Health & Fitness
'Self-Taught Maverick' Ben Jammin Passes Art of Theater To Next Generation
Artistic Director of children's theater company Santa Cruz Performing Arts shares insight on the importance of theater in the community
Energy shifts the moment Ben “Jammin” Holk enters a room. Eyes automatically turn in his direction, and smiles inevitably appear. A lifelong performer, Holk seems accustomed to the attention.
An educator, choreographer, vocal coach, and actor in the Santa Cruz County for over 20 years, “Ben Jammin” has become a household name for many Santa Cruz families.
A free-lance artist, Holk’s eyes lit up when he talked about teaching live-performance to youth.
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“I am passionate about the performing arts because it gives me the opportunity to communicate what’s inside my heart with a whole bunch of people at the same time. I like to pass on the art of theater to children -- to the next generation.
A founding member of the Santa Cruz Performing Arts company, Holk has worked as production manager and artistic director for the last three years. SCPA recently hired a production manager, allowing Holk to focus on what he says he truly loves -- teaching and creating.
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Founded in 2008, Santa Cruz Performing Arts faced immediate competition with an abundance of distinguished children’s theater companies in Santa Cruz County, including All About Theater, Hooked on Theater, Little People’s Reparatory, and Kids On Broadway. To stay in business, the company had to become distinct.
SCPA found its appeal by looking at the greatest hindrance to children looking to enroll in classes and productions: money.
“The beauty of company is that we provide affordable performing arts training to Santa Cruz County. We want kids … to have the opportunity.”
While participants must pay $200 for theater classes, and $500 for productions, Holk says he is always open to negotiation. “I am always saying, ‘You can’t afford it. Well, what can you afford?’ He recalled a recent experience with a 16-year-old student who was paying for the program himself because his parents were unable to do so. “I was like ‘just come, please, just come do the show.’’”
SCPA reflects Holk’s energy and ambition, offering year-round classes in singing, acting, dancing, musical theater, and comedy improvisation as well as summer Glee Camp and two productions a year.
Holk will have his hand full this summer, teaching multiple classes five days a week. In June, he will begin “Musical Theater Madness,” an acting class for ages 8-16; “Broadway Tots” for children 5-7; “Acting Comedy” for children 8-16; and a two-week intensive Glee Camp. Classes end just in time for the summer musical, “Little Mermaid,” which begins rehearsal July 16.
To add to his hectic schedule, Holk is also working as an actor, playing Senator Dindon in Cabrillo Stage’s production of “La Cage Aux Folles,” opening July 12.
“Fortunately, I work during the day and all rehearsals for Cabrillo stage are in the evening, sometimes ’til midnight. That can be a bit rigorous at times. Working for Cabrillo Stage, it’s like they own you, but it’s fine. They put on wonderful shows and I am stoked to work with the legendary Janie Scott, who has been doing Cabrillo Stage for years and is a Broadway actress herself.”
“La Cage Aux Folles,” centers on two gay men who own a nightclub that features drag entertainment in New York City.
Being openly gay, Holk found it ironic that he was cast as the homophobic Senator Dindon, who doesn’t want his daughter to marry her fiance because he has two fathers.
“I really know how to play the homophobic senator because I have been around so much homophobia my whole life”, Holk said. He said he was “slightly disappointed” he didn’t get to play Zaza, the drag queen star of the club.
Holk’s passion for youth-theater was spawned by his experiences as a child. “I was one of those lucky kids who got drafted to be in the neighborhood play by the next-door neighbor when I was four. That was it; I loved being in front of an audience. Shortly after, my mom started signing me up for classes.”
As a teenager, he sought out the high school across town for its theater program. At 17, he went to Boston Tanglewood University College of Fine Arts to study music. “Six years of college and no degree,” he joked. “I just say I‘m a self-taught maverick.”
