{"id":26681,"date":"2017-11-10T03:50:42","date_gmt":"2017-11-10T11:50:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/?p=26681"},"modified":"2017-11-09T10:07:00","modified_gmt":"2017-11-09T18:07:00","slug":"merging-psychology-acting","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/2017\/11\/10\/merging-psychology-acting\/","title":{"rendered":"Merging psychology, acting"},"content":{"rendered":"

Jed Weiss plays Mr. Gibson in UBC theatre\u2019s production of Wives and Daughters<\/em>. (photo from UBC theatre)<\/em><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

University of British Columbia\u2019s theatre program has a tradition of presenting historical plays. The current production, Wives and Daughters<\/em>, based on an 1860s serial novel by Elizabeth Gaskell, was adapted by Jacqueline Firkins and directed by Courtenay Dobbie. It promises to be \u201ca charming romp of love convoluted by hidden desires and expectations.\u201d<\/p>\n

One of the actors in Wives and Daughters<\/em> is Jewish community member Jed Weiss. In his final year at UBC, Weiss will graduate in May 2018 with a dual degree in psychology and acting. A transplant from California, he moved to Vancouver in 2013.<\/p>\n

\u201cI first moved here to go to UBC,\u201d he told the Jewish Independent<\/em>. \u201cAnd I would definitely like to continue living here for awhile after graduating. I\u2019ll always go back to Northern California to visit, but Vancouver is a second home to me. Part of what made UBC so attractive was the tuition price. I was able to finesse a dual citizenship a month before I applied here, thanks to my awesome mom, who kept her Canadian citizenship after moving to the States.\u201d<\/p>\n

Since his arrival, he has been very busy with work and study. Among other activities, he was a radio host for several years. \u201cBetween 2013 and 2016, I was hosting my radio show called Crescendo<\/em> on the UBC radio station CITR 101.9. It went live for one hour every Sunday night. The program played eclectic music, starting with chill and down tempo, and building in intensity through the hour. I also used the time on the show to interview local bands, which was a really fun time. It was a live show, which was later podcasted, and some of the shows are archived on the website. Sadly, during the last couple years, I\u2019ve gotten increasingly busy with acting and music and had to let go of the show, but I still drop by to support the station.\u201d<\/p>\n

He also donated his time to the nonprofit organization Generocksity.<\/p>\n

\u201cGenerocksity is a nonprofit organization that originated at UBC and has since spread internationally,\u201d he explained. \u201cIts purpose is to create philanthropic opportunities, increase philanthropic culture, and throw live events featuring local musicians, with every dollar made from those events benefitting a local charity. A few years back, I worked as a talent coordinator, so I spent time reaching out to Vancouver comedians and musicians to volunteer their time to perform at our events to benefit local charities. At this point, I can only help out when I\u2019m not too busy. I almost feel like Generocksity\u2019s dead-beat stepdad, but I\u2019d encourage everyone to look into them.\u201d<\/p>\n

When asked about acting, and what attraction it holds for him, Weiss said, \u201cAs an actor, you get to be whoever you want. You get to lose yourself in the escapism while simultaneously chasing this high of complete connection with an audience. It didn\u2019t occur to me as a viable option until my ninth grade drama class and, since then, it\u2019s been step by step. In 10th grade, I had to inform both my wrestling coaches that I was quitting mid-season to join the cast of my high school\u2019s production of Beauty and the Beast<\/em>, which were two very \u2018fun\u2019 conversations. After high school, I began working with the UBC Players Club and other campus productions. Eventually, a close friend of mine pushed me to audition for the UBC BFA program, and the rest is history.\u201d<\/p>\n

Weiss enjoys both of his areas of study. \u201cIf I can make enough money from acting to feed, house and at least partially clothe myself, I\u2019d be set! That being said, I would honestly feel that something was missing if I didn\u2019t spend some time continuing to study psychology. I wouldn\u2019t even mind Frasier-ing it and landing a radio or podcast psychology advice show that would utilize both of those fields,\u201d he said, referring to the main character\u2019s jobs on the television comedy Frasier<\/em>, which ran from 1993 to 2004.<\/p>\n

Weiss said that psychology is a useful skill for an actor, and that the opposite is also true. \u201cThere has been a rise in the implementation of theatre into therapy,\u201d he explained. \u201cThere is significant power in using theatre and performance in clinical settings, so it\u2019s great to see theatre being recognized for how therapeutic it can be.\u201d<\/p>\n

As for UBC\u2019s current production, Weiss said Wives and Daughters<\/em> \u201cis based in a small English town in the 1830s, centred on a determined girl, Molly, who is reaching for adulthood. It\u2019s a very period-specific piece, but it does a great job of relating to the universal human experience of family dynamics. Our crew and production team have done a phenomenal job of helping create this universe through the use of costuming, lighting, sound and stagecraft.\u201d<\/p>\n

Weiss plays Molly\u2019s father.<\/p>\n

\u201cI play Mr. Gibson, the town doctor and Molly\u2019s widowed father,\u201d said Weiss. \u201cI read the novel and also watched the BBC adaption, then researched what medical knowledge was available to doctors in the early Victorian England. You need the research to fuel the technique but you can\u2019t play any of the research during the actual performance. You play the wants of this person filtered through his age and the time period. Mr. Gibson may want to tell someone else to get lost, but with his 1830s gentility, he would word it in the kindest and most astute way possible.\u201d<\/p>\n

Weiss is passionate about theatre. He likes everything about it: researching, rehearsing, performing. And, of course, the audience response. \u201cNothing beats the visceral elation of connecting with an audience,\u201d he said. \u201cA group of people connected to the story you are telling and [the] feedback of connecting with that focus is an incomparable high.\u201d<\/p>\n

In addition to all of these pursuits, Weiss is part of a local band, Cheap Flavor. So, what does he want to be?<\/p>\n

\u201cI want to be freakin\u2019 everything!\u201d he said. \u201cThe hardest part of growing up for me has been acknowledging that I can\u2019t do everything. I\u2019ve been able to trim it down to acting, school and music only, and forcing myself to focus on those areas, but it\u2019s always a work in progress. In the future, I would like to keep up with psychology, acting and music equally, and, when it comes time to let one of those fields go, I\u2019ll have to make peace with that sacrifice.\u201d<\/p>\n

Wives and Daughters<\/em> runs until Nov. 25 at Frederic Wood Theatre, UBC. For tickets and more information, visit theatrefilm.ubc.ca<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Olga Livshin<\/strong> is a Vancouver freelance writer. She can be reached at olgagodim@gmail.com<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Jed Weiss plays Mr. Gibson in UBC theatre\u2019s production of Wives and Daughters. (photo from UBC theatre) University of British Columbia\u2019s theatre program has a tradition of presenting historical plays. The current production, Wives and Daughters, based on an 1860s serial novel by Elizabeth Gaskell, was adapted by Jacqueline Firkins and directed by Courtenay Dobbie. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":26682,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[785],"tags":[7565,6208,3556],"class_list":["post-26681","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-performing-arts","tag-jed-weiss","tag-theatre","tag-ubc"],"blocksy_meta":{"styles_descriptor":{"styles":{"desktop":"","tablet":"","mobile":""},"google_fonts":[],"version":8}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26681","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26681"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26681\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26682"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26681"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26681"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26681"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}