Courtesy of Blue Delliquanti

For Jack Tamburri DRA ’13, artistic endeavors were often a pursuit of experimentation. After graduating from the University of Chicago with a bachelor’s degree in English Literature, Tamburri took Chicago’s artistic opportunities by the reign. 

When he wasn’t working at his day job as an administrator for the Court Theatre, he explored the city’s offerings to his heart’s content. 

“I was devising with my theater company, I was playing music in the pit bands of new rock musicals, I was writing, I was doing weird performance art in festivals,” said Tamburri. “I was just being a theater kid.”

He soon realized, however, that his passion could only take him so far. 

“I hit a wall,” said Tamburri. “I realized, I can have ideas all day long, but if I can’t communicate with actors and can’t support actors in their work, my ideas aren’t worth very much. So I applied to graduate school.” 

In his application to the Drama School, Tamburri was asked to direct two actors in a scene. It was clear, in that moment, that “he had ideas but no process,” Tamburri said. 

Luckily, interviewers Liz Diamond and James Bundy saw through these shortcomings and recognized the potential in the young director. Once admitted to the Drama School, Tamburri received valuable mentorship from Diamond and was able to refine his directorial skills.

According to Tamburri, his experiences at the Drama School shaped him “profoundly.” His drama education provided him with the foundational training and language needed to overcome his communication barrier with other theater creatives. 

“My experiences at Yale inform my work every day, whether I’m in rehearsal or in a production meeting or zooming with a scenic designer or pitching myself to an artistic director,” Tamburri said. “As a director, it is not your job to have the best idea, but it is your job to recognize the best idea.”

Later in his theater career, Tamburri would be introduced to writer and actor Michi Barall — the writer of “Drawing Lessons.” 

The duo was introduced to one another through a mutual friend, who was working with Tamburri and composer Matt Park to create a rock musical adaptation of Ibsen’s “Peer Gynt.” They are now good friends. 

Their years of collaboration have culminated in a unique working relationship, through which they are able to complement each other’s strengths and weaknesses. Both creatives emphasize clear communication and a thorough, collaborative approach to analyzing the work — from the birth of an idea to its stage adaptation. 

Written by Barall, “Drawing Lessons” has brought the two creative forces back together. While Barall and Tamburri had different experiences with comic art, the influence it had on both of their lives made its way into the story in distinct ways.

Tamburri grew up reading comic books — at one point, even doing a research project on the history of comic books for school. 

On the other hand, Barall saw the art as a “study in American humor,” she said — one that her immigrant parents did not always understand or relate to. It wasn’t until her own daughter started reading comic books that she began to appreciate how comic book art “communicates an emotional reality through color, and the juxtaposition of visual devices.”

The production was stirred to life by a question that Tamburri had “dared” the writer to think about: How long could an audience sit and watch someone draw? 

“Drawing Lessons” takes this question head on. Using revolutionary design concepts, the play tells the story of a young girl who navigates changing friendships, her Korean heritage and struggles in school, all while trying to draw her very first graphic novel. 

“I told Michi that I was interested in a play in which the characters are cartoonists or illustrators and we can see what they’re drawing, and we care about them as characters,” said Tamburri. “How long can we sustain sitting there and watching someone draw? Michi really took that and ran with it.”

The landscape of the production includes custom drawings by Minneapolis-based comic book artist and teacher Blue Delliquanti. Additionally, as the actors draw live on stage, the audience can view the art as it is being produced through an intricate work of visual technology.

The work challenges the traditional passage of time often seen within theatrical storytelling. At an important beat, time literally stands still, as the play hits a freeze frame where audiences collectively take a pause to consider the emotional significance of the scene. 

“In the sort of realistic flow of conversation, [the moment] might get moved past quickly,” said Tamburri. “I want to hold on to that in a manner I hope is reminiscent of a comic panel. You can consider this image of a character and the acting for as long as you want.”

While most of the comic book style backdrops are animated in black and white, there are choice moments in the show where a splash of color communicates an emotion, season or state of mind, said Delliquanti. 

Each of their animation decisions was done so “sparingly and strategically,” they said. According to Delliquanti, the artistic style of the show intentionally reflects the characteristics of comic-book drawing in the mid-90s, when “there were a lot of really exciting changes happening in comics,” said Delliquanti. 

“I get to flex my style a little bit to show that range and make art of these different styles, but honestly a lot of it was just trying to remember how I liked to draw when I was 10, 11 and 12.”

Through this work, Barall also wanted to challenge the conventional notions of an “extroverted” protagonist and “good” student.

“I really wanted to put a quiet character at the center of the play,” said Barall. “In America we tend to value extroversion, and I wanted to see what would happen if we put an introverted character at the center of the play whose super strength is a different kind of communication.”

Barall hopes that the protagonist Kate will inspire young and old audience members to value art as a unique and valuable way of encountering the world.

The work was initially written so that adult actors would be playing the older and younger versions of themselves. However, the resources of the Children’s Theatre meant that Tamburri had access to young actors who could play the younger renditions of the characters. 

To Tamburri, the prospect of directing young people was initially intimidating. He had never worked with young actors in a professional capacity prior to this experience. 

Yet, Tamburri said that he was able to take the challenge in stride and was impressed by the talent of the young cast. 

In this amalgamation of visual and theatrical art, “Drawing Lessons” hopes to touch the hearts and minds of its audience. Above all, Tamburri hopes that this play will communicate to its audiences that “anyone can be an artist.” 

“An artist is someone who sees the world in a highly specific way, is invested in noticing and then refuses to give up on communicating their point of view in the face of all invalidation, in the face of all negative feedback, in the face of a world that doesn’t notice or care,” said Tamburri.  “The artist is the one who keeps doing it anyway.”

“Drawing Lessons” is set to run at the Children’s Theatre from Oct. 8 to Nov. 10, 2024.