There are many ways to describe a person like Jimmie Langton

There are many ways to describe a person like Jimmie Langton, but the more I think of him, the more clearly I realize, that the words I would use to describe him are «charismatic» and «passionate». Unfortunately, those words aren’t enough, so a much more detailed description is in order.

Jimmie was a fat, bald man in his late forties who ran a repertory theater, living in a tiny apartment right under its roof, clearly not concerned with such trivial things as comfort and status. His passion laid elsewhere: for the last twenty-five years he lived and breathed theater. He learned everything there was to learn about it and took on any job related to it, starting from the very bottom and building himself from the ground up. Jimmie worked his employees hard, they rehearsed for hours every day, but he himself worked even harder and his passion was clearly infectious. His unremarkable appearance was more than offset by his larger-than-life personality and inherent flamboyance which made him an excellent manager and, ironically, a bad actor.

Although Jimmy exaggerated every gesture and intonation himself, he would suffer absolutely nothing artificial in the performance of his actors. He possessed some innate ability to see people, himself included, as they are. And there is no better example of it than the first meeting between him and Julia.

Jimmie discovered Julia when she was on tour. Her natural talent and timing impressed him greatly and he invited her to lunch where he got down to business immediately. He knew she was good and he also knew that she lacked the experience he could provide. He explained to her his vision of the situation, completely ignoring all the pleasantries and attempts to conduct small talk. He called her a genius and meant it, it wasn’t flattery, just a statement of fact. And in the end he offered her almost half the money she had earned before, and despite this she agreed, knowing that only this insanely driven and charismatic person would be able to teach her how to use her natural gift.