Jack Ferver is a New York-based writer, choreographer, and director. He currently teaches at Bard College, and is guest faculty at New York University. When he spoke to Vogue, he was quarantined at the country home of his friend, Parker Posey, who was in Austin.
JF: One day I wrote Jeremy on Instagram just to tell him how much I loved Slave Play, and he told me that he saw this work of mine called Everything is Imaginable at New York Live Arts, and wanted me to choreograph his next show. I said, “Let’s talk about it.” Then summer rolled around—last summer—and he had a residency on Fire Island, and, someone I knew who was also showing work there said, “Oh, I hear you’re choreographing Jeremy’s play.”
JH: When Jack came in to have his first meeting with me and Dustin, Dustin wasn’t as familiar with Jack’s work, but I was like, “Dustin, trust me. There’s gonna be an alchemy when the three of us meet that’s unparalleled.” And that happened: In one moment they both started talking about these opera things that I had never heard of, and in another moment, me and Jack were making references to a dance that Dustin had never heard of, and it just became this rich, rich thing. It’s what happens when three air signs get together.
The Story
Written in verse, the play is set “Before, During, and Hopefully After Heartbreak.” It follows the meeting of two young, Black men, Vinnie and Baby Boy, which prompts “an erotic dream-journey that begins with a rush of passion—and ends, inevitably, soaked in blood.”
JH: So I had this idea to write a play about my boyfriend and me, and name one of the characters “Baby Boy” because that’s what I called him. Then, we broke up. It was probably the most vicious break-up I’ve ever experienced, because it was done with such care—there’s nothing that hurts more than someone who’s telling you they don’t want to hurt you while they’re hurting you, you know? He said to me, “Just tell me if I’m hurting you right now. I don’t want to hurt you.” And I’m like, I hurt myself the minute I let myself believe that this was going to be a thing. And as he was walking out the door, he said, “Oh, by the way, please don’t write a play about this.” The minute he left, I decided the play would be called A Boy’s Company Presents: Tell Me If I’m Hurting You.