Meet Jared Van Heel

We recently connected with Jared Van Heel and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, so we’re so thrilled to have Jared with us today – welcome and maybe we can jump right into it with a question about one of your qualities that we most admire. How did you develop your work ethic? Where do you think you get it from?

My parents certainly set a great example and I had a blessed childhood in that way. When I was quite young, my dad pounded spikes for the railroad and later was a letter carrier for the US Postal Service. My mom worked a lot of jobs, often several at a time. When they weren’t working they were often coaches, scout leaders, and the like, or at the very least were quite involved in getting my brother and I to our games, events, and practices. They hardly missed a thing and still found time to play on their own rec. sports teams, to get to the gym, keep us on top of our homework, and keep the family running smoothly. So that all set a pretty good standard for my brother and me.

These days, though, a lot of my work ethic comes from a love of the thing itself. Admittedly, when things don’t light me up I have a penchant for putting them off, which might be categorized as procrastination, but it also functions as prioritization. I find time every day to work on my craft as an actor and as a musician because my sanity demands it.

When I’m really dragging my heels on something, I find it from one of two things: fear or apathy. The former is instructive; we fear because we care, so if I know it’s worth doing all that remains is cultivating the courage to dive in. Apathy is informative too. Life is short, so we should wield the word ‘no’ like a machete in the thicket. We hear the phrase “put your money where your mouth is;” similar and equally important is “put your time where your passion is.”

Thanks for sharing that. So, before we get any further into our conversation, can you tell our readers a bit about yourself and what you’re working on?

Describing myself and what I do sometimes feels like a late-life hydra trying to paint a self-portrait with all his many heads. I self-deprecatingly refer to myself as a master of multiple mediocrity. However, a castmate recently told me that the saying “jack of all trades, master of none” ends with “but oftentimes better than master of one” which I love. In my late teens, I remember hearing someone referred to as a Renaissance man and thinking it sounded like the highest praise a person could receive and have, ever since, emphasized being well-rounded.

Within the theatre, I’ve worked as an actor, director, writer, fight choreographer, puppeteer, musician, and physical performer (I’ve learned aerial silks and tumbling for shows). I write music and have taught myself seven instruments (not counting instruments like that mandoline that I learned specifically for a show and haven’t touched since). I also taught high school theatre for a couple of years, worked as a certified personal trainer, and held a gallimaufry of odd jobs and titles.

These days, however, I’m working on getting a foothold in acting again. I moved to San Diego in 2017 for grad school and graduated mere months before Covid hit. The pandemic coupled with the changing shape of the theatre in recent years had me in a pretty good tailspin for a while, and 2024 has been a reawakening for me. Starting with a wonderful production of Tartuffe at the beginning of this year, I’ve been steadily working as an actor since, so I’m trying to ride this wave and stay booked as far out as I can. I also have goals to get LA representation and to rewrite and extend my 15-minute one-man show into a full-length piece before the end of the year.

To add a quick little plug, I’m currently acting in a production of Don’t Dress For Dinner at the North Coast Repertory Theatre through August 18th which will then move to the Laguna Playhouse September 4th – 22nd.

Looking back, what do you think were the three qualities, skills, or areas of knowledge that were most impactful in your journey? What advice do you have for folks who are early in their journey in terms of how they can best develop or improve on these?

I remember one of my graduate school professors saying that he believed eventually all actor training will be energy training. He wasn’t talking about mitochondrial energy or ATP, but about how we greet and interact with the world around us. Regardless of how much ‘manifesting’ we are capable of, I truly do believe that like attracts like. People who lead with love, generosity, and praise will eventually be surrounded by people who do the same. In acting, the answer always lies in your scene partner and I don’t think it’s different in life. So the number one quality I’ve been working on is becoming egoless. This helps me to interact with people more genuinely and to not take things personally. Once we realize that we’re all in the ensemble of the great cosmic ballet, it becomes so much easier to receive criticism, grow from failures, dismiss things that could be perceived as slights, and be overall a more palatable person.

The second quality is courage. I meet so many people who are crippled by a fear of failure or even just looking silly. You cannot learn anything without it. Thomas J. Watson’s formula for success was to “double your rate of failure.” Khalil Gibran wrote an ode to defeat which ends “defeat, my defeat, my deathless courage, you and I shall laugh together with the storm, and together we shall dig graves for all that die in us, and we shall stand in the sun with a will, and we shall be dangerous.” Nobody survives this world and we don’t have as much time as we think. If something scares you, it’s probably best to lean into that. Miners know one thing – if you want to find gold, you need to get down in the mud.

Quality number three is action. The most successful people I know are rarely the most talented. They are the ones who started and never stopped. No time is ever perfect and you’ll never feel ready. People who buy into the stock market at a good time don’t end up with noticeably more money than people who buy in at a bad time, provided they stay in for comparable durations. The Chinese have a saying “The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago, the second best time is now.” Start now, stay in it, and let your efforts compound. Do it. Every day. No matter how boring, no matter how scary. I also say this as a reminder to myself. This is the hardest of the three qualities for me and requires a lot of quality number two.

What is the number one obstacle or challenge you are currently facing and what are you doing to try to resolve or overcome this challenge?

As an actor, you’re always relying on someone else to give you a job. You’re getting hired depends on some director or casting director’s imagination, taste, and ability. I believe myself to be an exceptionally versatile actor, but I know that I’m not going to be for everyone.

A painter can still paint without patronage. A composer can still compose. Without an audience, though, the best an actor can do is work on their body and voice, do exercises, work monologues, or practice accents. While these are all valuable parts of the craft, they aren’t the art itself. This is originally why I turned to music, so I could stay sane and keep my soul from withering between jobs. However, the more I learn and grow as an artist, the more particular I become in finding writers and directors whose work excites me, so these days the vetting process isn’t quite so one-sided. The challenge then becomes not only how to get work as an actor, but how to get work that makes it worth the inherent struggles of the profession.

This phase of my career is still in its inception, but lately, I’ve been exploring more ways to take control of the work. I’ve been doing more writing, and am looking to get more involved in directing and producing, so I can build my own teams and work with artists that I love to watch and collaborate with. For all the pitfalls of social media and YouTube, they do open channels for connection and provide a platform for a creative person to get their work seen. Utilizing these is something I’ll be exploring more going forward as well. The world seems to be getting steadily more convoluted, but the windows of opportunity are, likewise, always growing if a person is savvy enough to see and exploit them. That’s my focus now – becoming more savvy.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.jaredvanheel.com
• Instagram: @jaredvanheel
• Facebook: @jaredvanheel
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jared-van-heel-5586b319/
• Youtube: @jaredvanheel

Image Credits

Jason Niedle
Daren Scott