Chautauqua Theater Company Conservatory Actors Jaucqir LaFond, as Agent Duva, and Maria Fernanda Diez, as Stephie, perform during a tech rehearsal of Fabulation Friday in Bratton Theater.
It isn’t every day that an actor gets to tackle the same character twice with a different cast and different perspectives.
In the ensemble cast is Chautauqua Theater Company Conservatory Actor Jaucqir LaFond, who portrays, in addition to three other roles, the grounded and honest character of Flow, the brother of Undine Barnes Calles in Pulitzer-winning playwright Lynn Nottage’s Fabulation, or the Re-Education of Undine. LaFond said their second time in the role allows for growth and opportunity.
“I’m excited about how I’m entering my current point of view and perspective on this character that I’m already familiar with, and it’s made me realize how much I’ve grown,” they said.
An acting student who has spent most of their life in Atlanta, Georgia, LaFond is entering their final year at Columbia University, where they did Fabulation alongside CTC Conservatory Actor Sarah-Michele Guei in 2023. As LaFond relives the “silly but earnest” nature of Flow, they said they are excited to further explore the play’s satirical style.
“I think the play does a really good job of pointing out the absurdity of life, but also kind of grounding the absurdity in reality,” LaFond said.
Fabulation, which centers around a wealthy New York City publicist who is forced to return to her Brooklyn roots after her husband’s sudden betrayal, continues performances at 2:30 and 7:30 p.m. today in Bratton Theater.
LaFond remembers falling in love with theater as a child, and their earliest memory on stage was in a preschool pageant about one of the first Black astronauts. Growing up with a speech impediment that went away while performing, they quickly realized theater was their calling.
Now, as LaFond pursues acting professionally and portrays a familiar character at Chautauqua, they are finding new ways to keep the role fresh.
The character Flow is a military veteran who now works as a security guard, just like his parents. Though changed by his time in combat, he has an intellectual side, and is writing an epic poem about Br’er Rabbit.
Like Flow, LaFond is forthright in the way they communicate with others and admires the character’s way of “striving for authenticity,” and how he’s able to be himself.
“One way I want to be more similar to Flow is how big he lets himself be,” they said. “I think I still struggle with letting myself be as big as I want to be sometimes, which is why I enjoy playing Flow so much because I get to let some of that go.”
Fabulation’s use of satire to shed light on difficult topics and stereotypes surrounding the Black community, family and impoverished people, LaFond said, prompts the audience to see comedy as a way to critique societal norms.
When audiences take their seats in Bratton, LaFond said Chautauquans should be prepared to laugh, but to pay attention to what they’re laughing about.
“There’s a lot of commentary on the infrastructure that impoverished people have to deal with and the lengths that people go through to survive,” they said. “Those things can potentially get lost if people focus on it just being funny. It’s funny, sure, but it’s also real.”
Through laughs, cries and the highs and lows that are woven into the story about Undine and her family, Nottage’s play focuses on the importance of returning home, and the importance of community.
“It is ultimately about the beauty of community and encouragement for everyone to find beauty in their own communities, in a holistic sense — not just in the things that are easy to find beautiful,” LaFond said, “but also those things that we struggle to accept have beauty.”
