Juneau and Chicago theater goers and actors are mourning the loss of a talented playwright and director.
PJ Paparelli died Thursday after a car accident in Scotland. He was 40 years old.
He was the current artistic director of the American Theater Company in Chicago and previously served as artistic director of Perseverance Theatre.
During his tenure in Juneau, he directed or guided productions of “The Who’s Tommy”, “Hair”, “Hamlet”, “Twelfth Night”, “columbinus”, and “The People’s Temple” among others. He also helped adapt “Raven Odyssey” for the stage.
Perseverance board president Terry Cramer says Paparelli kept the theater going, brought new works to the stage, and set high standards.
Current Perseverance artistic director Art Rotch says Paparelli was so talented, and his death is a huge loss.
“We’re still kind of in shock over here,” Rotch says. “And there’s a lot of us here that worked with him, some more directly than me. It’s just a reminder of how precious life is. Everything we do in the theater has a shelf life, and comes and goes. We’d like to think that our collaborators will be with us for a long-time. So, it’s really sad.”
Rotch, who watched Paparelli’s career at ATC with interest, says he was committed to his work in the theater, and he was devoted to diversity, putting work on stage that reached young audiences, and writing pieces about the place he was in.
Ishmael Hope says he first met Paparelli during a visit to the Shakespeare Theatre Company in Washington D.C., and he considered him as a mentor during his time at Perseverance. Hope worked as director of outreach at Perseverance and collaborated with Papparelli in the development of “Raven Odyssey”.
“His whole thing was trying to produce the absolute best that you possibly could with the team, with everyone involved,” Hope says.
He says Paparelli accomplished a huge amount in his four years at Perseverance, and put good, hard-hitting content on stage and generated amazing performances by local actors.
“PJ pursued the plays that he wanted to do that he felt would have an effect on Juneau’s audience and have some ripple effects on American theater,” Hope says while referring to the premiere of “columbinus” that Paparelli co-created after four years of interviews.
Hope acknowledges that Paparelli had his own strong, unique style of staging a production or bringing in outside talent that occasionally rubbed people the wrong way.
“He was constantly spinning his wheels and he was controversial with the theater community here in Juneau,” Hope says. “As his friend, I was a little bit biased. I was also just admiring his work ethic, his tenacity, and his artistic vision.”
Rotch says they’ll be remembering Paparelli in curtain speeches for the final weekend’s performances of “Seven Homeless Mammoths Wander New England”.
Paparelli was vacationing with close friend David Charles Goyette in Scotland, although – according to the Chicago Tribune – Goyette was not in the car at the time of the accident.
According to the paper’s remembrance, Paparelli said only a few days before he died that some people found him challenging because he was always trying to do the highest quality of work “on a storefront budget.”
At ATC, Paparelli collaborated on “The Humans” and a revised, three-act version of “columbinus”. He also brought to stage “Disgraced”, “The Big Meal”, and “The Original Grease” among many productions.
Kelly O’Sullivan, an ensemble player at ATC, says they’re still in shock and trying to figure out the theater’s next step.
“Although, that feels insurmountable right now,” O’Sullivan says.
With a successful season at ATC capped by Paparelli’s own play opening to great reviews, O’Sullivan says many considered him to be at the height of his career.
She says Paparelli completely transformed ATC and diversified the ensemble when he arrived seven years ago.
“He started bringing in really cutting edge works from all across the country and then making really revolutionary work of his own,” O’Sullivan says. “He engaged as much of Chicago as he could with the type of work he was putting on, especially with “The Project(s) which is his final production that he co-wrote, directed, and had been working on for five years.”
“The Project(s)” is a documentary play that was based on over 100 interviews, and it incorporates cappella music, body percussion and stepping to tell the story of the American poor in Chicago’s public housing projects.
“Paparelli was an activist in his art and really dedicated the theater to asking the question ‘What does it mean to be an American and what’s our responsibility as artists in America?'” O’Sullivan says.
She says he was “a ball of energy” with an insatiable drive and laser-like focus. She says no one worked harder than him and he had incredibly high expectations of others, but he was not a taskmaster or manipulative director who disrespected actors.
O’Sullivan says Paparelli also had a lighter side that was not seen by many others.
“He had an incredibly youthful, impish spirit,” O’Sullivan says. “He was a man who did a lot of obviously serious work with a lot of weight to it and a lot of gravitas. But I don’t think a lot of people knew how silly and fun he was.”
“The Project(s)” will continue its run until June 21. The theater’s Youth Ensemble, a two-year program for college-bound high school students in which Paparelli founded and served as mentor, will also continue.
(This story has been updated with additional material.)
