From med school to the stage

While she was an undergraduate at the University of Michigan, Mehreen Jamil, 27, took a theater class. She fell in love with the art form and added performing in a show to her bucket list.

“From that point, I was just like, ‘Oh, if I could do anything, like any community theater, I would love to,’” she said.

But she’s a medical student at Michigan State University now, and her time is beyond tight. Soon, she’ll start working at a hospital, suctioning up even more of her time. Luckily for her, however, a chance conversation between her mother and Riverwalk Theatre director Brian Farnum opened doors for her — in schedule and opportunity. 

When they met, “He gave me a tour of Riverwalk, and I fell in love with it. I was looking for that community after COVID,” Jamil said. 

She discovered that her period of downtime before starting the arduous third year of medical school coincided with Riverwalk’s production of “Peter and the Starcatcher.” She decided to audition and was cast in a few roles. 

“Peter and the Starcatcher” is the imagined origin story of Peter Pan and Captain Hook. Riverwalk says the Tony Award-winning show upends “the century-old story of how a miserable orphan comes to be ‘the boy who would not grow up’ (aka Peter Pan). A wildly theatrical adaptation of Dave Barry and Ridley Pearson’s bestselling novels, the play was conceived for the stage by directors Roger Rees and Alex Timbers and written by Rick Elice, with music by Wayne Barker. From marauding pirates and jungle tyrants to unwilling comrades and unlikely heroes, ‘Peter and the Starcatcher’ playfully explores the depths of greed and despair ... and the bonds of friendship, duty and love.”

How playfully? Jamil has been tapped to play several roles, among them a narrator, a pirate, a sailor and a mollusk. 

Her bucket-list dream of performing on stage didn’t include a stint as a mollusk, but she’s in awe of her fellow castmates’ ability to bring the shelled creatures to life. 

“These people have to be so talented to actually embody this character that’s not fully human,” she said. 

She also has a violin solo in the show, which Farnum asked her to perform after seeing she played the instrument in her audition form

“I was like, ‘Sure, why not?’” she said.

While some people of color have found meshing with local theater difficult — from the choices of shows to the roles available to them to their voices being heard — Jamil said she’s “absolutely” been accepted into the Riverwalk community. 

She remembers a castmate asking her “so many times how to pronounce my name because he wanted to make sure he said it properly.”  

“Usually, people don’t do that,” she said. “They’re just like, ‘Oh, OK. Yeah, sure, I’ll say it in whatever way that I can.’ But he made sure to be like, ‘You know what? I really want to pronounce your name the way it’s supposed to be pronounced.’”

Now that she has some experience under her belt, Jamil said she understands how important theater and improvisation are to her future career as a doctor. 

“I’ve noticed that when you’re talking to patients, a really important thing is that you have to be able to listen and also kind of take their cues,” she said.  “You have to really be able to read people’s body language. If you have a patient that’s coming in, you need to make them feel warm and welcome and make them feel like you care, and you can’t necessarily do that if you’re not able to read body language and social cues. I think theater really prepares you to be able to listen and observe.”

At the end of the day, Jamil’s first experience with local theater is one of awe. As she watches her castmates and the crew work out the details of creating particular pictures to tell the story, she recognizes that everyone spends hours in the theater after working day jobs or going to school. 

“I just want to make sure readers know that the directors and everybody else involved — everybody’s a volunteer, and they put their heart and soul into this,” she said. “And they’re doing an amazing job.”