Artist Profile: Director and Journalist Jocelyn E. Shek ’27 on her Approach to Creativity

Jocelyn E. Shek ’27 was a “gutsy 14-year-old.”

The then ninth grader, wanting to explore her budding interest in theater, sent a message to the Instagram account of the national tour of the Tony-and-Pulitzer-nominated play, “What the Constitution Means to Me,” asking for casting information about the available role of the high school debate student.

She asked her dad to drive her to the audition and remembers being the only child actor there without a professional headshot or sparkling resume. To her surprise, she got the part.

For the next three years, Shek toured the country with the cast, taking online high school classes to balance school and professional acting. The tour even stopped in Cambridge at the American Repertory Theater in 2022, a year before she applied to Harvard.

“I think I just really fell in love with the world of theater from there,” Shek said in an interview with The Crimson.

While at Harvard, Shek — a joint Sociology and Statistics concentrator in Quincy — has designed lights for, produced or directed nine Harvard-Radcliffe Dramatic Club shows, including directing standout productions of “Sanctuary City” and “macbitches.” On the other side of storytelling, Shek, a Crimson magazine staff writer, is a prolific data journalist who has interned at NBC News, blending data and art to create engaging graphics.

The Los Angeles native wasn’t always interested in the performing arts. In fact, Shek was planning on dropping theater entirely after participating in a “bad middle school improv troupe” in sixth grade. However, upon accidentally shattering her eighth grade ceramics teacher’s prized pottery, she had a change of heart.

“I realized I can literally never see this teacher again,” Shek said. “So I was like, ‘I’m switching to Intro to Theater.’”

And the rest is history.

Shek dove headfirst into theater in her first week at Harvard through the pre-orientation First-Year Arts Program, where she was acquainted with the technical side of the performing arts. Shek has continued working behind the scenes on theater productions and is currently co-lighting designer for “Into the Woods,” which runs at the Loeb Proscenium from Oct. 28 to 31.

Away from the stage, Shek also finds opportunity for creation. In her sophomore fall, Shek took COMPSCI 73: Code, Data, and Art, which she credits for igniting her “crazy obsessive love” for creatively visualizing data. Despite the seemingly disparate media, Shek sees storytelling through theater and journalism as “two sides of the same coin.” She wants to cover topics that impact and relate to audiences while adding her own unique perspective, be it via drama or data.

“I’ve been a lighting designer, I’ve been a director, and I think from doing that, something that I have learned as an artist is that I need to make art that really moves along a story,” Shek said.

“And one of the first things I ever learned when I was doing journalism is, ‘Is what you’re writing right now serving the story?’ And I think for me, it all really comes down to the same thing. Helping people connect to stories that might not be about them, but they can learn from and see the world in,” Shek said.

Coming from a not-so-artsy family — Shek’s parents work in banking and technology — Shek has especially enjoyed both the arts of stage lighting and data visualization, where she can utilize technology in the creative process. Currently enrolled in TDM 194: The Making of a Musical: The Creative Process, Shek has been inspired by Professor Diane Paulus’s guiding principle.

“[Professor Diane Paulus] has said that a good director should have a clear vision for what they are, for the story they want to tell, and there should be a reason that they’re the only person who can tell that story, and I think that what she’s saying really resonates with me,” Shek said. “For me, a show is the most rewarding when I have something about the show that is impacting me and that I want to say outside of what is just written in the stage directions.”

Shek has never been one to box herself in. Shek is “genuinely interested in everything.” Though her calendar is jam-packed, she is motivated by her similarly multitalented classmates.

“I think the awesomest thing about Harvard is that there are also so many other people who are doing amazing, super cool, multidisciplinary things, and who are just huge inspirations to me,” Shek said. “I’m always trying to learn from other people and stay curious about the mundane.”

Now a senior, Shek has become a mentor in her own right, but remains grateful to the guidance she’s received. Shek co-lit the HRDC musical “The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee” at the Proscenium as a freshman. Now, in a full circle moment, she leads the assistant lighting designer freshmen in “Into the Woods.” As a First-Year Arts Program proctor, Shek enjoys seeing the freshmen produce a show after she introduced them to technical theater just five days earlier. Across the board, Shek is motivated to build a positive community.

“Seeing myself grow into someone who feels confident that I can be a force for good in someone’s life or in helping someone find a space at Harvard has been just so rewarding,” Shek said.

Shek also has a hand in deciding which productions come to life at Harvard as the current co-vice president of the HRDC Executive Board. More than anything, she looks for shows with strong student support where she feels confident that theater — despite its chaos — can be done in a fun and collaborative environment, a common thread in her own directorial choices as well.

“Because I have acted and been a designer and been a producer, I really want to uplift the creative knowledge and creative genius of everyone that is on a team. So being able to bring everyone’s ideas together to create something that is way bigger than I ever could have seen for myself is super awesome,” Shek said.

For Shek, theater is both her greatest source of stress and her greatest passion, a “testament” to her investment in the art. Though her current plan is to pursue a career in data journalism, Shek is confident that the performing arts will always be part of her life. She believes the key to joy is to spend time with people you love, doing things you love.

“At the end of the day, we only have this one life, and for me it’s important to create theater that is enjoyable — genuinely enjoyable — and rewarding, and also stays true to yourself,” Shek said.

—Staff writer Avani I. Shah-Lipman can be reached at [email protected].