This is this and that is that…a fancier but sensible cat! Can you guess who? Or maybe just read along and see!
Thank you for joining us— tell us who you are and who you play here at The Jellicle Ball?
Emma Hammett: I am Emma Hammett and I am Electra!
Tell me about Electra!
Emma: Well, she’s a twin. She’s a kitten. She’s more on the skittish side. So whenever something big is happening she always looks to everyone around her for guidance. She doesn’t like to be very outwardly extroverted. She definitely likes keeping to herself.
How are you and Electra similar or different?
Emma: I don’t know. I think I’m a pretty extroverted person. So it’s a little different for me, playing someone so reserved, but I feel like there is a side of me that can relate to Electra because I do like to keep to myself sometimes. Just a little bit though.
I understand that. Why did you want to come out and audition for Cats?
Emma: I’ve been in New York for the past year. Cats was a show that I never thought that I could do because of the dancing that is required for it. But where I go to school, we have dance class every day. So I thought to myself, I want to see where this training has gotten me, and I felt like this might be the perfect opportunity to do that. And here I am, out here doing all this stuff, realizing that ‘wow! I could not have done all this stuff last year.’ It’s mostly to challenge myself and to branch out into something that I’ve never done before.
So I’m hearing that you don’t really consider yourself to be a dancer.
Emma: I’m on my way, I think. I’m trying!
And you’ve never worked with Bambi before, right?
Emma: No! And she’s awesome!
What’s it been like getting to work with her?
Emma: Like I said— she’s awesome! I love how involved she is in the whole process. I love how she is so invested in every single character and their stories. All the little details that she’s invested in make it so much more dynamic than it would be without her. I love it.
What does it mean to you to be a Jellicle Cat?
Emma: I think Jellicle Cats are just a group of people…cats…who find comfort in each other. I think they need each other and I think they support one another.
Do you have cats?
Emma: I have one! I’ve had a cat ever since before I was in pre-K. He’s— oh gosh— like 15 years old? He’s an old man! Boots. We call him Boots!
We know that cats have three names. The name that the humans call them or their daily use name, their more dignified name, and their third, secret name that we can never know. What do you think the humans are calling Electra?
Emma: Ooh. Hmm. That’s a hard question. I would say maybe something human. I feel like her name could be Emma, honestly. I feel like she definitely has a person-name.
What has been your big personal takeaway from this experience here at Cats so far?
Emma: I think the biggest takeaway has been— ‘don’t put yourself in a box.’ Like I said, I never thought that Cats would be a show that I would be doing. I just never thought I was right for it. But I think once I was able to get myself out of that mindset, I was really able to embrace this. And even though all of these cats have their own different personalities and relationships, they’re never ‘caged’ if that makes sense.
If you had to sum up your experience here at Cockpit in Court with Bambi and Cats using just one word, which word would you use?
Emma: Mystical.
Cats plays July 19th 2024 through August 3rd 2024 in the F. Scott Black Theatre of The Robert and Eleanor Romadka College Center at the Community College of Baltimore County Essex Campus— 7201 Rossville Boulevard, Essex MD. For tickets call the box office at (443) 840-2787 or purchase them online.
Follow along in the “Return to the Jellicle Ball” Series here:
