was a wake up call for him to write his piece Unplugged, he tells me.

Hellman reassures me that theater isn’t dying—that there are contemporary playwrights creating groundbreaking work as we speak. In order for theater to work these days, we should keep it current, keep it real. Recent historical events that have moved us as a nation (i.e. September 11th and Virginia Tech) aren’t just reserved for the camera, but could also be translated for the stage; a phenomenon better known as Documentary Theater.

Hellman has had many other successes in theater before this; his female monologue, Anchored, has been performed at the Center Stage Theater at Merkaz Hamag'shimim in Jerusalem, Israel. Even though he is recognized as an international playwright, he still found it disconcerting when receiving feedback about Unplugged, which received both criticism and praise. But by following his own manifesto keeping theater current and real he added another success to his repertoire. The next Variations on Power Festival is in January if you are interested in finding out more information, contact runofthemilltheater@gmail.com

Christen Cromwell loves crabs and driving around sketchy areas at night with pretty blue lights. Guess where she’s from.