Jacob Ming-Trent made his performing debut years before he made it on Broadway in the original cast of “Shrek The Musical,” and acted in HBO鈥檚 “Watchman” and Hulu’s “Only Murders in the Building.”
He didn’t intend to.
The star of his autobiographical solo show at D.C.’s Folger Theatre, told 蜜桃视频app that it all started in 7th grade when he walked into the wrong classroom.
鈥淭hey were teaching Shakespeare,鈥� Ming-Trent said. “It was better than sitting in math class. So I sat, and I began listening, and then I tried to sneak out the room, and the teacher wouldn’t let me sneak out without reading a Shakespeare speech, and I read that speech, and it changed my life.”
The speech was from William Shakespeare’s “Henry V.”
“Henry V is a boy king, he’s behind enemy lines. He has a small number of soldiers. He’s outnumbered. He’s got to fight this war, and he’s got to win,” Ming-Trent said. “So, I felt like that in my life. I felt like I was behind enemy lines, and I had to fight a fight. I was outnumbered, but I felt like I could win.”
His father, a disabled Vietnam veteran, fought addiction. He was raised by his mother, who he said was also struggling.
鈥淭hey weren’t able to be the parents that they wanted to be,鈥� Ming-Trent said, and the Pittsburgh native faced homelessness several times before he moved to New York at 17 to chase his dreams.
Luckily for Ming-Trent, he said his family 鈥済ifted me language.鈥� His father was a novelist and poet; his mother, who was British, studied Shakespeare, and his grandmother was a poet and an editor for the Pittsburgh Courier.
His play is a hip hop-heavy fusion of Shakespeare, famous rappers and other poets. He portrays himself as a young teenager trying to make sense of his world and the struggles of those around him.
鈥淲e all have these issues, a lot of people have thought about suicide, a lot of people have thought about revenge,鈥� Ming Trent said. 鈥淚t’s in my story, and it’s in Shakespeare, right, and it’s in Tupac and Biggie, right. So it’s universal.鈥�
When asked how he was able to achieve so much, he said took more than hard work and perseverance.
鈥淲hen you come from being on the bottom, you have nowhere to go, and you have no fear of falling to the bottom. You’ve already been there,” Ming-Trent said. 鈥淲hat I learned in the end is that I had a tribe of ancestors that was with me, and that could help me and keep me upright.鈥�
And he smiled when asked what Shakespeare, Biggie and Tupac would say if they were “hanging out up there.”
“I think they look at me and they say that guy鈥檚 doing all right, and we’re glad that we were able to inspire him, and he’s out there trying to inspire others, so it’s working,” Ming-Trent said.
“How Shakespeare Saved My Life,” written and performed by Jacob Ming-Trent and directed by Tony Taccone, is at Folger Theatre until July 5.
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