Jayme Overton knows a thing or two about moving your body around. She has a degree in therapeutic recreation and has spent much of her life training as a dancer. Still, all of that experience couldn’t really prepare her for her current gig as a cast member of the infectiously percussive show, “Stomp.”
“It’s an hour-and-45 minute show with no intermission and it’s basically cardio the entire time,” Overton says. “It can be really, really hard on your body. I trained beforehand but once I joined the show, I was like, ‘Jayme, you need to pull yourself together so you can have the stamina for this.’”
“Stomp” already had a significant international following before it started its run off-Broadway in 1994. In the show, performers use everyday objects like trash cans, lighters, shopping carts and brooms to create percussive soundscapes often while acting out scenes in pantomime.
Since premiering, the show has made special appearances everywhere from “Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood” to the 2012 Summer Olympics, and was featured in an award-winning 2002 IMAX film, “Pulse: A Stomp Odyssey.”
Overton joined the cast of “Stomp” in 2021, a year before it closed off-Broadway. After spending some time in the cast of the international tour of the show, she was invited to join the 30th anniversary national tour that kicked off last year and that stomps into Richmond for a three-performance run this weekend.
Overton has wanted to be part of “Stomp” since growing up in Williamsburg, Va. When she was 8 years old, her aunt showed her a DVD of a performance.
“I come from a family of musicians, so seeing that DVD really sparked something in me,” she says. “I know it sounds cheesy but it really has been my dream job since I was a kid.”
The tour employs a cast of 13 but only eight are seen during any one performance, with a minimum of two women on stage. While there is no dialogue, each performer definitely inhabits a character with their own dramatic arc.
“One guy, he’s the comedian and his name is Mozzie because he’s like the mosquito bugging everyone on stage,” Overton says. “Then there is a guy we call Sarge because he’s kind of in charge, holding it down for all of us.
“Of the two girls, one of them is Cornish, that’s the character I do most often. She’s comedic like Mozzie, she’s just there to have fun.”
While life on tour can be grueling, Overton gets some help sharing the burdens of the road thanks to traveling with her girlfriend, Zahna Johnson, who is also a cast member. It took a while for their paths to sync up, though.
“For the first few years of our “Stomp” journey, we were always on different tours,” she says. “There was four months [when I was on the international tour] where we were always eight hours apart, which was really hard.
“Now that we’re on the North American tour together, it’s kind of like the honeymoon phase all over again. Touring can be mentally and physically exhausting at times, but then when you’re on stage together, it’s just magical being able to perform with the person you’re the closest to.”
Overton remains as excited about “Stomp” as she was 15 years ago when she first watched it on video: “Almost every time I’m on stage, I have one of those lightbulb moments where I go, ‘Oh my goodness, this is my job!’”
“Stomp” appears at the Carpenter Theatre in the Dominion Energy Center, 600 East Grace St., on March 28 and 29. Tickets and information available at https://www.broadwayinrichmond.com/.
