PLAYS
Shackleton, Frank Hurley, & the glass negatives.
"This is the true joy in life, the being used for a purpose recognized by yourself as a mighty one; the being thoroughly worn out before you are thrown on the scrap heap; the being a force of Nature instead of a feverish selfish little clod of ailments and grievances complaining that the world will not devote itself to making you happy."
FROZEN Earnest Shackleton, expedition photographer Frank Hurley and Leigh examine plate glass negatives beside the doomed ship Endurance, swallowed by Antarctic ice.
These words are part of George Bernard Shaw's dedicatory letter to his strange and beautiful (and weird Don Juan in Hell third act-containing) play, Man and Superman. Shaw knew what was up. He was a vegetarian, a writer, hater of laziness, lover of work and words. Shaw joins Mary Zimmerman, Federico Garcia Lorca, John Patrick Shanley, Wendy Wasserstein, Lee Blessing, Terence McNalley and Lorraine Hansberry on Jennifer's list of favorite playwrights who, like Jen, understand that Theatre and books are the best thing in life - because telling stories is the best way we have to help us all feel less alone.
Jen's first love in a life of Storytelling is Theatre. She holds a BA in Acting from San Francisco State University and an MFA in Writing for Theatre from Humboldt State University. She is a two-time Irene Ryan Best Actor Award recipient and a Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival Best Full Length Script honoree for her play, FROZEN. Jen has held positions as literary assistant at San Francisco's Magic Theatre, Dramaturge for Half Moon Bay's Coastal Repertory Theatre, and wrote the script for SHREW, a 1920's Jazz Age musical adaption of The Taming of the Shrew, with her mentor and dad of her heart, Robert Irvin, using his notes and with his voice in her ear.