ITP - 54: Renaissance Man: Teaching, Theater, and Life Abroad

Greg: This is Greg, the single guy. Matt, the family guy, is not with us on this episode. Kent is running around somewhere after his cat. He's the cat guy. And I want to say I am so happy that my next guest—I'm flattered because he's taking time out of his busy schedule. He is the actual renaissance man. He's from New York originally, but I would say we need to hear a little bit more about his life because he's coming to us from Armenia. And I want to introduce you, our guest now, Jason Lasky. Welcome to our show, buddy.

Jason: Hey Greg, how you doing? How does it feel to be on the other side of the podcast now?

Greg: Oh, it's wonderful. I love talking about me and some of our adventures. And I say that not from an arrogant “I'm awesome” standpoint—although I do have enough self-confidence and self-awareness to say that I do accomplish some awesome things as my day progresses—but at the same time, I like to have fun while I'm doing it.

Jason: Let's dive in, man, because there's a lot of ground to cover. There's a lot of ground and water and sea and air and everything in between to cover. How did you arrive in Armenia? Can you give us a shortened version of it?

Greg: Okay, let me preface this. I've been on the other side, being the interviewee. The last podcast host asked me that question and told me, “We're going to talk maybe an hour and a half or so, cover a wide variety of topics, background, and this.” It was mostly concentrated on my experience as a theater and drama teacher. He said, “An hour and a half, wide variety of topics.” I said, “Okay, let's go.” He asked me the question you just asked me. Ninety minutes later, I gave him the final part of the answer to that question. And then he just laughed.

I kind of referenced Kevin Smith, the filmmaker. His 40th birthday party was in Red Bank, New Jersey, just a few blocks away from his famous comic book store, the foundation for the View Askew universe—Clerks and Clerks II. I already love those.

Jason: Clerks 3 is coming soon.

Greg: Oh yeah. So at his event, it was a ticketed thing. One guy from Clerks II came out to warm up the crowd. The place was sold out. It went nuts. The curtain opens and you see a great facsimile of the Clerks convenience store and video shop. He comes out, no loud music, just cheering. He looks surprised that the set is there, which is great. Then he says, “Okay, let's just get to it.” First question. A person asks a question, and three hours later, he finishes answering that question and leaves. Everyone goes nuts. Then he says, “I hope that answers your question.”

He leaves, comes back after two minutes, takes a curtain call, and says, “Alright, we said it was going to be a Q&A. I wanted to see if I could get away with one question, one answer—and I did it. Now we'll sit around for another two or three hours and really take questions.”

Jason: It's amazing, isn't it?

Greg: He's stellar because he realized that beyond his creative life, he had to take care of his health. He made a major change so he could continue doing what he loves. Kudos to him for that. A heart attack is a hell of a thing to deal with. For him to come out of it and refocus on what's important so he can continue to exist—that's learning and experience right there.

So, to talk about how I got to Armenia, I actually have to start with China. I blasted off from New York to Shanghai in 2006. From 2006 for the last 15 years, we've gone from China to the United States and back, then off to Russia for a while, then traveling around a bit. When I say “we,” I mean me, then later my wife, then one kid, then a second kid, then a third kid. So we have three kids now, two dogs, one cat. We've fostered a bunch of animals. The fish didn't do so well—we tried.

My teaching career began in earnest around 2006.

Hello, hello—this is my partner in crime. He just walked in.

Jason: I see that.

Greg: Ladies and gentlemen, he's got his son in there with him doing math homework, which is amazing.

Jason: I think that's very nice that you think he's doing math homework.

Greg: They have three kids. That's amazing. It's like Matt, the family guy—Jason, the family guy.

Jason: Yeah. I'll wait until they go and then I'll get to the story.

Greg: Yeah, that's cool.

Jason: Thank you. I love you too. I just met you, but I love you too. Because if you don't have love in your heart, what's the point? Balance is happiness.

Greg: So the teaching career began in earnest. My first major teaching gig was in 2006 at Shanghai High School International Division. That was such a game changer for me. I thought it would be temporary—I'd give it a try for a year and re-evaluate. Maybe I wouldn't stay. Fifteen years later, I've worked in China in multiple educational environments. I've also worked virtually while living elsewhere, like in Nairobi, working with a company based in Beijing.

This whole teaching idea—it wasn't something I thought was supposed to happen. I thought I'd take a completely different path. But it did happen because I made what I consider bold decisions. Going to China was huge. People asked me why I wanted to go. I had never been there, but I knew people could teach. I got inspiration from someone I went to high school with who taught in Japan, and someone from my university who did the same.

The reason for China came from my undergraduate years at Binghamton University. I got more involved in theater projects. There was an exchange program where students from a Beijing Opera university came to visit us. They gave demonstrations, performances, and workshops. It was the first time I had that kind of “wow” theater experience. I had never been exposed to Beijing Opera like that.

The idea was that students would visit us, and then we would go to China—to Beijing, Shanghai, and another city. The idea was planted in my head to go. But it never materialized because of money. I couldn't afford the trip and graduate credit. I even asked if I could just do the work without the credit and still go. They said no.

So I created my own opportunity. I took the idea of China and teaching English, did a Google search, found a school, and made it happen. I blasted off in 2006. That moment happened because I pursued it. Nobody handed it to me. I evaluated my situation and made a conscious decision to jump into the unknown—to introduce chaos into my life. And that chaos, I'm so thankful for. It became one of the most wonderful journeys of my life as a person, teacher, and theater maker.

That's the beginning.

