Review Fix chats with playwright Sean Jenny about his newest production “Look Alive, Starshine†currently running at this year’s Midtown International Theatre Festival in New York City. Jenny also discusses his creative process, his excitement at producing his own work and what he hopes people get out of the production.
Review Fix: What was the inspiration for this production?
Sean Jenny: Volatile relationships, clinical depression, and the allegory of the cave.
Review Fix: What’s your creative process like?
Jenny: Much of this play was originally written as a poem, inspired by passages and paragraphs I wrote using the Elinor Fuchs world building technique.
Review Fix: What makes you different from other playwrights?
Jenny: Missing information makes you pay attention. I enjoy throwing an audience into a fully realized world where they cannot expect to have their hands held.
Review Fix: If this what you always wanted to do?
Jenny: Producing my own original work? Yes indeed!
Review Fix: What makes this production special?
Jenny: This is a piece which I have been developing for a year now. Its final product is a happy surprise.
Review Fix: How is your cast unique?
Jenny: My cast has a naturalistic energy but are still unafraid of the theatrical. They are inspired theatre artists who are entirely collaborative and unselfish.
Review Fix: What did you learn about yourself through this process?
Jenny: That you need to be willing to hear people. The show can adapt, and adaptation can be necessary so long as the message is intact.
Review Fix: How does it feel to be a part of this festival?
Jenny: Having worked in the festival as an actor in Beautiful Dreamer by Samantha Connolly last year, I look forward to working behind the scenes as a director/playwright.
Review Fix: What are your goals for the production?
Jenny: To tell a story which is intimate, personal, and haunting.
Review Fix: Who do you think will enjoy it the most?
Jenny: Anyone who has ever spent too much time trapped inside.
Review Fix: What’s next?
Jenny: Developing new work with The New Group, Theatre Plastique, and Untitled Theatre Performance Collective. Further learning and gallivanting around Brooklyn!
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