March 24-30, 2005

art

Random Acts

love triangle: Jane Stojak's background in business and psychology gave her the acumen to start a new career: She thought, "If I start my own theater company, I'm in charge." Photo By: Michael T. Regan

A mix of serendipity and determination led Jane Stojak home to the stage.

by Toby Zinman

Jane Stojak arrives for our meeting at Cos' exactly on time. I see her glance at her watch as I wave to signal her to my table, and this gesture speaks volumes about her efficiency, her confidence, her way of moving through her world. Her shoulder-length red curls are set off by her black sweater; she wears no makeup — she has the kind of skin women envy — and an irresistibly crinkly smile.

"Backstory," the theatrical term that gives this series of occasional articles its name, refers to a character's past before the play begins, and actors often invent a backstory for their characters to give their portrayal depth.

Jane Stojak has a truckload of backstory.

Stojak, a talented actor, director and all-around impresario, is the artistic director of Random Acts of Theater. She also owns Random Acts' home base, the Triangle Theater on Lawrence Street between Fourth and Fifth streets above Girard (in what I learn is now called "Old Kensington").

After years away from the world of theater, a chance encounter with a book called The Artist's Way, followed by an acting class at the Walnut Street Theatre, provided an epiphany: This is it, she thought. She had found acting and her true career: "I loved it. This is what I want to do."

In 2001, Stojak bought the wonderful but then dilapidated flatiron building in a neighborhood she had the foresight to see was on its way to gentrification. A mere eight months later, Random Acts of Theatre opened with eleven shows in the 2002 Fringe Festival. She had, amazingly, rehabbed the building (with the help of her architect brother-in-law and his wife, who are co-owners) and created a new 50-seat theater. Jane Stojak had formally launched her new life.

In her old life, her name was Janet Caplan. (Her ex-husband, Art Caplan, currently runs the Center for Bioethics at University of Pennsylvania, and their son Zach, 20, is a student at NYU and currently assists at Triangle.)

Initially a theater major at Brandeis University, Stojak discovered that her small-town Catholic high school experience of Oklahoma! didn't prepare her for the big-city sophistication of her classmates. Intimidated, she switched majors to psychology, got her Ph.D., and then commuted first to a Yale postdoctoral fellowship and then a prized visiting professorship at Williams College.

Despite her success, Stojak found scholarly life was not for her. Research "was too isolating and too boring," she says. And "nobody cared about great teaching." So, while on sabbatical, she enrolled in Columbia's graduate journalism program, which gave her a press pass and with it access to everyone and everywhere. She learned to write well and fast, and was happier at this, but still, somehow dissatisfied.

After yet another career switch, this time to lucrative consulting work, Stojak still felt she had not really found her calling. In 1997, she bowed out of the corporate world and had her epiphany.

Wanting to pursue her study of acting in a more professional way, she took classes with actor and coach George DiCenzo. At this point, though, she says, "I was just too old for the audition circuit." She figured, "If I start my own theater company, I'm in charge." And so she did. Now DiCenzo's master classes at Triangle are an important element of the company's cachet.

Two and a half years later, she is full of enthusiasm despite the high level of financial stress inherent in such an enterprise. "Now I'm having fun," she says. "I've got new plans. And I've learned how to produce a show really cheaply." She makes ends meet with a variety of freelance jobs, including producing shows for the City of Philadelphia (including Lunch at LOVE Park last summer) and working as an agent, hiring actors for city events (Santa Clauses, carolers). Most recently, she found a Dal' impersonator for the Philadelphia Museum of Art.

A real company is developing at Triangle — people who write and design lighting and act; Stojak's newest protege, Jeff Frost, who wandered into an acting class and performed a piece he'd written, is the author of an upcoming production, The Decadent Dalmatian Goes to Hollywood, premiering at the Fringe Festival. Arje Shaw, author of Triangle's upcoming Moo-la, another premiere (May 20-June 6), is the company's new managing director and co-artistic director.

But it's not all about new work. "I love Chekhov," she says. "It's one of the reasons I started the company." Triangle has done many of Chekhov's rarely seen short plays and has plans for more to come.

Stojak has a combination rare in artistic people: She is both practical and imaginative, good at multitasking and efficient. She marvels that although actors "are crazy and irresponsible — they go bankrupt!"-- she feels more comfortable with them than the people in her former lives "because they're so emotional."

She adds, with some wonder, "A lot of people from my former life just stopped talking to me. They couldn't handle how different my life was."

But with pleasure and some pride, she concludes, "Things are happening now. I don't have to make them happen."

Jane Stojak directs Oldfriends.com, a new play by Marcia J. Monbleau, Thu.-Sat., March 24-26, 8 p.m.; Sun., March 27, 3 p.m.; through April 3, $12-$20, Triangle Theater, 1220 N. Lawrence St., 215-763-0110.