The Bellarmine High and Santa Clara University grad returns home from New York to star on The Stage.
The acting profession is a rewarding and trying one. The joy of being an integral part of the storytelling process is peppered with the continual fear of having to audition for your next job. And how many of us feel the need to list Burp on Command, Double-Jointed Shoulder Blades, or Possessing a Driver’s License as skills on our LinkedIn profile? For actor Jeffrey Adams, such is life. Adams recently returned home to the Bay Area from The New School for Drama in New York to appear in the productions of Death of a Salesman and The Addams Family at The Stage.
How did you get into acting and performing?
It started out when I was eight years old, doing children’s theater at this summer camp, at Milpitas Rainbow Theater. My brother and I both sang. Growing up, we were in choirs and stuff like that. It was something we enjoyed doing. We thought, “All right. We’ll sign up for this.”
The first play we did was Music Man. It was something to do during the summer and to make friends. But it was really fun, and it developed into a passion. I kept going back every summer.
As I got older, I started to appreciate the technique of taking on different characters and the academic side of it as well. And once I got into high school, really studying plays and digging deeper into what it means…from there, it just took off.
You chose to pursue this path pretty early on.
I did. Definitely in high school, I really, really fell in love with it. Obviously, you’re in an academic setting where you’re constantly reading different plays and literature. That was a big focus for me in high school. In my senior year, I was taking four English electives. My passion was there.
Was there somewhat of a defining moment where you said, “Yeah, I’m going to pursue this along the way.”
There was, actually. I was a sophomore in high school in 2003. I was fifteen years old. I had the opportunity, at the Milpitas Rainbow Theater, to play Don Quixote in Man of La Mancha.
Which is really [a role] for a man of 50 to 60 years old, but being in a children’s theater, I was able to portray this guy. I think that was really it for me. I was able to not only transform into a 50-, 60-year-old man, but also [the character’s] story is one that is incredible.
Being able to transform into another person and take on these characteristics and be a man who’s full of hope and tragedy and sorrow, and has this whole mantra of dreaming the impossible dream, it was a metaphor for acting as well.
It was the first time I got lost in a character. Jeffrey was gone. I was able to fuse everything I knew as an actor into just totally being this other person, which for me was fascinating and really wonderful. To be able to share that with an audience is always just incredible. I think that was probably the moment.
So, when I applied to different colleges, I absolutely looked at the theater programs, that was important. I knew that was the path I was going to take. It’s a whole different process. You have to go on college auditions, as well as the application process and all that.
What is it you like about acting?
Two of my passions are acting and teaching. I taught for a year after Santa Clara. I think both of those professions are admirable and very important. I think that acting, at its finest, is also teaching. I think that’s part of why I enjoy it so much. I think there are so many important stories, about just the human experience, that are out there.
Being able to share that in a creative, artistic way is something I love. I think if it’s done well, audiences and people who see your performance will learn something from it, want to talk about it. It will either make them feel in some way or bring awareness to something that is important on a larger level. I really love that.
What have you learned from some of those characters you portrayed that has affected your personal life?
I think that’s also one of the reasons I love acting. I get to learn more about myself through the characters I play. Aldous Huxley has this great quotation that I use all the time. It’s “The more you know, the more you see.” The more I know about these characters, the more I see in myself and the world around me.
In order to play somebody else, you have to ask yourself, “What would you do in this situation?” or “If you were to be this person, how would you go through what they’re going through?”
Those are questions that not everybody gets to ask themselves a lot in their profession. I get to do that every day, which is great. I’m constantly searching myself and finding out who I am and what I would do in certain situations.
I think acting, at its finest, is self-discovery. It’s finding out who you are by being these other people. Every character does that on some level. You could be playing a clown, or you could be playing a murderer. I’m not going to be a clown. I’m not going to kill anybody. But you have to ask some pretty human questions, in terms of finding out how you would play those people.
It must be difficult, too, because in some ways, you can’t help being yourself. You need to bring that in order to inform the character, but at the same time, you’re not playing yourself. You never really can not bring yourself in some way.
I think that’s the beauty of it, too. I think that’s why people respond to certain actors. It’s because there always has to be a little bit of yourself. That’s what makes you unique. Stella Adler, this wonderful acting teacher, always said, “Your talent is in your choices.”
Any actor can take on a role, but what makes it unique is what you, yourself, the actor, bring to the table. That’s important.
You’re going to see tons of Happys if you watch Death of a Salesman over the course of however many years. Every Happy is going to be different, which is also exciting too.
I think the perfect fusion is a little bit of you, a little bit of the character, and always the story overriding all of that.
Long-term for you, what’s the vision? What’s the goal? What’s the North Star?
The political answer to that is working regularly. Buy a house, have a family, things like that.
In terms of my career, I would love to get involved in film and TV more, absolutely. I’m looking at, potentially, a move down to LA at some point and just pursuing that and auditioning for things out there.
If I got a regular TV show, it’d be great. That is probably the closest thing, on camera, to the theater experience, as opposed to film, because there is an audience component. It’s a play that’s being filmed.
You get to work on a character for an extended period of time. That would be a dream come true. It is more regular work for an industry that doesn’t really thrive on job stability. I would love to pursue that.
What’s it like then to go on a casting call, sit there with 50 other people who resemble you in many ways?
It’s miserable. It’s terrible. You sometimes drive for an hour, two hours to be seen for a two-minute period of time. You never know. You can go in and feel like you nailed the audition and never hear back. You can go in and feel like you did a terrible job and you get the part. You never know. The more you do it, obviously, the more it becomes part of the job.
I tell people all the time. It’s like I’m an actor, but I’m really a professional auditioner. You’re constantly lining up the next gig. You have to get over yourself and sweep your pride under the rug and just do your work. You have to go in and say, “Today, this is about this goal. I’m going to go in and accomplish that.”
You have to be going in for you and your work. You can’t be going in to get the job, if that makes sense. You can’t be going in for the people on the other side of the table. You have to be going in for you and say, “You know what? Regardless of the choice they make, I’m doing this today. I’m going to do my work, and then I’m going to leave the room.”
What you’re doing is, you’re bringing your professionalism, in that, whatever it is that you’re doing, even if it’s for the audition, you’re going to do it to the best of your ability, rather than “What can I do to make them want to hire me.”
Right, I think if you go in the room with that mentality of “I want to please you,” number one, they’re not going to see the best version of yourself. You’re probably not going to be doing the work you should be doing. Your intention should be the task at hand and not necessarily getting the job. Nine times out of ten, you’re not going to.
[laughs] Not good odds...
It’s not based on talent a lot of the times. A lot of the times, it’s just based on, you’re not tall enough or we want somebody blonde because we have… Or it’s already been cast and you’re just filling some space in the room.
If you were not to pursue acting, what do you think you would be doing?
I think I would be teaching, for sure. From elementary school to the collegiate level or beyond, I would absolutely love to go back to that at some point. There’s no question. At some point, I will go back to that.
Both my parents have been teachers. My dad actually taught at Santa Clara University. My mom taught me and my brother at St. John Vianney in San Jose as our music teacher and coach for years.
There’s a lot of history…
Lot of education in my family.
What subject do you think? Would it probably be literature or acting?
Yeah, it would probably be. If it wasn’t in the acting world, it would probably be in the English or literature side of things. I would love to do that.
I talked about being a doctor for a long time because I enjoyed that or thought I was going to go down that path. Pediatrician. I enjoyed working with kids and stuff like that. The math and science that it involves is just not…it’s not me.
Rather than be a real one, it’s better to just play one on TV.
There you go. Exactly.
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Instagram: jeff__adams