by Christy Rodriguez de Conte

Director Jessica Cavanagh brings a new understanding of an old tale to Young Actors Theatre as they tackle the dark, dismayed “Demon Barber of Fleet Street,” opening July 21.

“Times is hard.” The relevance reverberates from Mrs. Lovett’s voice with vibrato in 2023. The world has advanced with industry and technology in the 44 years since Stephen Sondheim’s “Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street” melded the stages of New York City with the streets of 1785 London.

But can the same be said for the social disparities that plagued warring countries then and now? The world continues to live bitterly divided by wealth and accessibility. Man devours man, and foolishness remains the biggest crime of all. Although history proves that those below must serve those above, it ruthlessly reminds one that no gratification comes for those below, no matter the rage displayed.

So how does one remain sane through it all? How does one find mercy and forgiveness when sanity fails? Are not all people one series of misinformed and misconstrued steps away from being the demon barbers of our streets?

These are the questions Director Jessica Cavanagh aims to ask through the Young Actors Theatre’s (YAT) production of “Sweeney Todd.” Luckily for audiences, she is no stranger to asking tough questions through a lens of empathy and humility.

At an early age, Cavanagh found a love for theatre and its ability to tell stories that transform one’s understanding of life and its players. She studied at the YAT in the early 1990s, which prepared her for a professional career in theater and voice-over work.

“I am compelled to tell stories, to be a storyteller. In the younger first half [of life], I was driven to find a way to express myself,” says Cavanagh. “Theatre was my outlet. I was one of those theater kids where theatre was everything!”

For this reason, her entire theatrical family was shocked when she graduated college and did not move to New York or attend a university acting program. Instead, Cavanagh joined Youth with a Mission, a global Christian movement dedicated to “a common purpose to know God and to make him known” from 1993-1998 throughout Romania.

Decades later, Cavanagh credits her time as a youth pastor for giving her the tools to direct, perform, and find fulfillment in serving the community. “It’s interesting how it all comes together,” reflects Cavanagh. “(There were) years where I really regretted (not going straight into professional acting). Instead, I was starting a family at 24 and thinking, what am I doing? But as time went on, I realized how beneficial it was.”

Cavanagh acknowledges the privilege of living in another country at a young age and its humbling effects. She believed in seeing herself as part of a whole, not its center. She found empathy for all and humility as an American, which she learned to translate into her artistry. “Learning empathy has been key. To me, theater is all about empathy,” says Cavanagh.

When Cavanagh returned to the states, she took her talents to Dallas. There she began performing professionally in challenging plays like Tony Kushner’s “Angels in America” and David Auburn’s “Proof.” Those roles “were meaty as heck,” Cavanagh said. “It changed my life, the people I met.”

Her career flourished as she ventured into new performance mediums as a voice-over actor with the entertainment company Crunchyroll through Funimation’s on-demand anime streaming platform.

For Cavanagh, life and art are in a continuous imitation. Her life sometimes felt like a tragic drama filled with divorce, family death, and debates about her worth and abilities as a mother. She turned to theater for healing and wrote “Self-Injurious Behavior,” a play about finding forgiveness in oneself.

After a pandemic shift and an invitation by YAT’s Tina Williams to direct Little Women in 2021, Cavanagh is back in Tallahassee. “I never had any thought of coming back to teach here,” laughs Cavanagh. Yet here she is, and she has not felt this much joy in years. It comes not only from creating artistically beautiful stage pictures but mostly from watching the students evolve.

“They want to grow not just as artists but as human beings. (I love) being able to teach empathy and openness and love through art – particularly here in Florida,” says Cavanagh frankly. “ I think the benefit (is) having the kids have a place that is an outlet for them to express themselves, where nothing is off the table. Where they are able to be 100% themselves.”

Directed by joy, Cavanagh is taking a slice at Sondheim’s musical masterpiece. “All the injustice is what revs me up,” says Cavanagh. “A man who has lived in a corrupt system. He can’t trust anyone to do right by him. There are a lot of parallels that we’ve talked to the kids about.”

Cavanagh’s goal with YAT’s production of Sweeney Todd is to find the balance of comedy, tragedy, desperation, and determination. She relies less on the blood and more on the emotions Sweeney poses, so much so that she has tasked the chorus with the difficult job of portraying his feelings on the stage.

Cavanaugh sees this play as a cautionary tale that encourages us all to find empathy in everyone’s story and not presume to know their realities — big questions for even bigger performers.

Cavanagh gushes, “It’s going to be great. I think it’s going to be a highly entertaining show. The music is haunting and beautiful. It is lauded as the most difficult musical ever written. These kids are rising to the challenge.”

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