From YouTube to Mayer: the legend of Richard Jao

By Katie Powers

Most students chose monologues from plays or literature when auditioning for a role in the fall play, "Fuente Ovejuna," but not Richard Jao.

He ripped his from a video game.

The senior communication major, clad in a signature denim jacket, still remembered some of the monologue to recite on the spot. Straightening up in his chair, his voice becomes suddenly deeper, and his dark brown eyes narrow as he commands authority.

"My name is Andrew Ryan, and I am here to ask you a question," he said, suddenly in character. "Is a man not entitled to the sweat of his own brow? No, says the man in Washington, it belongs to the poor. No says the man in the Vatican, it belongs to God. No says the man in Moscow, it belongs to everyone. I rejected those answers and came up with my own!" said Jao.

The inspired monologue has the chilling sparkle of a finely written work chronicling the world's most persuasive dictator.

The director of "Fuenta Ovejuna," Fred Tollini, S.J., may have thought so too, because he was quite surprised to hear the monologue had been taken from the introduction of "BioShock," an Xbox 360 game set in an post- World War II underwater utopia of scientific experimentation.

The video game monologue won the senior communication major his first role with the Santa Clara theater department as Sergeant Ortuño in "Fuente Ovejuna."

Tollini actually sought Jao out for the auditions.

"It wasn't that I initially wanted to try out," Jao said. "It was more the fact that Fr. Fred was practically begging me to try out." As one of Tollini's students in performance and culture, Jao had obviously made some kind of impression on Tollini.

And with his always-expressive features, strong presence and clear diction, for good reason.

The San Jose native admitted to knowing that using a monologue from a video game would be considered a faux pas, or as he referred to it, a "theater no-no." But that didn't stop him from being original.

"I figured, you know what, I'm going to do something different. I'm pretty sure that any other director would say, 'So you got your monologue from a video game? What are you thinking?' " Jao said.

Jao's unorthodox attitude gives him the confidence to showcase his talent among the sometimes-monotonous Santa Clara population. Though "Fuente Ovejuna" was Jao's first role in the theater department, he is no performance rookie.

Jao, who is a production emphasis in the communication major, has also been involved with MCTV throughout his college career.

It was while designing a Halloween film his sophomore year when Jao developed the infamous character "SCU Ninja," a favorite among upperclassmen. Although Jao isn't super-formalized in any of the martial arts, he has experience in many and is a yellow belt.

The "SCU Ninja" short, which is available to watch on YouTube, features Jao doing martial arts dressed in a black mask and cut-off shirt, darting through campus, then hiding behind things, jumping out and scaring people.

"My idea was, 'Hey, what if I dressed up as a ninja and started randomly popping up out of bushes scaring people for Halloween?' " he said. "We got some really great ones. Some (people) are like 'Oh, okay,' but some are like, 'Ahhhhh!' "

The short, directed by student Michael Schroeder, shows the ninja prowling in front of the late Orradre Library, stalking his prey around a corner until he jumps in front of a girl who shrieks, then laughs. In another scene, the ninja waits behind a dark dorm corner to scare a girl who screams, "Jesus!"

By the end, the ninja is in an elevator with a tall man. When the elevator opens, the ninja drags the student, dead, out of the elevator.

Film is one of Jao's biggest interests, but it is really just one of many. "I draw a little bit too," he said. "Obviously, I'm a gamer. I'm not a super hard-core gamer like those guys that would play 'World of Warcraft' for hours on end."

He even considers himself an unorthodox gamer, as he isn't a fan of first-person shooter games that are popular among men.

Jao isn't a sports video game fan either. "I don't play sports games, sports games, sports games," he said. "If I go to a friend's house and look at all the games and if they are all sports games, I'm like 'Dude, seriously.' "

Jao, a fan of the Nintendo DS and PlayStation 2, is currently into rhythmic dancing games, such as "Dance Dance Revolution" and some puzzle games for Nintendo. He avoids MMOs, or massive multi-player online role-playing games. "I know how addicting MMOs can get," he said. "You go in there and get sucked into that world."

Though he is planning on working in TV after he graduates, Jao would really love to slip into the gaming industry.

"I know how cinematic games have become now, and what I would really like to do is write a story for video games and actually direct the thing, because not very many people think of video games as big and epic," he said.

"And honestly some (video games) aren't because some are like, 'Here's a guy! Shoot everything in sight!' That's it. But there are some games that are practically movies all in themselves. That's the kind of thing I want to write and direct," he said.

The trouble is, Jao said, that most of these games come from Japan. Though he studied in Tokyo last spring, he still has a way to go before becoming proficient in the language.

The future of Richard Jao may be uncertain at this point, but he doesn't seem worried. "I'll just see what happens. Whatever happens, though, I know that I'll enjoy it," he said.

He paused theatrically for a brief second, and smiled.

"Or at least try to."

Contact Katie Powers at (408) 551-1918 or krpowers@scu.edu.