Jake Speer - August 2023 Artist of the Month

Community and Collaboration are Stage Front for Jake

Focused creative energy and sheer grit are formative life ingredients for Jake Speer, Leeton-born actor, director, producer, and entrepreneur. Though Jake knew from a very young age that performance, character and story were his drivers, it is his family, community, and teachers that he credits: “I landed in a fourth-generation, sporty Leeton household. At first my parents were not sure what to do with this all-singing, all-dancing son! In fact, they did everything they could to ensure I could chase my dream. Throughout primary school at Parkview Public School, and into high school at St Francis, I signed up for everything; choir, singing lessons, drama.” Outside school hours it was acting lessons in Griffith, private tutors for singing and as much community theatre as could be squeezed in. Says Jake, “I’m so grateful to the teachers who were championing art, music and performance and investing huge amounts of personal time into the school choir and school productions. They showed me the work ethic and the discipline required to be a successful artist of any type."

When a colleague of Jake’s father passed on a newspaper cutting from the Wagga Daily Advertiser, Jake and his family had no idea where that would lead. It was an audition call by Kooringal High School for the school production of ‘The Wiz’. Jake won the role, but he had to attend the school. At fifteen he packed up his Leeton life, moved to a hostel in Wagga and attended Kooringal High School, with its 200-seat theatre, and focused vocational training in drama and stage tech. It was a big call - one that Jake believes was life-changing. He immersed himself in annual productions, concerts, battle of the bands, and training in sound, lighting, stage management, and back-of-house. 

In his final year of high school Jake was one of just 24 selected for the NIDA national intake, and he plunged directly into its gruelling program: “As a kid from the sticks, I was completely focused on the dramatic training, the performance. I realise now that the academic element was also soaking into me, the history, the theory, the craft, even the architecture. My teachers were building what I call my connective tissue with the ancients in theatre and stage.”

A core role for three years in ‘Home and Away’ came as an opportunity and a shock for Jake. Or, as he puts it, ‘from art to business’, shooting long days to tight schedules, and competing timelines, and working with household names like Shane Withington and Georgie Parker. The wisdom from these years? “Make good choices and always take good care of your character!”

When Los Angeles agencies sought Jake to read for big productions, it gave him cause for reflection and really come to terms with where he wanted his career to go, and more importantly who with: “The industry in the U.S is very transactional; you are employed to act. At first, I thought that was everything! But it was dawning on me that I wanted to be part of the entire creative process. I wanted to collaborate, to develop stories that inspire me, to teach and share knowledge.”

Writing and filming the short film ‘Inside Water’ in the Leeton region was the catalyst he needed: “It gave me a new appreciation of the mechanics of film-making – good product and good process, the critical elements of collaboration, communication, timing, and budgets. It also made me sharply aware of the craft of storytelling and the trust involved in being a custodian of a story.” 

Jake Speer features in the short film ‘Inside Water’, 2018

Jake established Kensington House Entertainment, a boutique production company, providing a solid foundation for the creative collaboration and regional and urban partnerships that he wishes to foster. Many will recall his stunning 2021 production of Shakespeare’s ‘Henry V’, the result of a creative partnership between Kensington House Entertainment and Leeton’s Roxy Theatre.

Kensington House now has a dozen projects at various stages, including the Riverina production ‘Lords of the Soil’, a short historical drama set to commence shooting here in October 2023. For Jake the project ticks all the boxes. It will partner local actors and technicians with professional screen practitioners - a total crew of around thirty - including a partnership with Western Riverina’s Miil Miil Productions and the employment of local talent Oumi Karenga-Hewitt as Assistant Producer. 

Jake Speer in ‘Henry V’ which he produced and directed for the Roxy RIPA initiative, 2021

And what of the bigger picture?  For Jake that is building more regional partnerships, attracting stakeholders, finance and industry players to the Riverina region and putting the building blocks in place to create a local, thriving stage and film industry: “The Roxy redevelopment in Leeton and professional partnerships with the likes of NIDA Connect is providing space to trial new forms of training and create local opportunities for creative and talented kids who want a future in the industry. We can nurture and grow that talent right here.” 

Story by Gemma Purcell, Friday 25th August 2023

Images: 1) Jake Speer ‘Henry V’ 2021, photo by Camille Whitehead courtesy the artist. Jake Speer 'Inside Water' 2018, courtesy the artist. Jake Speer 'Henry V' 2021, photo by Camille Whitehead courtesy the artist.