Portage High School’s Thespians Drama Club is set to celebrate the world premiere of the new play, The House on Haunted Hill, written by Portage High School alumni, Tommy Jamerson. Jamerson graduated from PHS in 2003, yet he is still making an impact on the school years later as his new play is set to make its world premiere right here in his hometown.
Jamerson’s childhood was filled with creativity. His parents were also lovers of the arts and would nurture his passion for writing and theater with all sorts of activities.
“I loved the arts as a child, I liked to paint and draw. My parents would always take me to museums and all sorts of things. We were also really close to Chicago and my parents would take me to see the Broadway shows there”
When Jamerson told his parents about pursuing a career in writing they were incredibly supportive. But even though he is currently a playwright, that was not his initial career goal.
“I actually went to college to be a screenwriter. And while I was there in my freshman year, I also took theater classes because I was interested in it. I found that the stories that were swimming around in my head were better suited for the stage than they were for the screen.”
Jamerson’s first play was a short scene featuring a concept familiar to many, a contentious dinner.
“The first play I wrote was about two women who were meeting up after years of not seeing each other and they were having this dinner. They had an argument over Britney Spears. It’s not very cinematic, but theatrically, it worked well,”
Many of these first plays were for more mature audiences, but Jamerson would later lean into writing child-friendly plays. One of these plays was written for a special person in his life.
“I have this one called, ‘You Go Goddess’. It’s about Hercules’ daughter, and how she doesn’t have the strength and the same powers as him, and she feels like she’s in his shadow. She finds her own way and is able to be a hero without all that extra stuff, just being herself. It was a show that I wrote for my niece. You know, it’s a don’t give up, girls have power kind of show”
The people in his life are all very important to him, so Jamerson finds a special way to thank as many people as he can through his work.
“I try and dedicate my plays to someone in my life who has helped in a way, whether it was through with that show in particular, being a support system, or someone I just think is an awesome person”
One of the recurring themes in Jamerson’s plays is an emphasis on compassion.
“I try to inject my plays with a lot of humanity. A lot of my children’s shows have villains and more often than not I try to redeem those villains or try to give them more of that humanity. Knowing that there are younger audience members there, I want them to see that these are people too.”
Jamerson has won many awards for his plays, one of them stands out to him above all else.
“I won best new script for the Playwright Forum Festival in 2014. It was really validating; that play in particular I was asked to interview survivors and adapt their stories to bring them to the stage to bring awareness.”
For any aspiring playwrights, Jamerson has some advice.
“Read a lot of plays. The best time to start is now.”
The House on Haunted Hill opens at 7:00 p.m. on Friday, November 8th and closes on Saturday, November 9th. Tickets can be purchased at the door and online.
