Aspirations, dreams and connections

An interview with Jack Wolfe

 

Leaders of youth theatre don't work to get accolades or public thanks, many never see any of their students’ work on the professional stage, but anyone who heard the acceptance speeches given by Jack Wolfe (29) couldn't help but be moved by his references to the important role youth theatre played in his professional and personal development. 2024 saw Wolfe win Best Supporting Actor at the What's On Stage Awards and Best West End Debut Performer at The Stage Debut Awards and in both speeches gave Yew Tree Youth Theatre (YTYT) and its Director, Sarah Osborne, thanks for what it had done for him.

Red carpet award ceremonies are a long way from Wakefield in West Yorkshire where Jack attended Saturday morning drama lessons with YTYT and returned to after taking the National Youth Theatre Intake Course in 2011. Leaving Wakefield, Jack trained at Chetham's School of Music in Manchester. He then went on to graduate from Mountview Academy of Theatre Arts in London in 2017, the same year he understudied and played the lead in Pinocchio at the National Theatre. Theatre roles followed including The Magician's Elephant with the RSC in 2021. He made his television debut in 2018, in Hetty Feather and then played other roles, but he will no doubt be best known by our younger readers for his portrayal of Wylan Hendriks in Shadow and Bone. This alone is a hugely impressive record of performances which included several award nominations and wins. Wolfe then took his award-winning role of Gabe Goodman in Next to Normal which transferred to the Wyndham's Theatre to meet audience demand.

Meeting up with Sarah at the start of 2025, he took time to answer some questions posed by Jo Sykes, Youth Co-ordinator, NODA North East.

When did you realise that you wanted to make performing your career?

I didn’t know that was an option to me for a quite long time. Whilst I really, really enjoyed and loved performing, it wasn’t a profession I saw a lot of opportunities in. Where I grew up in Wakefield you don’t see many people get to do it, but I always knew I wanted to perform because of the joy it brought me. Going to the National Youth Theatre and seeing people who had gone to drama school and taken things very seriously shifted things for me.

What was the highlight of your time on the amateur stage?

This might not be the answer people expect, but I find the early parts of the process very exciting and have always done so, ever since I was a kid. Finding out the play, learning about the role, beginning to feel the relationships is always the highlight of any production for me. Performing in “Oliver” [with ETC] will always be special as it was the first and I’d never done anything on that scale. However going to Kendal with the Connections play “Shooting Trees” was a real highlight for me. “Sparkleshark” [by Philip Radley] was also a great opportunity to discover the depth of what appeared to be quite a simple play, but I remember discovering, with other people in the room, what some lines could mean and how text could be layered like that.

Can you tell us something of the process you undertook to secure the role in Next to Normal, a show you have said resonates with you?

The show resonated with me for a lot of personal reasons and I have loved the material since I was a teenager. I used to listen to “Next to Normal” on the way to Yew Tree classes so I was very aware of it for a long time. I had booked to see the production at the Donmar Warehouse as soon as the tickets were released. I’d moved to a new agent after “Shadow and Bone” and she asked me which directors I would like to work with. I said I’d never auditioned for Anna Cooper [casting director at the Donmar Warehouse] and my agent said that it was good luck because they were casting “Next to Normal”. I felt that was really cruel as I loved that show and I didn’t think there was a world in which I’d get to perform in it.

Little did Jack know….

Jack went on to discuss the role with Michael Longhurst, the production’s director, where Jack explained to him how he saw the role with Longhurst then being sufficiently interesting to see how that would develop in the rehearsal room.

Sarah explained to Jack about the role of NODA including the aims to promote opportunities for youth and she asked him what advice he would give to young people in NODA youth groups keen to pursue a career in the performing arts?

I feel it is important to be open to different avenues and understand that there are other routes outside of drama school. Much of the most valuable things to me are the things I learned in youth theatre. I took these all the way through Mount View and still use the fundamental things we learned in Yew Tree. Also, explore other things you really want to learn and add them to your toolkit. Don’t miss opportunities to see as much as you can and learn what you want to do and what inspires you.

Jack explained to Sarah that he felt that the theme of the conversation had been aspirations, dreams and the connections between adolescent self and adult self. He said that “2024, was the most exciting year for him because he had been able to get in touch with his adolescent self in such a wild way and meet people who had been so influential on his development, including being part of the “Spring Awakening” reunion. He explained how important it had been to play a role he had always aspired to be particularly as he had seen the show in London as a teenager where the actors had signed his programme at the stage door, so to then find himself on stage performing with them was a dream come true. Working with the creative team of “Next to Normal” and meeting the original cast was also a wild thing to contend with.”

Whilst 2024 was clearly a fabulous year for Jack, we all wish him well and hope that the future sees more dreams and aspirations met and connections made.

Jo Sykes

NODA North East

Youth Co-ordinator