Featuring: Jessica Kadish (MFA Acting Graduate Student)

Where do you like to do work?

There’s a park in Urbana called Crystal Lake Park with a pond and little fenced-in fishing docks over the water. The docks are almost never used by actual fishermen, and they’re the perfect size for using as a studio when you need a contained space to work on a monologue or text analysis but don’t want to be stuck indoors. That’s one of my favorite spring/fall ways to work on a script.

Where do you like to eat?

There are some really wonderful restaurants in the area too. For Indian, Sitara – just as good as what you’d get on Devon Ave in Chicago but for half the price. For schmancy pizza and schmancy coffee, Pizza M. For Mexican, there’s this little taco truck on the corner of Cunningham/Vine and University. Absolutely fantastic tacos, and really nice guys. And nothing beats the Urbana Farmers Market in Lincoln Square on the weekends.

What do you like to do on weekends?

Urbana Boulders is a fun little indoor climbing gym when you need a break from the gym at school! There are also great hiking trails and nature preserves in the area. I love exploring them with my class when we have days off. The Art Theater Co-op has world class independent films all the time, really great festivals in particular. Great for finding artistic inspiration from other disciplines.

What is your favorite production you have worked on so far?

My first Krannert Center production, Kingdom City, was an incredible experience. The character I played was very close to my heart – deeply similar to me both in ways I embraced and ways I resisted. She was exactly the character I needed to play in my first year of graduate training as I wrestled with personalization and the task of bringing my full self to my work, even the parts I dislike. The cast was small and I learned so much from each person – the undergraduates here are fiercely talented as well and working with them made me better. The playwright, Sheri Wilner, spent some time with us and came to opening night. Getting to meet her and be in dialogue with her about the play was so rewarding.

I also really loved my graduate class’s first project, Henry V. We worked on an abbreviated version of the script where each of us rotated in and out of playing Henry depending on the scene. I’d been resistant to Shakespeare prior to coming to Illinois, and fell head over heels in love through our process with this show.

Why did you choose University of Illinois’s MFA program?

I chose U of I for so many reasons. Top-notch training without any pretentious crap. Tuition waiver and three solid years of teaching undergrads, with a living stipend. Focus on classical material but with opportunities to work on new plays as well. The fantastic professors, who revolutionize your practice with new mindsets and tools, and from day one give you the responsibility to take control and ownership of that practice rather than spoon-feeding the “right” way to do anything. The extraordinary students who have come out of the program, who work hard ceaselessly and with love, some of whom are my dearest friends (one of whom is my wife!) and encouraged me to come here.

When I visited with the MFA class of 2015 they were so instantly warm and welcoming while also being fiercely professional – I knew I wanted to be immersed in that dynamic. Illinois Theatre is a family, and now that I am officially a part of it, it’s made me more sure than ever that I’ve come to the right place. My classmates and I all come from different parts of the US, different cultural backgrounds, with different artistic histories, but with our common commitment, and shared goals it is the most artistically invigorating environment I could ask for.