Evan Jonigkeit finds himself in multiple roles in ‘Natural History’ at Walnut Street Theatre.
By: Sally Friedman
The fine hand of fate explains why Evan Jonigkeit of Langhorne, Pa., is not out there playing baseball, and is, instead, performing in a vastly different arena as an actor in live theater.
The baseball scholarship to Temple University was already in place. The passion for baseball was just as firmly there. But severe tendonitis in both shoulders would have necessitated Mr. Jonigkeit’s having surgery between his senior year at Neshaminy High and his freshman year at Temple.
"It would have meant a full year of surgery and therapy, which would have postponed my freshman year," says the affable 23-year-old actor who is already a presence on regional stages. "I didn’t want to deal with all that, so baseball got sidelined." And despite the everlasting appeal of America’s national pastime, Mr. Jonigkeit isn’t looking back with regret.
As he tells it, the seeds of theater did not simply leap into his life unbidden. Back at Neshaminy, Mr. Jonigkeit was a member of the improvisational theater group known as Laughing Stock, and the experience was invaluable. "I learned so much about timing, about thinking on your feet and about comedy in general," says the actor, who is currently on stage at Walnut Street Theatre’s Independence Studio on 3 in Philadelphia in a work called Natural History.
When destiny and tendonitis changed his future, Mr. Jonigkeit realized that some of his happiest moments in high school had come not just from baseball, but also from acting in plays, singing in the choir and working with an early mentor, Nicholas Androffsky, of the Trenton-based Headlong Theatre Company, who had taken an interest in Laughing Stock.
"So I signed on as a theater major at Temple, and hoped my parents would not worry too much about my future," he says. "And luckily for me, they did come around when they saw how happy I was."
Even during his college years, Mr. Jonigkeit began seeking acting gigs. Along with doing two shows a semester at Temple, he also spent college summers on Cape Cod with the Cape Repertory Company. This time, his mentor was the fabled William Roudebush, a faculty member at Temple and a well-known Philadelphia director. "He taught us that acting could be natural and look effortless," Mr. Jonigkeit says, "and that there was great joy in getting it right."
An early experience, under Roudebush’s guidance, was playing the gentleman caller in Tennessee Williams’ The Glass Menagerie. There was also a chance to perform in Six Degrees of Separation, another winning experience.
"I began to see that my real passion is in capturing character, in examining the human condition," Mr. Jonigkeit says. "To me, that’s what theater does so well. And while I certainly respect and admire musical theater, I seem to be going in another direction."
Right now, that direction encompasses his work with the Walnut Street Theatre in Natural History by Jennifer Camp. The play is organized into four segments, each tracking a complex relationship, all against the backdrop of a museum. Mr. Jonigkeit appears in three of the four vignettes, each with its own demands.
"It’s been an amazing experience to be in a play which offers so many challenges," says the actor, whose roles vary from portraying a young man trying to understand his parent’s turbulent relationship, to one whose male lover has disappeared. His most daunting challenge: an eight-minute monologue that also involves interaction with strangers in the audience.
"Fortunately, I don’t need them to speak, but I do need to connect with them," he says. "And that’s a different experience each night, so I try to read faces in advance and figure out who will be responsive."
In working through his soliloquy piece, Mr. Jonigkeit had the best teacher of all: trial and error. "Throughout the rehearsal process, the director and I tried to figure out what would work," he says. "Being alone out there is, of course, a gift, but it’s also a bit frightening."
The last piece in Natural History is a broad and energetic comedic piece that he has enjoyed immensely. "I’m involved in a romance with an older woman who’s actually seeing her ex-husband at the same time she’s seeing me," Mr. Jonigkeit says, "so obviously, there are a lot of sparks flying." Mr. Jonigkeit will always have a special feeling about the Walnut Street Theatre play because it has earned him his coveted Equity status. "I feel very fortunate to have gotten it this early in my career," he says, "and I’m not a bit blasé about what it means in terms of access."
When Natural History closes, the actor will begin a project with a colleague from Philadelphia’s Pig Iron Theatre Company, a multiply honored dance-clown-theatre collective dedicated to the creation of new and exuberant performance works. "It will be an all-male version of ‘The Misanthrope,’ and hopefully it will be produced next fall."
Mr. Jonigkeit traveled with Pig Iron two years ago to the original Fringe Festival in Scotland, after interning with the company.
"The one thing you can say about theater is that it’s never dull," he says. "And that’s one of the reasons I love what I do, and why I hope I never stop feeling that I’m just about the luckiest guy in the world. So who needs baseball?"
Natural History continues at the Walnut Street Theatre’s Independence Theater, 825 Walnut Street, Phila., through May 7. Performances: Tues.-Fri. 7:30 p.m.; Sat.-Sun. 2:30, 7:30 p.m. Tickets cost $26. For information, call (215) 574-3550. On the Web: www.wstonline.org