Jessica John Gercke

I’m asking veteran local actors to name five dream roles and say why. The answers not only reveal aspirations, they may put an idea in the minds of artistic directors and producers — even choices that seem outside the box.

Craig Noel Award-winning actor: Jessica John Gercke

Jessica John Gercke as Billie Dawn in Born Yesterday at Moonlight, 2013

1.) Blanche Dubois, A Streetcar Named Desire by Tennessee Williams. “This role is my obsession, as I’m sure it is for many other actors. I’m smitten by the way Williams makes every one of his leading ladies complex, broken, devastated, and brave. The absolute fragility of this wreck of a character connects me to that awful, vulnerable place most of us have seen looming on the horizon one time or another. I love how she keeps trying. Even when the battle is lost, she gets up, brushes herself off, and doesn’t look back.”

2.) Marianne, Constellations, by Nick Payne. “My favorite character in my favorite new play. When I read it, I may have gasped out loud, trying to figure out how I’d ever get to do it one day. It’s written from multiple perspectives, allowing the actor to do the scenes a variety of ways in a short period of time. Marianne is brilliant and brash in one scene, feminine and scared in another, suffering brain cancer in another, deaf in another, etc. I also connect with her two most intense loves: for her mother, who she has lost; and for a not always perfect but truly wonderful man — the only other character in the show.”

3.) Miss Julie, Miss Julie, by August Strindberg. “One of those showcase-roles I’ve wanted to do forever. It must be one of the sexiest female roles ever written, but it’s tragic too. The show is difficult because, although the two characters are so cruel and selfish with one another, it is so necessary to see how lonely and isolated they feel and how desperately they claw their way towards a life that makes them feel most alive — a life denied them by social strictures and norms.”

Jessica John Gercke as Celimene in School for Lies at North Coast Rep, 2014

4.) Marquise de Merteuil, Les Liaisons Dangereuses, translated by Christopher Hampton. “I mean, who wouldn’t want to play her, right? She’s so awful and strong and manipulative and fun and terrible and ultimately completely destroyed by her own doing! It’s an absolutely fascinating study of the ultimate bully, who is so miserable because she knows no other way to make herself feel better than to see others miserable too. To explore a character like that would be terrifying and thrilling.”

5.) Martha, Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, by Edward Albee. “Another character part that explores the darker, more devastating sides of a heart and a marriage. I’ve seen various productions and, whether perfect or not, I’ve always come away LOVING the play. George and Martha are so funny and painful and the games they play are bizarrely real in the life of a marriage. Their final game comes completely undone but its existence is this sad little clue that real love once resided between them.”