Meet our Season 20 Illustrator, Jules Talbot
What is your relationship to GBSC? How did you first come to be involved here and when?
I was in every one of The Young Company’s Summer Festivals between 2009 and 2017, as well as a few Winter Festivals, one AYCE show, and a Mainstage in 2010, The Best Christmas Pageant Ever. Through elementary, middle, and high school, and now college, GBSC has been a constant in my life: the nine-year-olds from my first Act 1 summer are my best friends today a decade later.
What was your favorite experience at GBSC?
If I had to choose just one, it’d probably be from Shrek the Musical, specifically the opening song of Act 2, “Morning Person." There’s a part where Princess Fiona waltzes with an inflatable deer—a life-size blow-up doll with detachable antlers—and then, as she twirls, hurls it across the stage into the wings. That was a memorable rehearsal: timing when exactly in the verse to throw the deer, experimenting with different antler-grips for maximum impact, predicting its trajectory so it wouldn’t land in the audience. That’s when it occurred to me: I’m singing, dancing, and measuring the velocity of an inflatable deer. Where else would I ever be able to do this? That kind of epitomizes the joyful silliness of working here.
When did you become interested in graphic arts/design?
I am, and have always been, a doodler. But drawing, not doodling, wasn’t actually something I prioritized as a serious discipline until very recently. I identified first and foremost as a writer, second as an actor, with artist only as a distant third. Then, about halfway through high school a teacher recommended Understanding Comics by Scott McCloud, a totally revelatory guide to the art form, and I finally began to appreciate visual storytelling and its unique narrative and imaginative capabilities.
What have you published?
I’m in the process of self-publishing a webcomic called I Am Dead, Horatio, an adaptation of Hamlet from the perspective of his college friend Horatio about being a side character in someone else’s story. (I call its publication a “process” because I’m currently redesigning the website—it should be re-released soon!) It’s partially based on Shakespeare’s play but more so on a really extraordinary poem by Hyam Plutzik called Horatio that was a finalist for the Pulitzer in 1961, but has since been sadly overlooked in literary criticism; it’s no longer even in print, so reading it entailed scouring many, many used book stores.
Have you ever done this type of work before?
In 2016, I illustrated the playbill for Mary Poppins over at Wheelock Family Theatre, but the style of illustration was quite different—it was a collage of paper cutouts. I’ve worked there on about fourteen shows as a stagehand or assistant props master, and working offstage always enriches my appreciation for artistry, ingenuity, and labor that goes into producing theatre behind the scenes, especially in the office.
You have so many talents. How did you choose what to study at NYU?
First of all, thank you for calling me talented—second, I didn’t choose what to study! I go to Gallatin, NYU’s School of Individualized Study, meaning that every student designs a totally personalized major. Right now, my major is tentatively titled “Shakespeare in Text and Performance,” so it’s a hybrid English and theatre degree: half about acting English Renaissance drama, and half about reading it. There aren’t any required classes, so instead my semester could include anything from Jane Austen intensives to figure drawing workshops to acting scene studies. All of those arts overlap: I learn about writing by drawing, and drawing by acting; being a better reader makes me a better actor, and vice versa.
What do you enjoy about working with/for GBSC?
I’ve basically grown up with GBSC. Interns have turned into professionals; assistant directors into director-directors, camp counselors into actors in Mainstage productions, and Young Company alum into seasoned professionals. Years ago, the current Director of Education (hi, Tyler) was the instructor of an improv workshop I took during the Summer Festival. Working with GBSC is an opportunity to share in a community’s growth, and that’s really, really special.
How is the collaborative process the same/different when working on stage as compared to doing the graphic design work?
Working on a stage, you’re only concerned only with the artistic vision for your particular play. But this this project involved six different shows, and balancing each of their unique artistic quirks within a cohesive, unified vision for Season 20. By no means am I an expert on this, but it may be that more people are involved in graphic design work! If you’re an actor, you report directly to your director, assistant director, or stage manager for feedback. Meanwhile, as an illustrator, you’re looking for the approval of people across a lot of departments: the artistic director, the box office, the graphic designer who will be formatting your illustrations.
Within the design process itself, when I draw my goal is to represent a show accurately but leaving some ambiguity, some artistic wiggle room. How do I draw Matilda while still giving the actress playing Matilda space to define the character for herself? I’m asking a question that the show answers.
Tell me something people would not know about you.
I never learned how to ride a bike, but I like to draw them.
