{"id":7596,"date":"2015-02-25T17:34:37","date_gmt":"2015-02-25T23:34:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/?p=7596"},"modified":"2015-02-25T17:34:37","modified_gmt":"2015-02-25T23:34:37","slug":"parental-panic-and-gender-politics-collide-in-a-kid-like-jake","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/parental-panic-and-gender-politics-collide-in-a-kid-like-jake\/","title":{"rendered":"Parental panic and gender politics collide in “A Kid Like Jake”"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Elizabeth Elving<\/p>\n

Midway through Daniel Pearle\u2019s \u201cA Kid Like Jake,\u201d a pregnant woman is asked if she\u2019s hoping for a boy or a girl. It doesn\u2019t matter, she says, as long as it\u2019s healthy. But we already know this to be misleading. The play\u2019s expectant couple live in a world where toddlers are touted as prodigies and phrases like \u201cthe Harvard of preschools\u201d abound. In this world, it\u2019s not enough for children to be healthy. They must be exceptional.<\/p>\n

The play follows Alex, a well-bred blonde Manhattan mom (Katherine Keberlein), and her therapist husband Greg (Michael Aaron Lindner) as they scramble to get their 4-year-old son, Jake, into an elite private school. The rigorous application process and the notion of paying $20,000 for kindergarten will be cringingly familiar to some audience members, anthropologically foreign to others.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a tricky premise that director Keira Fromm confidently takes on in About Face Theatre\u2019s<\/a> production of Pearle\u2019s play, which attracted a full house at the Greenhouse Theater Center<\/a> on the evening of Valentines Day. The set (designed by Dan Stratton) is an upscale apartment overwhelmed by parenthood. The exposed brick walls are covered in a child\u2019s artwork, the furnishings littered with toys. It\u2019s all evidence of the play\u2019s title character, who is both everywhere and nowhere as his story unfolds.<\/p>\n

Almost every line of dialogue is devoted to Jake, but he never appears. We know him only through the fretting of his parents, and the counsel of Judy (Cindy Gold, providing\u00a0some of the plays funniest and most poignant moments), the straight-talking\u00a0preschool director who may or may not hold his fate in her hands.<\/p>\n

\"Scene<\/a>
Actress Cindy Gold (far right) stands out as kindergarten director Judy, who attempts to calm frantic parents Greg (Michael Aaron Lindner) and Alex (Katherine Keberlein) in About Face Theatre’s “A Kid Like Jake”. (Michael Brosilow\/About Face Theatre)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Weeks pass between scenes, and we learn that Jake has begun acting out. He melts down at interviews and gets into fights at school. Maybe it\u2019s a response to the burgeoning tension between the adults in his life. Or maybe it has something to do with what Judy casually refers to as his \u201cgender-variant play.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jake likes Disney princesses. He treasures his Cinderella doll and wants to be Snow White for Halloween. He asks why boys can\u2019t wear dresses and tucks his penis between his legs in the bath. His parents\u2019 professed liberal attitudes bump up against their fear of how outsiders will react, and they begin to turn on each other.<\/p>\n

\"Alex<\/a>
The pressure to get their gender-variant child into preschool causes a rift between Alex (Keberlein) and Greg (Lindner). (Michael Brosilow\/About Face Theatre.)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Lindner is charming and sympathetic as Greg, who tries to keep an open mind about his child’s habits. But Alex cannot untangle her love for Jake from her need to distinguish him as both perfectly normal and uniquely gifted. She could almost be written off as a close-minded caricature. But Keberlein\u2019s performance is so bracingly sincere that Alex\u2019s pain becomes the pain of all mothers. It\u2019s engrossing to watch her realize, while pregnant with her second child, that love alone cannot guarantee the happiness of her first.<\/p>\n

Fromm\u2019s Director\u2019s Note in the program calls About Face Theatre \u201ca champion for advancing the dialogue about gender and identity.\u201d In this play, gender is but one of many social expectations that interfere with parental instinct. Alex and Greg live on a rarefied tier of society. But the lessons they learn, slowly and painfully, are universal.<\/p>\n

“A Kid Like Jake” is playing at the Greenhouse Theater Center at 2257 N. Lincoln Ave. through March 15. Tickets are $35 for adults, $20 for students and seniors. Contact the box office at (773) 404-7336 or boxoffice@greenhousetheater.org for more information.<\/p>\n

Photo at top: A beloved Cinderella figurine presents a challenge for proud parents Greg (Michael Aaron Lindner) and Alex (Katherine Keberlein). (Michael Brosilow\/About Face Theatre)<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Elizabeth Elving Midway through Daniel Pearle\u2019s \u201cA Kid Like Jake,\u201d a pregnant woman is asked if she\u2019s hoping for a boy or a girl. It doesn\u2019t matter, she says, as long as it\u2019s healthy. But we already know this to be misleading. The play\u2019s expectant couple live in a world where toddlers are touted […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":41,"featured_media":7597,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194,243],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7596","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arts-culture","category-winter-2015"],"yoast_head":"\nParental panic and gender politics collide in "A Kid Like Jake" - Medill Reports Chicago<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/parental-panic-and-gender-politics-collide-in-a-kid-like-jake\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Parental panic and gender politics collide in "A Kid Like Jake" - Medill Reports Chicago\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"By Elizabeth Elving Midway through Daniel Pearle\u2019s \u201cA Kid Like Jake,\u201d a pregnant woman is asked if she\u2019s hoping for a boy or a girl. 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