Jill Ohayon grew up believing there were only two respectable career paths: doctor or lawyer. And so she chose the latter and carried on with her life… but musical theater kept calling.
Ohayon had loved performing in local productions since she was a child, but the possibility of a career in the arts never felt possible enough to even dream about. She was good in school, so when she got into McGill Law her path seemed set. Then came Skit Night. Skit Night was an annual tradition hosted at Club Soda by a national law firm where students would perform skits and songs for their community. But Ohayon’s vision exceeded the usual three to four minute time limit.
In her last year she came up with a bold plan: presenting a 20 minute jukebox musical parody about the kafkaesque experience of applying to law jobs right out of law school. She reflected on the show saying, “It was one of the most joyful experiences of my life. I found myself up at night, 3 in the morning being like ‘Oh at this point she has to move the mic this way and this one had to cross the stage this way.’ It was nearing finals and the bar was coming up and I was just thinking about this musical”.
The people loved it. More importantly, Ohayon loved it. “It kind of planted a little seed in my mind. Maybe I do have the ability to do something here.” She finished school, did her internship, passed the bar, and stayed on her path, but she couldn’t let go of the experience. One day she was sitting in her office on the 18th floor of a skyscraper highrise in downtown Toronto, and she googled musical theater writing masters, just to see if it existed. When she found the Graduate Musical Theatre Writing program at NYU Tisch she was hooked. She spent the next month putting together a portfolio completely in secret. “I didn’t tell anyone. Didn’t even tell my partner at the time. I would stay late at the office and everyone just assumed I was working, but I was actually putting together this whole portfolio” she recounted.
Her mind was made up. “When I got in it was the first time that I really felt like whether I tell the world or I tell no one I’m going to be just as happy.” But after two more years of working as a lawyer to save money, she did tell the world and in 2022 she entered NYU’s Graduate Musical Theatre Writing Program (GMTWP).
Since then her projects have focused on sharing little bits of lesser known history with humor and sensitivity. She writes the sort of thing she’s drawn to as a consumer of theater saying, “I love when entertainment also teaches me. (…) When I can leave saying not only did I see a great show, but now I know more about the world.”
With this in mind she and her collaborator Andy Li began their thesis project for GMTWP, The Garden Bridge. The show tells the story of a Jewish family who escapes the holocaust by going to Shanghai, China and end up being neighbors with a Chinese family which had suffered losses that mirror the Jewish family’s own. It looks at how the two families build community and how they survive.
Li, a first generation Chinese-American composer, and Ohayon bonded over their shared experience of growing up with immigrant parents and leaving more traditional career paths in order to secretly pursue the arts. “There was a lot of overlap, which was helpful,” said Ohayon. Writing The Garden Bridge was a powerful way for them to explore and share their cultures. Ohayon immersed herself in research, including calling Andy’s dad for advice on things like names, food, and lingo. The pair also started working with scholar Dr. Kimberly Cheng, an expert on the history of Jews in China. The specificity is important, but at the same time the show contains universal themes. “At the end of the day it’s the human experience,” said Ohayon. “What happens when you lose basic resources? When your sense of security in the world is shaken? What happens between a married couple? Between a father and daughter? (…) No character arc or even scene gets by without both of us approving, without both of us saying we connect with this and we get it.”
All their intention and care around the project paid off. Less than a month after graduating the show received a workshop from Jennifer Jancuska, the resident choreographer of Hamilton. The workshop gave Li and Ohayon the opportunity to work with Broadway actors and allowed them to explore how movement could work in the piece. They were particularly interested in how physicality could help to show what language the characters are speaking in (the show is written in English but the characters speak Chinese and German). The show was also featured at a Breaking Sound show at pinkFROG Cafe in December, 2024. The pair will continue developing the piece at the Casa Uno Artist Residency in Costa Rica in April, 2025.
In addition to The Garden Bridge, Ohayon also has a 20 minute musical written with composer Ryan O’Dea entitled Turbulence. The show was featured at The International Human Rights Arts Festival in December 2024.
She is also bringing together her background in law with her passion for storytelling in a piece about Justice Rosalie Abella, the first Jewish person and first refugee on the Canadian Supreme Court and the first pregnant person to be on any court in Canada. In this story she’s been able to reconnect to the parts of law she found most compelling in the first place. “The history of (law), and how the existence of law means that we get to live in a civilized world where we can all function together – in the most basic philosophical sense – that is what interests me.” She continued, “That tended to be my super power particularly when I was a union lawyer (…) When I would really dig into the foundational elements of the law and why we had what we had, that was when I would tend to win my cases. (…) It’s really the same sort of muscle as writing.”
Ohayon had this to say when I asked her what advice she had for those considering leaving a more traditional path for a career in the arts. “Whatever leaves you with that sour jealous feeling, don’t run away from it. Turn toward it. It’s the bravest thing you could do. Your jealousy is really holy. It’s giving you important information. It doesn’t make you a bad person, it’s telling you what you deeply want. And when you follow that it can be pretty magical. (…) Had I been the world’s most successful lawyer, had I become a judge (…) I would feel less successful than if I was exactly where I am right now”.
You can see more of Ohayon’s work at Symphony Space on February 20th as part of the Prospect Musical Theater Lab.
This post was written by the author in their personal capacity.The opinions expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not reflect the view of The Theatre Times, their staff or collaborators.
This post was written by Morgan Skolnik.
The views expressed here belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect our views and opinions.
