cast interviews
jessie kaitlan (she/they)
performer: tessa/mia
jessie has had a love for the arts since she can remember and a drive to perform that continued beyond school. having done several community theatre performances and participated in fringe festival shows spanning across several years, the past year for them has revolved around exploring a different side of theatre. she’s taken on crew roles in several previous perhaps. shows, including: ‘heartbeat.’ (co-director), ‘recital.’ (set and costume designer), and ‘play, pause, create.’ (playwright), amongst others outside of ‘perhaps.’.
jessie is excited to rekindle her fire for performing through ‘i can still see all the stars.’. being an actor in this beautiful creation allows her to do what they adore most in the arts: share stories and messages that are so true to their hearts, and provoke genuine, vulnerable, and thought-provoking emotions that will reach the hearts of the audience.
what has been your favourite part of working on ‘all the stars.’?
that a project i’ve known about for quite some time now is finally coming to fruition. i’m beyond proud of emmett and his hard work. also, getting to look around a rehearsal room filled with queer people who identify/have identified with womanhood is an empowering feeling i feel lucky to experience.
if you were to pick one song to describe ‘all the stars.’, what would it be?
there are so many i could say, but without overthinking it, the first song that came to mind was ‘i love you but i need another year’ by liza anne. it’s a song so fueled with love, but knowing the time isn’t right for either party despite it all.
how has your experience of queerness shaped who you are?
while it’s a given that it has completely shaped the person i’ve become, i also feel almost shapeless at the same time. discovering my own queerness and the queer community drastically transformed me from the way my brain was wired to the music i liked and clothes i wore. i’m so accustomed to belonging in every way; the queer community was no exception. having people close to me who will listen and understand has helped in accepting myself and i only now feel okay to take time to shape myself, because i know that’s a life-long endeavour i shouldn’t need to force.
which character says your favourite line from ‘all the stars.’?
this question hurts… there’s a tenderness in tessa’s lines that make me pick her, though, whether it’s sweet or melancholic. there’s a moment in act two where andie is being vulnerable with tessa and what she says to comfort them is simple but the most raw, genuine moment to me.
who do you relate most to; andie or tessa?
100% tessa. i could talk for ages about our shared desire to love and be loved, fear of overstepping boundaries, anxious attachment style and self-sacrificing nature, etc. what gets me the most, though, is the seemingly little things she says/does throughout the story. silly things like her speaking habits, her quirks and habits she mentions off-handedly (the first scene alone spoke volumes with how similar i am to tessa), her insecurities about her inexperience. it’s wild playing a character that just feels like myself, but it also helps in a way. she helps me acknowledge things i didn’t realise about myself.
if you could give any advice to your young queer self, what would it be?
it’s hard to give advice when i’m still navigating a lot of things myself, but i would say (and this could sound cliché): don’t be scared. new things are scary and you’re gonna want to fit into labels even when you’re still discovering yourself. life is too complex and ever-changing to force labels on yourself. with that as well: find your own way. others can have thoughts and opinions, but their word doesn’t make you who you are. no one knows you like you do, and trust that. learn to embrace love and beauty in the world and yourself first.
who is your favourite couple who is doomed by the narrative?
merlin and arthur from bbc’s merlin. they were lovers, i don’t care what anyone else says. the characters knew; the cast and crew knew. if it was canon, they’re doomed by their class dynamic, time period, their destinies – i could talk about this for hours.