Today, we're featuring Jake Thompson as a part of our Meet the Cast series for HENRY V! Jake plays the title character, Henry.

What is your "deal?" My deal? Um... Hm. Well, I work at Trader Joe's by day and study things that interest me by night. Lately it's been Oscar Wilde, Dorian Gray, and David Bowie bouncing around in my head, and VFR was gracious enough to host a reading of the play that's come out of it. I'm interested primarily in adaptation, and the way a story's structure can take even familiar endings and make them dramatic and surprising.

​Shameless brag? My shameless brag is I can type 93 words per minute, because I'm a nerd whose been typing and using computers since I was like five.

What is your favorite food? The tacos at Casa De Alberto on National. With a blended raspberry margarita.

What has been your favorite roll to date? My favorite role to date is Petruchio, in Taming of the Shrew. The director had a rather extreme vision for the show and I got to play into the character's spontaneous showmanship and instability. Lots of rolling around on the floor and throwing water on people (and myself).

What are you most excited about during HENRY? I'm most excited simply for the process of doing it. I've been fascinated by the Henry V arc for years, and the chance to play the part is like a fully funded expedition into a new world I've only read about. I'm just trying to take it all in and learn as much as I can.

Photograph by Robert Colletta Photography.

Jake Thompson went to Chapman University and focused on theatre studies, and in addition to being one of the founders of VFR, wears many other hats. Jake is a board member, actor, director, graphic designer, and sound designer for the company.
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What do you do at VFR?
Lately, not much, which is cool. Now I don’t have to do as many things since we’ve stretched
the leadership board out.
Lately I’ve been doing composition for Hamlet and graphic design. I trust everyone to get things
done so it’s nice to take a breather.

How did you start working in graphic design? How about sound design?
When Joss Whedon released "Much Ado About Nothing" they had a contest to design a poster and submit it through
twitter. I didn’t win, but I didn’t know anything about photoshop, I made this 1960’s style thing,
which when I look at it now makes me cringe, but I entered this contest and it went from there.
A theatre company from my hometown needed help with their glass menagerie poster.

In high school and middle school I did a lot of video editing and I wanted to focus on editing
videos to music. In college it was about putting music to a play. More of a playlist.
During VFR I started exploring the design of it more. “Transition” music etc.

Can you tell us about the sound design for "Hamlet?"
I'm composing a bunch of original music for Hamlet. The concept is to write all of the music with the
play specifically in mind. More specifically than that, moments of the play, and how the actor’s
beats can influence the sound.
The song is tailored to the action. A lot like live scoring. An actor’s cue will prompt the stage
manager to give a sound cue to coincide with the action.

Can you give us some insight into the company's designs for this seasons?
I think it’s indicative of where we’re going as a company. Every poster was different, even the
paper dimensions. Every poster was it’s unique thing. It was a show by show basis, we did a lot
of shows. I wanted to see what worked the best. Taming of the Shrew and Richard posters were
long and skinny, I thought it would be eye catching and easier to hang on crowded bulletin
boards. I think they looked cool ,but ultimately it was too different.
Same thing for the text layout, which is arguably one of the most important part of the posters. I
was trying to find a way for it to work well, which was coherent.
This season, we got our stuff together a lot more. The posters represent that too. Each show
has it’s own color. Simple colors. 8 ½ by 14 paper, so it’s familiar but not too familiar. The font is
the same, the logos are in the same place. I wanted to have a sense of cohesion. I think we
found what sticks and I wanted to roll with that graphically speaking.
I was personally resistant to the idea of a cohesive theme and that’s a silly thing to be resistant
to. You want everything to look similar, you want brand recognition. Even if you don’t
consciously say, hey that looks like the poster I saw a couple months ago, maybe there’s a
subconscious recognition.
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As a preview of what to expect from "Hamlet" sound-wise next month, we've included a link (below) to something that Jake's been working on for the show! Check it out, enjoy, and keep your eyes open for more Hamlet fun coming your way soon!

By: Jake Russell Thompson

We paid Facebook to run this ad:
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By Jake Russell Thompson, R&J ​Director and Voices Found Co-Founder

Weeks of music history research, digging through blogs, and sustaining a constant flow of music have come together in a single playlist. Not only is it a solid mixtape, if I do say so myself, it could also be used as an advertisement for Spotify Premium.

I wasn't sure it was worth it before. I was so wrong.

1. You Only Live Once (The Strokes)
2. Hong Kong Garden (Siouxsie and the Banshees)
3. Dance This Mess Around (The B-52s)
4. Suck It And See (Arctic Monkeys)
5. We Throw Parties, You Throw Knives (Los Campesinos!)
6. Upon This Tidal Wave of Young Blood (Clap Your Hands Say Yeah)
7. Secret Meeting (The National)
8. Daft Punk Is Playing At My House (LCD Soundsystem)
9. I Might Need You To Kill (The Thermals)
10. Sea Ghost (The Unicorns)
11. Blackshirt (Nightair)​

12. Uncontrollable Urge (Devo)
13. Ten Feet Tall (XTC)
14. Into You Like A Train (The Psychedelic Furs)
15. 52 Girls (The B-52s)
16. Hong Kong Garden (Siouxsie and the Banshees)
17. Once I Had A Love (AKA The Disco Song) (Blondie)
18. Uncertain Smile (The The)
19. Disorder (Joy Division)
20. Whole Wide World (Acoustic, not available on Spotify) (Wreckless Eric)
2​1. Natural's Not In It (Gang of Four)
22. Love Like Anthrax (Gang of Four)
23. Stay Out of It (Cabaret Voltaire)
24. I'm Not In Love (Talking Heads)

25. Welcome To Japan (The Strokes)
26. A Dream of You and Me (Future Islands)
27. Post-Breakup Sex (The Vaccines)
28. What Difference Does It Make? (The Smiths)​

29. Public Image (Public Image Ltd.)
30. All We Ever Wanted Was Nothing (Bauhaus)
31. Making Plans for Nigel (XTC)
32. That's What You Always Say (The Dream Syndicate)
33. Premature Burial (Siouxsie and the Banshees)
34. A God In An Alcove (Bauhaus)
35. Loveless Love (The Feelies)
36. Death from Above (Crispy Ambulance)
37. Whole Wide World (Wreckless Eric)

38. Electric Feel (MGMT)
39. If i ever feel better (Phoenix)
40. Always Like This (Bombay Bicycle Club)​

Romeo & Juliet will play during the second week of August, 2016 at the In Tandem Theater. Buy tickets here, and subscribe to our blog to follow the production and get updates on what we’re working on!