Jackson Credits Pickwicks, Midland With Good Foundation

Former Midlander Monroe Jackson Rathbone V is in a soon-to-be-released family film, "Cowgirls N Angels," which the Trinity School Senior Girls Club hopes to bring to Midland's Hollywood Tall City 14 Sept. 13. To do so, 100 tickets must be pre-sold by Thursday.

Rathbone, who played Jasper Cullen in the "Twilight" films, was first seen by an audience on the Midland Community Theatre stage.

"The first role was in 'Christmas Carol,' two years," Rathbone said in a telephone interview from his home in California.

"Then I did 'Grease, the Musical.' I had to learn how to sing and play guitar and act and dance all for the same production."

He knew as a teenager he wanted to be a professional actor.

"I knew I wanted to be an actor when I was about 13, 14 years old, and I did my audition for the Pickwick Players," said Rathbone, who is the son of Midlanders Randee and Monroe Jackson "Jack" Rathbone IV and the brother of Brittney Rathbone. "And I got in doing a little monologue from Saturday Night Live.

"I just loved the feeling of being up on-stage and being able to capture the imagination of an audience, to be able to bring people joy and laughter, to be able to tell people a story, that's always what's motivated me."

He has a favorite role that he played while in Midland.

"My favorite role was playing King Herod in 'Jesus Christ, Superstar' at the Yucca," said the 27-year-old Rathbone, who is a proud new father (of a baby born July 5 and named Monroe Jackson Rathbone VI.) "That's one of my favorite roles and one of the last roles before I left Midland to study acting in Michigan (at Interlochen Arts Academy).

When asked what he preferred -- film or stage, he said, "Between a stage production and a film, I miss the stage. I do miss the stage. It's been about 10 years since I've been in a theater production. With film you lose a certain sense of immediacy. With the stage, you get to see the audience. You get to know if a joke works.

"Being in a film is a lot more of a story in acceptance. We shot 'Cowgirls N Angels' about a year and a half ago, and it's just now getting into theaters. It's definitely a study in patience. You do a project you believe so fervently in, and then you have to wait a year and a half for anyone to see it.'

"Cowgirls N Angels" is "a beautiful moving story," said Rathbone. "It's a family film about a young girl who lives with her single mother. She has always been drawn to the rodeo. She doesn't know who her father is. The only thing she knows is he works in the rodeo.

"And she gets drawn up into the Sweethearts of the rodeo. That's a group of young teenager girls from varied backgrounds who are trick riders. And these girls do amazing tricks. It was a pleasure to watch the real trick riders work because what they can do on a horse is gravity defying."

Rathbone credits the Pickwick Players, MCT's youth performance troupe, and Midland with providing a good foundation for him.

"The Pickwicks -- that was a huge basis," Rathbone said. "I've got to give a lot of thanks to Midland and Midlanders' sense of community and their sense of the arts. There are a lot of towns that don't have this sensibility of the arts being an important part of life. And I really believe in it. I believe in entertainment.

"I'm very thankful that I grew up in a town like Midland and was able to learn and grow as an actor. I was nurtured as a young artist as opposed to stifled.

"There's a lot of young actors who are doing Pickwicks right now who have big dreams. Follow your dreams. You've got to do whatever makes you happy in life. I was blessed with an amazing community in Midland. I always think about MCT and how much I learned there and how much I grew as a person and as an artist."

Details:
What: "Cowgirls N Angels" film
When: With a pre-sale of 100 tickets by Thursday, the film will be screened at 7:30 p.m. Sept. 13
Where: Hollywood Tall City 14
Info: Family film. Cast includes former Midlander Jackson Rathbone. To reserve tickets ($10) or for more information on the film, go to http:/www.tugg.com/events/1357. Trinity School Senior Girls Club fundraiser for Safe Place of the Permian basin. For more information, contact Kobi Lincoln, Trinity School, at k_lincoln@trinitymidland.org. The show sold out in Fayetteville, Ark. and the theater had a second screening.

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