Greg: There are going to be some people listening who are thinking, “I want to go to China for a little bit. Maybe I can teach English.” There are listeners out there like that. I don’t necessarily cater to that, but it’s great to hear you do that. You’re probably my second or third guest that’s done it that way. I don’t know enough about it because I was never interested in English teaching. When I got into teaching, I went full force. But I love what happened, because now this isn’t 2006 anymore—we’re in 2022, and you’ve come so far with this.

Are you still teaching at a university right now?

Jason: I’m not currently teaching at a university, no. But I do have a volunteer teaching job that I do at a local school. I have middle school students who are struggling with English acquisition at the moment, but they are local Armenian students. And by local, I mean local to the town where I live, but also families who have moved from the capital to our small town.

It’s a theater program. It’s once a week for about 80 minutes. We do exercises, play games, and now we’re moving toward a project for the second half of the year. It’s going to be in collaboration with the visual arts and music departments at the school. At the end of April, we’re going to have a presentation at a local art museum, and also a show at the school. Right now, we’re working out the dialogue, costumes, and everything.

So we’re in good shape.

Greg: You have a lot on your plate. I actually had to look on a map to find Armenia, and I’m sure listeners might too. Some people know it, some don’t. It’s right by Georgia, the country of Georgia. It’s to the east and north of Turkey, right? And if they’re looking at the atlas for the Black Sea, it’s nearby there too, right?

Jason: I don’t have the map in front of me, but it’s wedged between a few countries—Georgia, Azerbaijan, Turkey, Iran. I’m not sure if there’s a fifth. I’d have to check. But yeah, that’s where we are.

Going back, China was six years—what I call my “Roaring 20s.” From about 22 or 23 to 29, I was in China pretty much full-time, except for summers when I’d go back home or travel. I visited a friend in Chicago, went on a Birthright trip to Israel.

Those six years gave me a developing understanding of who I am as a teacher. My hunger for theater grew. I developed skills in playwriting, acting, directing, sound design, lighting, stage management, PR, marketing—everything involved in putting together a production.

What took me away from China—and what could have ended my teaching career for a while—was my master’s studies. I wanted to leave China. I had enough of the international school and private education company vibe. I wanted to expand my education and pursue playwriting seriously through a master’s program.

I applied to a bunch of programs and got rejection after rejection—almost all around. So I tried again. The second time, I got into NYU Tisch School of the Arts MFA playwriting program, but it was for the Singapore campus. After a lot of thought and conversations with faculty and students, I decided not to go.

I still wanted to leave China. That decision led me to another Google search. That search led me to the MFA program I did get into—though later I left before finishing.

So I left China and left teaching to become a student again. You could argue I didn’t leave education—I just switched sides.

Greg: Can I jump in for a second? Isn’t it rewarding to go back to school? I loved it. I didn’t go straight from college into teaching. I had a career first, then taught, then went back to school while teaching. It was refreshing because you sit there thinking, “This is what my students feel like.”

Jason: Yeah. So I didn’t actually finish that master’s. I was in the program for a year. My girlfriend—now my wife—and I were long distance. She was still in China while I was studying. I went back to China for what I thought would be a short visit.

That turned into marriage, a baby, and the birth of a new play we worked on together. That’s where we really solidified our creative partnership.

We have our separate areas, but over time our work has overlapped more and more. Love, creativity, collaboration—it all blends together in a really organic way.

So we ended up back in China. Then back to New York for about six months. I did one more term, and then we decided it wasn’t working. We left and went to Russia, where my wife is from.

We planned a short break and traveled through Vietnam. During that time, I was doing interviews while sitting with sand between my toes, drinking a mango lassi. I got a job offer and they said, “We’ll see you in Shanghai.”

So we went back to China again. That was my third stint.

I remember coming home one day feeling stuck. I was teaching for another English language company, but now I was teaching math and science. Things were fine on the surface, but something felt off.

We talked it through and landed on the idea of the IB—the International Baccalaureate. I started researching it and realized the pedagogy resonated with me. So I decided to pursue an online Master of Education in IB education.

So again—thank you, Google.

I enrolled, got my materials together, and started. At the same time, my wife had an idea for a theater project, so we applied for grants. We won one.

In November 2015, we went to Murmansk, Russia. We worked with actors and locals, sharing experiences and creating work during a period when the sun didn’t rise for about 40 days.

It was extreme—down to minus 37 degrees Celsius. That project led to a new play idea.

At the same time, I was continuing my online master’s. It was intense. If you fall behind, everything piles up. There were moments I wanted to quit, but my wife kept me going.

We later moved again—back to China, then to the U.S., then back to Russia. Eventually, we looked for new opportunities, and a job came up in Nairobi, Kenya.

We moved there with a newborn. I got hired as head of drama, but the job fell apart due to visa issues and licensing complications.

It was frustrating, but I stayed and tried to fix things. I even got my teaching license to help resolve it, but it still didn’t work out.

That period was tough but also beautiful. We had our kids, explored, and connected with the theater community.

We tried to stage a play, but cultural differences made it difficult. That experience taught me a lot about perspective and context.

After Kenya, I found an IB theater teaching position in Armenia. Everything aligned. I submitted my final master’s work while standing at the equator, wrapped things up, and moved.

We arrived in Armenia in August 2017. I taught for three years, and then we decided to stay.

Now we live here full-time. We own a house, have been renovating, and built a recording studio.

Greg: That’s incredible.

Jason: Yeah, we’re in Dilijan, about an hour and a half from Yerevan.

Greg: And now you’ve built this whole life.

Jason: Yeah. And it’s still evolving. That’s the whole idea—embracing uncertainty and continuing to grow.

Greg: That’s a great place to wrap. Thanks for coming on.

Jason: Thanks for having me.