Jason Vales of Minonk directs his first full-length production at Heartland Theatre with Lynn Nottage’s dark comedy Clyde's.
Running through April 20 at the Normal venue, Clyde’s is the story of four sandwich shop workers and their insufferable boss, Clyde.
Vales first worked with Heartland last season, as one of four directors for Heartland’s annual 10-Minute Play Festival. He jumped at the chance to direct a Lynn Nottage play and has a personal connection to Clyde’s.
“My father, who I’ve never met, spent his entire life in jail,” Vales said in an interview for WGLT’s Sound Ideas.
Clyde’s protagonists work at the play’s eponymous truck stop sandwich shop because it’s one of few establishments that hires formerly incarcerated people.
“And then I found the difficult challenge of cooking, and giving dialogue, and cooking, and hitting blocking, and cooking and — doing everything!”
Vales’ bio begins in childhood, followed by a long and impressive list of credentials that includes training at Columbia College Chicago, Improv Olympics, The Second City and New York Film School. He operates a production company called Treefinger and is an active writer and director, working between Bloomington-Normal and Chicago.
The cooking, he said, is these characters’ “only opportunity to create something that’s theirs.”
Line cooks Rafael [Noe Cornejo], Letitia [Chloe Szot] and Jason [Richard Jensen] are shepherded by Montrellous [Sean Henderson], who encourages each worker to devise a sandwich all his/her own.
“The cooking is a way for them to be creative — a way to show their true selves,” said Vales. “Throughout the cooking process, they learn to appreciate each other and empathize with one another. It’s very much like work life, in general. You’re stuck with people for a certain amount of time. You try to make it work the best you can. And sometimes, along the way, you find a true friend.”
Ashley Daniels plays Clyde, the diner’s domineering matriarch, who also was incarcerated. One would think her intentions are altruistic — think again.
“There are people like Clyde in this world that will use you like a vehicle to get what they want,” said Vales, including underpaying workers by hiring people who’ve just gotten out of prison. “A lot of times, these characters feel like they’re trapped in purgatory. And she enjoys that.”
A way to connect
As Vales found his way in the theater industry after college, he took survival jobs in factories and lighting companies, where he encountered folks in a similar situation to the characters in Clyde’s. He wants Heartland audiences to hear their stories — while feeling closer to his father, who died in jail.
“As I get older, I think about him more and more,” Vales said. “For me, this play was a calling. It’s one of those things that you have to have a passion for in order to come to rehearsal every night. I want to connect with him. I don’t know what his life was like, but I can imagine that his life was a lot like these characters’. He probably got out of jail, tried to find a job, couldn’t find a job and resorted back to the only thing he knew, which was crime.”
More than 1.2 million people are incarcerated in the United States. According to the U.S. Sentencing Commission, the recidivism rate eight years post-release is nearly 50%.
“What really saddens me is that the world expects so much from a person,” Vales said. “For me, it’s all about what you’ve overcome to get to where you are. That’s success to me.”
A cast that 'just had it'
An annual survey by American Theatre found that Clyde’s was the most-produced play in America last season. Nottage and Lauren Gunderson were tied as the most-produced playwrights that year — in a push among regional theater companies to present more work by living playwrights, female playwrights and playwrights of color.
“A community like Bloomington-Normal — I think they need to see these people,” Vales said of the characters in Clyde’s. “I think they need to understand where these people are coming from.”
But that meant doing serious legwork to get the cast Vales needed for Clyde’s. A planned production of Water by the Spoonful last season, which Vales was scheduled to stage manage, was replaced when Heartland didn’t attract a diverse enough casting pool. He recalled being one of three people of color in the audience for last year's 10-Minute Play Festival.
“I had to find people that were interested in acting that didn’t know an opportunity like this was around,” said Vales, who knew Heartland's intimate space and high production value made it the ideal venue for Clyde's. He started recruiting auditioners a year ago, adding the current cast members walked into the audition room already embodying their characters.
“They just had it, from day one," he said. "I don’t think you could have gotten that without work. Hopefully by doing Clyde’s, it will be easier the next time we do a diverse play to get the cast. And hopefully that will lead to a diverse audience that will repeatedly come to see Heartland Theatre.”
Clyde's runs April 4-20 at Heartland Theatre, 1110 Douglas St., Normal. Tickets $19 at 309-452-8709 and heartlandtheatre.org.
