Tomorrow, Suze Allen welcomes playwright Janet Kenney to share a few passages from her forthcoming memoir, What Else But Grace. If you read this blog or are an RT Inner Circle member, you know that on the first Sunday of each month at 4PM EST/1PM PCT you can find me tuning in to soak in the good work as a regular audience member and parishioner at Suze Allen's Memoir Church.
We Go Way Back... 3 Decades!
Janet Kenney happens to be one of my oldest friends.
We sort of heard of each other before we ever met. The first workshop of my solo show, A Better Boy was presented at the Boston Center for the Arts on a dark night on the set of Janet's play, Lucy's Attire. So I felt even though we had not yet met that her spirit was somehow holding me and my tough little play. As it happened, a few years later I would choose to adapt A Better Boy into my first feature film, All the Rage which we shot in Boston in about 20 different locations tapping into the deep reservoir of performer talent for a film with 40 speaking roles.
So long before we both showed up for the first meeting of a writers group we helped found we'd heard of each other but never met.
She Lived Up to All the Hype
I looked up to her as a big shot among Boston playwrights and if I'm to believe her version of events, she was intimidated by me and my fancy feature filmmaking (sic). It didn't take very long for the seeds of an enduring loving friendship to take root. Week after week in that writers group above a Burger King I found myself delighted by the pages she brought in.
And I think she may have liked some of my pages too.
Truth Teller
I would say that Janet Kenney is certainly one of my favorite playwrights for a simple reason.
She writes characters she loves and wants to understand and so she tells the truth. Her ego doesn't get in the way of her characters. There's always something at the heart of her writing that needs to get out and it has nothing to do with a writer's ego and everything to do with her awe and wonder at the human condition.
A New Monologue at the April Some1Speaking
On April 3rd, Janet will be performing a new monologue she created in my most recent Advanced Monologue Workshop just a couple months ago. Like most of Janet's work, the piece invites us to take a look at a character we might be tempted to overlook, assuming (incorrectly of course) that we see everything there is to know about her at first glance. And oh how wrong we'd be! I've read and/or heard some version of the piece about a half dozen times and each time I discover something new and surprising.
A couple years ago as I was wrapping up another session of my 6-month RT Online Writers Workshop, Janet was one of the workshop members who responded to my request for a video testimonial. And what she sent in tickles me still.
Barbara Kessler will be our Special Musical Guest at April Some1Speaking
I first heard Barbara Kessler's music when she presented a song she co-wrote with Janet for her latest full-length play, Cape Haven. It's not every day that I hear a song that absolutely blows me away for a seamless marriage between words and music. And knowing this play as I do and what Janet needed from that song to support the drama of the story, it was especially exciting to encounter a 100% successful collaboration. (No small feat!)
In case you missed my recent post on bringing singer-songwriters to share one song at the top of our Some1Speaking evenings, here's the link. Some1Speaking introduces us to 5 unforgettable characters through 5 monologues written by 5 master playwrights. My dear neighbor and one of New York City's most sought-after guitarists, singer-songwriter Ann Klein will be bringing her music to the March Some1Speaking which is this Monday. Please join us.
There are two ways to get inside our exclusive Hear Me Out Zoom Black Box. Either buy a $5 ticket or join the RT Inner Circle Patreon for just $3/month. More info (plus ticket purchase) at: hearmeoutmonologues.com/some1speaking