Featured Artist: Jane Miller
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 and Screenwriter. Copywriter for a non-profit during the day.
Which Queens neighborhood do you live in and for how long?
I live on the Sunnyside/Woodside border and I’ve been here for about nine months. So, I’m a relative newbie. But I love it!
How did you get involved in theater?
When I was 16, I joined a youth theater group on East 4th Street called Downtown Art. I acted in lots of plays and made some great friends, including Laura Pestronk, a Mission to Ditmars member. I loved the community that we all created. Eventually I realized I was too introverted for acting and much too self-conscious, but I loved creating a story. That’s how I ended up becoming a writer.
What do you love most about Queens?
I feel a real sense of perseverance in Queens. As in, people are always working to get ahead in the world and improve their lives, and I really like that energy. When I think about what Queens symbolizes, I always think of John Guare’s play “The House of Blue Leaves,” which is a lot about striving for something in your life. I also believe it takes place in Sunnyside.
Your top Queens picks (food, entertainment, sights, etc)?
The cutest coffee shop in all of Sunnyside/Woodside. They have amazing rainbow cookies and a great chili/beer special. They also have a $15 “wine down” after work special, which is a bottle for just $15, http://www.auberginecafe.com/
Phyzique, http://phyzique4life.com/ – an affordable, neighborhoody gym that makes me laugh because they have a “z” in their name.
Tell us a little about the play you’re developing in the Propulsion Lab?
The play I’m developing is about a young woman who is being cyberstalked. She decides to escape her life by adopting a completely new identity and leaving her friends and family behind. I’m playing around with the idea of having many lives in one life.
