An interview with the creator and star of Broadway’s “Bridge and Tunnel”

Sarah Jones - Celebrating Our Differences and Connections

Since January, acclaimed poet, playwright and actor Sarah Jones has been filling Broadway’s Helen Hayes Theater and wowing critics with her one-woman tour de force “Bridge and Tunnel.” Jones uses poetry, humor, pathos and uncanny empathy to introduce her audience to 14 diverse New Yorkers, most of them immigrants. So popular is her production that it has been extended twice and is now scheduled to run through July 9. Our Life And Times interviewed Jones in early May.

Writer, performer, poet and activist Sarah Jones speaking at April 10 New York City Immigrant Rights March and Rally.

Q. From where do you draw your characters?

A: I get them from my surroundings—my family, friends, schoolmates, co-workers, and even strangers I meet throughout my travels. Sometimes I’ll ask people if I can interview them—I’ve done this in cities and towns and rural areas all over the U.S. For “Bridge and Tunnel” in particular, I wanted to create immigrant characters. Our country is, and has always been, shaped by the cultural contributions of people who’ve come from elsewhere in the world. Besides native people, everyone in our nation is descended from the “waves” that have washed our current (pun intended!) incarnation of America into existence. Whether they came aboard the Mayflower or were forced across the Atlantic on slave ships; whether they were indentured laborers from Asia or fleeing the famines and wars of Europe, all our foremothers and fathers made the same journey that so many people still make today.

"I WANT PEOPLE OF ALL BACKGROUNDS TO BE ABLE TO LISTEN TO THE ACCENTS OF THE MORE RECENT IMMIGRANTS I PORTRAY AND HEAR THE CONNECTION TO THEIR OWN NOT-NECESSARILY-TOO- DISTANT PASTS."

Q: How are you able to speak in so many varied voices?

A: I listen to people carefully, often record various people from a particular place, and then I just practice the tones, rhythms, cadences of speech, the accents, even the laughter, as much as I can. Eventually by putting several different voices together and using a little imagination, I can create one voice that feels authentic and accurately representative of a real person from a particular place with a particular history. I always want the character’s voice to “feel” real. This way I can avoid creating a dehumanizing caricature that doesn’t reflect a person’s real humanity, like too many of the characters I hear and see in the movies and on TV.

Q: What role does humor play in your work?

A: Humor is one of the most precious resources we have as people trying to create healthy communities for everyone. In order to raise peoples’ awareness of issues like our rights as people of color or women or workers in a culture that is often hostile to the protection of those rights, we must reach people in a space where they are open and receptive to “dangerous” and or “foreign” ideas. I find wherever there’s an open, laughing mouth, the open heart and mind aren’t far behind.

Q: Do you think that your work helps to shine a light on what’s happening in the immigrant communities today?

A: I hope so. At minimum, I hope it expresses that the immigrant experience today is fraught with as many challenges as there are people from all over the world trying to make a life here. The concentration of most of the political and economic power in the hands of a few people who are staunchly antihuman rights, pro-war, and against movements for global justice (and corporate accountability for the unlivable conditions being created in all the world’s countries) virtually guarantees that immigrants will continue to come here. And in today’s political climate, their experience, like that of too many Americans, will likely continue to worsen before it improves.

For more on Sarah Jones, visit her official website:
www.sarahjonesonline.com