JANE HO
By Acting Coach John Pallotta

GENRE: Drama

LOGLINE: Jane Ho Written by John Pallotta What image appears in your mind when you hear the word "prostitute"? Take a minute to visualize it. What does that word mean to you? Specifically what kind of person does your mind conjure up as a typical prostitute? The everyday life of prostitution is distant from most of us. And here, our imagination is a poor assistant. Negotiate a price with a stranger. Agree. Pull down one pant leg. Come and take me. Finished. Next, please. It becomes too ugly to really take it in. The imagination screeches to a halt. Jane Ho tells a different story. Streetwalkers, ladies of the night, hookers - call them what you will, the job description stays the same. But what exactly is it that these women do? And what are they really like behind the mystery of their occupation? The simple truth, of course, is that they lead domestic lives that aren't so far removed from yours or mine: it's really only what they do for a crust that sets them apart. To find out more spend an evening with four Hookers, to see what daily life is really like for a prostitute and the things they tell their pillows, that nobody should. Jane Ho is a sexy, disturbing and ultimately moving exploration of the inner workings of the life of a high priced call girl. It recently had a workshop reading at the Dramatist Guild in NYC from where it was selected by HExTC to be produced as this exciting NYC premiere at The Lion Theatre on Theatre Row. Jane Ho is based on a true story about one woman’s struggle to become the highest priced call girl. In the process of creating Jane Ho, I interviewed almost 200 call girls to write the story. Eventually I narrowed it down to a few that would tell the story of Jane Ho. Sasha, Brittney, Gina and Natalia. They became the invisible hand that wrote the story of Jane Ho. That sweet small voice to explain the themes to our audience. They gave me the [initial] characters and the form of the story. In the process I listened to their biographies, ideas, opinions, things they said casually; and the music behind their voices. I conceived of a scene and visualized it, entered into it imaginatively and used their voices as a score. Words would arise out of that music or voice. Later a story emerged when one character butted up against another. In the course of six months or so, I would go out on calls with these men and woman, learning about their world from the inside. Gathering their emotions before they got the call, when they got the call and when their business was finished. The story about a call girl turned out to be a totally different one than I had expected. While the story was being written about a prostitute, I found out that I could have been writing about any one of us.

JANE HO

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