Jerry Rojo: In Memorium
My friend, colleague and fellow artist, Jerry Rojo passed away on February 27, 2018. He was a soulful man with an enormous heart who floated through the corridors of the UCONN drama department spreading love and dispensing wisdom. Sometimes he would drop by my rehearsals, watch closely and then quickly solve a problem, without judgement. He was a long-standing champion of my work, encouraging me to take even bigger risks, sending me an inspiring article or little postcard to cheer me on. He applauded me for starting Bated Breath Theater Company in 2007 when others questioned why. Then he continued his support by donating time, expertise and funding to help make the work happen.
I knew Jerry in his later years, when he was an august Professor Emeritus of Dramatic Arts, but I wish I had known him when he was younger. Even as a calm, distinguished artist in his seventies and eighties, you could feel his fiery spirit. “I’m a cowboy staying in the cowboy’s house,” he once told me, when the subject of assisted living came up. He was a fierce rebel with his artistry rooted in passionate protest and experimentation.
Internationally recognized for his contribution to environmental theater and scenic design, Jerry was a major talent. He was best known perhaps for his work on the Obie Award-winning Dionysus 69 by The Performance Group, but also received a Drama Desk award for Endgame in 1973. As architectural theater designer, Jerry created experimental theater spaces all across the country from entire complexes to a modular theater system for the Brooklyn Academy of Music and even an environmental treehouse for the Department of Child Development at UCONN.
Jerry had a longstanding and successful relationship with the Wilma Theater, Philadelphia where he won the Barrymore Award for his scenic design of Big Love by Charles Mee. In addition to being a theater consultant all over the USA, he gave lectures and held residencies at the Avignon Festival, International Theater Institute Poland, in Salzburg, at New York University, American University and the University of British Columbia. Here at UCONN, he was Professor (1961-1990), Head of Department (1978-1985) and was Artistic Director of the Nutmeg Theater (now Connecticut Repertory Theatre). He notably designed the Mobius Theater which still stands to this day. His contemporary stage designs were exhibited at the Lincoln Center, Wadsworth Atheneum and on international tour. He was also the published author of An Acting Method using the Psychophysical Experience of Workshop Games.
Thank you Jerry for showing us the way with your audacity, kindness and clarity. To you, I dedicate this Herman Melville poem. Sweet dreams.
In placid hours well-pleased we dream
Of many a brave unbodied scheme.
But form to lend, pulsed life create,
What unlike things must meet and mate:
A flame to melt-a wind to freeze;
Sad patience-joyous energies;
Humility-yet pride and scorn;
Instinct and study; love and hate;
Audacity-reverence. These must mate,
And fuse with Jacob’s mystic heart,
To wrestle with the angel-Art.
