Featured Artist: Kari Bentley-Quinn

This is a series of posts featuring our artists who are making things happen in and around our great borough of Queens.  Please check back weekly for new posts.

TitleOccupation
Playwright/Founding Member of Mission to (dit)Mars

Which Queens neighborhood do you live in and for how long?
I live right on the Astoria/Woodside border. My zip is Woodside but if I walk one block I’m in Astoria. I’ve lived east of Steinway off 30th avenue for almost 9 (!) years now.

How did you get involved in theater?
My first role was a Munchkin in the Wizard of Oz when I was in 6th grade. The following year, my class went on a school trip to see Les Mis. Blew my little 12 year old mind! I have been doing theater ever since. I was an actor until I was in my 20′s, and then writing took over.

What do you love most about Queens?
Queens is awesome for so many reasons, but I really think one of its biggest strengths is that the people who live here are laid back and not pretentious. You can throw on a pair of jeans and no makeup and head out to a bar with no worries. It’s affordable, safe, and extremely ethnically diverse. What we lack in brownstones we more than make up for in diversity and character. I love it here. I’ve lived in Manhattan and Brooklyn, and Queens is by far my favorite. It’s my home.

Do you have any “only in Queens” moments you’d like to share?
I was standing in line one day at Gian Piero bakery (30th avenue and 45th street, best Italian bakery in Astoria!) and I heard 5 different languages being spoken at the same time. That’s Queens in a nutshell for you.