FASS alum returns to Dal as playwright of Fountain School stage performance

This past academic year, Jacome returned to the Fountain School of Performing Arts and the Sir James Dunn Theatre, where she spent so many hours as a student. This time it was as a playwright to work with Fountain School students on the stage production of Jacome's play Euripidaristophanize – a project that allowed her to tie in elements from her arts degree.

Kate Hayter, communications coordinator for the Fountain School of Performing Arts, caught up with Jacome to learn more about her work in the theatre world and how her experiences at Dalhousie have contributed to her success thus far.

What is your dream job?

Writing plays full time! This has been my answer for years, but I feel like I got a little taste of what that would actually be like during the process of writing and observing rehearsals for Euripidaristophanize. Now it is definitely the dream! I'd also love to try my hand at writing in a TV writers’ room one day.

What does the Fountain School do uniquely well that contributed to your success as an artist/playwright?

The entire structure of the Fountain School and how the different theatrical disciplines support and interact with each other is unique. It gives its students a well-rounded look at all the hard work and creativity that occurs in each branch that comes together to make beautiful pieces of theatre. That breadth of perspective and respect for practitioners across theatrical fields is so important in building a career in this industry. It’s something the Fountain School cultivates in its students from day one.

As a working playwright, despite the act of writing itself being solitary, I think above all else I enjoy and value the collaborative nature of theatre. A large part of that penchant for collaboration and building theatrical communities comes from my time at the Fountain School.

Favourite class while here and why?

It feels like an obvious answer, but my favourite class in theatre studies was Playwriting with Dr. Roberta Barker - the class in which I first came up with the idea for Euripidaristophanize! It was an amazing class, with playwrights like Catherine Banks and Hannah Moscovitch coming in to give masterclasses.

There are so many amazing classes I took in the classics department but the first one that came to mind was Death, Sex, and Gold in the Ancient Roman World taught by Dr. Jack Mitchell. It was such a fantastic, engaging class, and really formative in my degree as it was the first class I remember taking that had an explicit thesis and goal in the way it delivered its information. It changed the way I thought about how we engage with the past and continues to inform the way I think about framing information in my own work!

Describe how your play Euripidaristophanize being staged at Dal came to fruition. 

The first iteration of Euripidaristophanize came about while I was a student at Dalhousie, a one-act version that doesn't really look similar to the version staged in 2024. Fast-forward four years or so and I received one of the best emails I've ever received. Dal and the Fountain School were looking to commission a new piece with Classical text by an alum who had further training in playwriting. Dr. Barker had thought of me and remembered that first draft of Euripidaristophanize.  I had been itching to return to this story but had not because I knew it needed a huge cast, and new large cast plays are rarely produced.

I hit the ground running with researching, writing, and re-drafting – bringing a first draft to an initial workshop week in Halifax in 2023. I received so much amazing insight and feedback from the students and creative team during that week. All their thoughts on the script went directly into the second draft. The third draft of the script developed through this process is what became the final play, staged in March of 2024.

What, for you, was the most rewarding part of working with the Fountain School students and/or faculty as a returning alum and artist?

I can't express enough how incredibly rewarding the entire process has been, and how rare an opportunity like this is for an early-career playwright. I never thought I would ever see a production of my own work of this scale, and definitely not within the first five years of my career. In creating this space for new playwrights, the Fountain School has made something unique and completely invaluable. It's an experience I won't ever forget.

The most rewarding part of this experience has been working with the incredible student and faculty teams across acting, technical theatre, costumes and every other corner of the Fountain School. It's an incredibly humbling and nerve-wracking thing, to have your work be the building block for student’s final projects and performances and their university experience. Supportive faculty members made me see it was something that I could not only do but do well.

It has been so much fun coming back as an alum and playing in that space as an artist, working with faculty who were once my professors and who I now see as co-creators, colleagues and friends. The students I worked with completely blew me away, with talent and work ethics that rival some professionals I've worked with in the field. I cannot wait to see what they all go on to do, because I'm sure it will be extraordinary!

What's next for Sophie Jacome?

Good question! There are some plays in the works and some possible upcoming developments. There are a few things that I'm very excited about, but they're just a signed dotted line away from being fact. I'm a little too superstitious to share them just yet, out of fear of jinxing it all. But all good things that have come about because I now have a professional, full-length commissioned play on my CV thanks to this experience at the Fountain School. 

Words of advice for our graduates this year?

You're just getting started. I got to know the students who worked on Euripidaristophanize with me, and they are some of the kindest, most receptive, and most resilient practitioners I've ever had the pleasure to work with. This 2024 graduating class’s university experience has been shifted and scarred by so many events out of their control. Yet they have still come together and become thoughtful and imaginative artists, who will no doubt go on to do great things.

My advice for these graduates: if you're leaving your degree and starting to look for your artistic community, you might not have to look too far. Hold on to the people you've met at the Fountain School, create and build on those relationships. By all means, explore as far and wide as you can but some of the people you'll turn to again and again are people you've already met.

Learn more about the Fountain School of Performing Arts’ production of Euripidaristophanize in Dal News: The Fountain School’s latest stage production asks big questions

Learn more about Sophie and her work: www.sophiejacome.com