Actor Jacob Ming-Trent talks about making a place for himself on the stage

Jacob Ming-Trent has been moving from strength to theatrical strength. He played Falstaff to rave reviews in the Public Theater’s 2021 production of “Merry Wives” the play that re-opened theater in New York City after the pandemic shutdown and was set in the African immigrant community of Washington Heights.  Right now, Ming-Trent is starring as Bottom in the Folger Theater’s production of “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” which is being performed in the great hall of the National Building Museum. This play has also been recalibrated: it very much highlights Bottom and the play within the play that workers are creating to honor the Duke’s wedding.  While there are still the wayward lovers and the fairy Queen Titania with her husband Oberon and the mischievous Puck, its center is Jacob Ming-Trent’s wonderfully playful and textured performance as the weaver and would-be actor Bottom. In this podcast Ming-Trent talks about theater and live performance, why he returns to Shakespeare continually, the barriers he has faced in theater, why he had left the stage, and why he has returned.

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