Actor Nathan Jackson’s passion remains undiminished after accident and leukemia diagnosis – Americus Times-Recorder

Nathan Jackson, a member of the Sumter Players, was rehearsing for the play Love Sex and the IRS when an accident forced him to take a detour. Although he is recovering from a fall and has recently been diagnosed with leukemia, Jackson’s love of the theater remains undiminished. He eagerly described his first experiences on stage: “I’ve been acting since 10th grade and after high school I stopped for a couple of years and it wasn’t until we did our production of Narnia that I returned to the stage.”

He talked about how the role with the Sumter Players brought him back to acting. “This show was really special for me. It brought me back not only on stage, but in the role of Aslan, a very important character to me. The roar of the crowd at the end of the performance let me know I was home.”

His first experience with theater was when a teacher suggested he try it after he had finished all of his art classes, his first choice. He was previously a shy student, but that changed the night the play A Murderer’s Got Talent was performed. “When I walked out there and the crowd cheered me on and loved the song, something happened. That was the moment I broke my shell. That was the moment I knew I had to get into theater.”

Jackson described the camaraderie among the Sumter Players, which also includes his brother and sister. “We’re all friends. We’re all family. So a lot of times someone is doing stupid things. I’m not lying, it’s usually me. But it’s all for fun, because for us, it’s not just a job. This is a hobby, a way of life. This is what we do.”

Jackson spoke about the accident that initially put his acting career on hold and the scene that led to it. “My character has a little argument with his roommate. I felt that the best way for Lesley, as the character he is, to do something frantic, desperate in that argument to get out of John’s way, because John has broken people’s bones before.”

He described the scene in which his character Leslie John escaped. “So I sat down in the middle of our sofa that we have in there, grabbed the back end and threw myself over the sofa. It was a complete somersault. For weeks, consistently, every night of rehearsals, I did it perfectly. I landed right on my feet like Spiderman.”

A change in the lineup threw him off balance, as his colleagues were sitting where he normally performed the maneuver. “I threw myself over the couch and also tried not to kick them in the face, which caused my body to twist and turn into a different motion, and instead of landing on my feet, I landed on my head, my wrist and my right knee. The knee is fine. But it ended up rattling my brain and breaking a bone in my hand.”

Despite the injury, he managed to write a one-and-a-half-page monologue. “I got through the entire monologue despite having a head injury. And then I said, ‘Hey, I have to throw up.’ I got through it without a single mistake.”

During brain surgery, it was discovered that Jackson had leukemia. He mentioned that the injury could be responsible for the disease’s rapid progression. When asked how treatment has been going, Jackson replied, “The treatment has been pretty good so far. I have medication that I take every day.” He remains optimistic. “We expect a full recovery from everything, including the leukemia, with remission within five years.” The Sumter Players plan to postpone Love Sex and the IRS so that Jackson can resume his role after his recovery.

Jackson concluded with a thank you: “I can’t explain how loved I felt, not only by the overwhelming support of Americus, but also from the surrounding counties (because) I grew up pretty much everywhere here. I didn’t really know how many people really cared about me. But just seeing how much support came from everywhere and people messaging me and people I hadn’t heard from in years, friends I thought I wasn’t friends with anymore, it was incredible. It gave me courage.”