Featured Artist: Jenny Lane
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
Administrative Director for the League of Professional Theatre Women
Literary Manager for the Astoria Performing Arts Center
Which Queens neighborhood do you live in and for how long?
I live in Astoria, and I’ve been in this apartment for 2 years. But I lived in Long Island City/Astoria for many years before grad school brought me to Harlem, as well. So all told, I think I’ve lived in Queens for about 6 years. I love it here.
How did you get involved in theater?
I was lucky to have parents who loved the theater, and they began taking me to the Broadway shows that toured through Detroit at a very young age. I knew all of the words to Les Miserables before I understood what all of the words meant.
What do you love most about Queens?
I find it so unpretentious and refreshingly family-oriented, with a vibrant and committed arts community. And also, the food.
Mosaic, for the wine list.
Via Trenta, Brick Cafe and Ovelia for the food.
Sissy McGinty’s, because that’s been our local haunt for about a decade.
Astoria Park, for the pretty.
Club Fitness, for the Zumba.
Right now I have only the beginning of something brand new, and presently untitled. It begins in the mundane rhythm of naturalism and then sort of disintegrates into something dreamier. It’s at once a deeply personal piece, and a response to some frustrating and horrifying current events. I don’t know much about it yet, but I’m super excited to have a place to hear it and get some feedback.
Current/Upcoming projects?
I had an excerpt of a play go up in April in Washington, DC, a short play going up in Seattle in June, and my play Harlowe will be produced in the fall as part of the Alec Baldwin Fellowship at Singers Forum.
