An accident led to acting career for star of ‘Rachel’

by Sue Ann Rybak
Posted 2/27/20

Jessica Johnson by Sue Ann Rybak Jessica Johnson, who plays the title character “Rachel Loving” in Angelina Weld Grimke’s 1916 play, “Rachel,” never intended to be an actress. As an honors …

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An accident led to acting career for star of ‘Rachel’

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Jessica Johnson, who plays the title character “Rachel Loving” in Angelina Weld Grimke’s 1916 play, “Rachel,” never intended to be an actress. As an honors sophomore student at James Madison University in Harrisonburg, Va., she accidentally walked into the wrong class, Acting 101. (“Rachel” is now being performed at Quintessence Theatre, 7137 Germantown Ave., through Saturday, Feb. 29.)

“It was typically a majors only class,” she said, “but since I was an honors student, they let me stay. My acting professor there told me, ‘You know you really enjoy this.’ And I thought, ‘Well, I am not an actor, but I do enjoy watching theater. I thought I am going to be a theater enthusiast.”

When it came time for her to complete a project for her honors class, the professor suggested that Jessica perform a few exercises and write her own piece. She suggested Johnson write a monologue and a brief paragraph describing the stage and then perform the piece. Johnson wouldn’t even have to memorize it.

“I had NEVER been more excited in my life to do an assignment,” she said. “We were on the cusp of finals, and I was a very ambitious double major. I had psychology and liberal arts finals and projects that I had to do, and I think I spent more time on that project unnecessarily.”

After that she was hooked. She continued to take a general theater class until they told her she can’t. “Well, I said I want to take it,” Johnson said. “So, I double majored, and that’s how I came into theater.

“Rachel is the story of a young woman. When we meet her, she is 18. We meet her on Oct. 16, 1911, when her mother delivers a family secret to her and her brother Tommy, which really shifts the family perspective in how they move through the world and how they see the world around them, their community and their nation.”

Four years later, In 1915, Johnson said Rachel has adopted a young boy and is being courted by a man named John Strong. “We watch her grapple with and choose to radically shift her path in life, especially for a woman in 1915,” Johnson said. “She decides to still care for and love children, but she doesn’t go about it in the traditional sense. She won’t marry, and she won’t have her own children.

“For me, this role has been really challenging because so much of it is so close to home. While I myself am not a mother, I have had some really wonderful conversations with my mother and mothers who come to see the show. I love my mother, and I am in awe of all mothers. There are no words at this point to think about what it is like to raise children [in a world] where historically, people are killed just because of the color of their skin. It’s astonishing.

“I admire Rachel. She is very direct in her language. The difference today is we speak in a lot of metaphors, but she is very direct, and she is very clear about who she is speaking to and who she is speaking on behalf of. And what she is talking about hasn’t changed; it just looks different. Instead of lynching black men just because they exist, there is mass incarceration. There’s a politician who says that history doesn’t repeat itself, but it often rhythms. I think that is really true in terms of this play.”

For more information: http://Quintessencetheatre.org. Sue Ann Rybak can be reached at sueann@chestnuthilllocal.com