Double-duty

Thursday, Aug. 18 — Originally from Fort Wayne, Ind., and now living in Laingsburg, 34-year-old Jesse Deardorff-Green became aprofessional actor at an early age. Today, he keeps busy in the Lansingtheater scene, working in productions at Peppermint Creek Theatre Co.,Riverwalk Theatre, Lansing Community College Theatre, Michigan State UniversityTheatre, and various other independent companies. He is also writing a novel.
Deardorff-Green talked with City Pulse about his career and the RenegadeTheatre Festival, which hosts plays in various locations across Old Town by thearea’s up-and-comers. Two plays that Deardorff-Green wrote (and performs in) areincluded in this weekend’s festival.

Describe your works that are in Renegade this year.
I have two plays in Renegade, and they ended upbeing much more similar than I originally intended. The first is “This is a Play,”which is being read as part of Renegade Now. It’s a play about being a play,and creating a play, and also about love and growth. I’m actually a characterin it — or two, or five.

The other is “Everybody Wins,” which justwent through a painful rewrite process. It was an absurd comedy about escapingidentity in unexpected ways. It still is, but in a smaller and probably moreconfusing manner.

What do you like about Renegade? What has it done for you?
Renegade is wide open. My previous involvement with the festival has involvedme “hanging myself” one year and the next I was sticking my hand up a puppet. Iwrote “This is a Play” because of a show I saw at the festival last year. Iwalked out of that performance and all I could think was, “I have to go writesomething now.” That sort of thing happens every year at Renegade. I love theidea of being a part of that.

When and how did you get into acting?
I was born into it. Technically I was up on stage while in the womb. My mother(Charlotte Deardorff) is a wonderful actress, and was in a production of“Adaptation” while pregnant with me. I was in my first show when I was 5, andI've loved performance ever since.

How and when did you begin writing plays?
I was working on writing a novel and it wasn’t going well, mostly because theplot was awful and the characters were uninteresting. I had to take a breakfrom that mess and so I started writing free-form dialogue. That turned intothe first play I wrote. I’ve had three plays of mine performed before audiencesbut I’ve written 14, I think. We’ll go with 14.

How would you describe the Lansing theater scene?
Lansing theater is struggling as far as giving actorsa way of making a living, but there is great work being done around here, justamazing stories up on stage all year round.

What are some good local theaters?
Williamston Theatre has a beautiful and intimate space, and I’ve spent so muchtime in LCC's Dart Auditorium that it feels like coming home every time I sitdown there. If I had to pick one place in town that leaps to mind when I thinkof theater though, it would be the Creole Gallery. It’s stripped down, but haseverything you need and some of my great memories as aperformer are in that building. There are a lot of committed and brilliantpeople working to make performance in mid-Michigan something new, valuable andaffecting.

“Everybody Wins”
starring Trisha Kosloski, Brian de Vries and Jesse Deardorff-Green
9 p.m. Thursday, Aug. 18, Friday, Aug. 19, and Saturday, Aug. 20
The Mustang, 1213/1215 Turner St., Lansing
Free

"This is a Play"
7 p.m. Friday, Aug. 19, and 9 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 20
Red Cedar Friends Meeting House, 1400 N. Turner St., Lansing
Free