You can follow Jules' on Instagram at jules_talbot.
I was in every one of The Young Company’s Summer Festivals between 2009 and 2017, as well as a few Winter Festivals, one AYCE show, and a Mainstage in 2010, The Best Christmas Pageant Ever. Through elementary, middle, and high school, and now college, GBSC has been a constant in my life: the nine-year-olds from my first Act 1 summer are my best friends today a decade later.
What was your favorite experience at GBSC?
If I had to choose just one, it’d probably be from Shrek the Musical, specifically the opening song of Act 2, “Morning Person." There’s a part where Princess Fiona waltzes with an inflatable deer—a life-size blow-up doll with detachable antlers—and then, as she twirls, hurls it across the stage into the wings. That was a memorable rehearsal: timing when exactly in the verse to throw the deer, experimenting with different antler-grips for maximum impact, predicting its trajectory so it wouldn’t land in the audience. That’s when it occurred to me: I’m singing, dancing, and measuring the velocity of an inflatable deer. Where else would I ever be able to do this? That kind of epitomizes the joyful silliness of working here.
When did you become interested in graphic arts/design?
I am, and have always been, a doodler. But drawing, not doodling, wasn’t actually something I prioritized as a serious discipline until very recently. I identified first and foremost as a writer, second as an actor, with artist only as a distant third. Then, about halfway through high school a teacher recommended Understanding Comics by Scott McCloud, a totally revelatory guide to the art form, and I finally began to appreciate visual storytelling and its unique narrative and imaginative capabilities.
What have you published?
I’m in the process of self-publishing a webcomic called I Am Dead, Horatio, an adaptation of Hamlet from the perspective of his college friend Horatio about being a side character in someone else’s story. (I call its publication a “process” because I’m currently redesigning the website—it should be re-released soon!) It’s partially based on Shakespeare’s play but more so on a really extraordinary poem by Hyam Plutzik called Horatio that was a finalist for the Pulitzer in 1961, but has since been sadly overlooked in literary criticism; it’s no longer even in print, so reading it entailed scouring many, many used book stores.
Have you ever done this type of work before?
In 2016, I illustrated the playbill for Mary Poppins over at Wheelock Family Theatre, but the style of illustration was quite different—it was a collage of paper cutouts. I’ve worked there on about fourteen shows as a stagehand or assistant props master, and working offstage always enriches my appreciation for artistry, ingenuity, and labor that goes into producing theatre behind the scenes, especially in the office.
You have so many talents. How did you choose what to study at NYU?
First of all, thank you for calling me talented—second, I didn’t choose what to study! I go to Gallatin, NYU’s School of Individualized Study, meaning that every student designs a totally personalized major. Right now, my major is tentatively titled “Shakespeare in Text and Performance,” so it’s a hybrid English and theatre degree: half about acting English Renaissance drama, and half about reading it. There aren’t any required classes, so instead my semester could include anything from Jane Austen intensives to figure drawing workshops to acting scene studies. All of those arts overlap: I learn about writing by drawing, and drawing by acting; being a better reader makes me a better actor, and vice versa.
What do you enjoy about working with/for GBSC?
I’ve basically grown up with GBSC. Interns have turned into professionals; assistant directors into director-directors, camp counselors into actors in Mainstage productions, and Young Company alum into seasoned professionals. Years ago, the current Director of Education (hi, Tyler) was the instructor of an improv workshop I took during the Summer Festival. Working with GBSC is an opportunity to share in a community’s growth, and that’s really, really special.
How is the collaborative process the same/different when working on stage as compared to doing the graphic design work?
Working on a stage, you’re only concerned only with the artistic vision for your particular play. But this this project involved six different shows, and balancing each of their unique artistic quirks within a cohesive, unified vision for Season 20. By no means am I an expert on this, but it may be that more people are involved in graphic design work! If you’re an actor, you report directly to your director, assistant director, or stage manager for feedback. Meanwhile, as an illustrator, you’re looking for the approval of people across a lot of departments: the artistic director, the box office, the graphic designer who will be formatting your illustrations.
Within the design process itself, when I draw my goal is to represent a show accurately but leaving some ambiguity, some artistic wiggle room. How do I draw Matilda while still giving the actress playing Matilda space to define the character for herself? I’m asking a question that the show answers.
Tell me something people would not know about you.
I never learned how to ride a bike, but I like to draw them.
You can follow Jules' on Instagram at jules_talbot.
