RETURN TO THE JELLICLE BALL: MEETING THE NEWEST 2024 ADDITIONS TO THE CLOWDER OF COCKPIT IN COURT’S CATS: Jennyanydots

Winding down with just a few more cats to go, one might almost say that the ‘hustle and bustle’ of the Jellicle Ball is done…but not before this cat has her say!

Thanks for joining us! Tell us who you are and who you play in this production of Cats!

Laura May: I’m Laura May and I play Jennyanydots.

Laura May as Jennyanydots in Cats at Cockpit in Court

Tell me all about Jennyanydots!

Laura: Well I haven’t quite found her all the way yet. But I think she might be quite hoity-toity. Maybe feeling a little better than everybody else. I think that’s why she’s trying to keep everybody in check.

How are you and Jennyanydots similar and or different?

Laura: I love to be helpful but not overly helpful. We’re similar but slightly different.

Why did you want to come out and be a part of Cats?

Laura: Bambi.

I mean that’s reason enough.

Laura: 100%. I haven’t worked with her in so many years. She can bring people together like nobody else can. Her demeanor is amazing. She can command the room by just whispering.

I love hearing this. Clearly this is not your first Bambi show.

Laura: It’s not. But it has been a long time. We did Beauty & The Beast together, years ago, I believe it was at Dundalk (Dundalk Community Theatre) and she actually filled in for somebody one night— on stage! She was next to me, filling in, and we had that moment where she was miming the words, doing the dance, and it was magical!

I love hearing this. Now, you’re a dancer? How long have you been dancer? And how is the Bambiography for this show?

Laura: Yes I am. For…35 years. It’s challenging. It’s very challenging. I have not been this challenged in a show in a theatre in a long time.

What does it mean to you to be a Jellicle Cat?

Laura: To be part of the whole. I feel so connected to the whole group the entire time.

Poptart. Who is neither a breakfast food nor a cat.

Do you have cats?

Laura: I don’t. [Please let the record show that Laura whispered this next part so softly I had to ask her to repeat herself] “I’m a dog person.” But I love cats!!

Uh-huh. Tell me about your dog.

Laura: Well her name is Poptart. She’s a golden retriever. She’s six.

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 Jennyanydots?

Laura: Oh, wow. Jennyanydots the seizure cat. I feel like any time I forget choreography, I just twitch a little, and then come back to it.

Oh my goodness! What has been your big personal takeaway from this experience?

Laura: Just how you can bring more than 30 people together and just immerse them into a show and make every single one of them— from the non-dancer to the amazing-dancer— look so cohesive.

That is what I truly love to hear and I only truly ever hear it when it comes to a Bambi show. 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?

Laura: Amazing.

Cats plays July 19^th 2024 through August 4^th 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: