Jahna Ferron-Smith
Hometown: "West Philadelphia, born and raised!" (...until the age of five, and then) Springfield Township, PA
Current Town: Brooklyn, NY!
Q: What are you working on now?
A: Currently working on a couple pieces! One I'm particularly stoked about right now explores running as a recreational/therapeutic activity for Black women and the cultural stigmas surrounding participating in said activity. I'm also working on a play about the youth congregation at a Unitarian Universalist church navigating a chaperoned (but still co-ed! WHOO!) sleepover during the incredibly comprehensive sexual education portion of their Bridging Ceremony. And then there's another play I'm having an equally fantastic time writing, about a woman who slowly turns into a coyote and then eats her boyfriend. They're all comedies!
Q: Tell me, if you will, a story from your childhood that explains who you are as a writer or as a person.
A: I have always loved entertaining people or making people laugh. When (...or, rather, 'since') I was was young, I would devise some sort of bit--be it a song or enacting something I'd just seen on TV--and I would perform it for my family. They would clap and cheer and I would soak it in and keep singing...and singing...and singing. An oft heard phrase during these performances would be my mother gently to passionately encouraging me to "bring it on home!" after I had continued hamming it up through several rounds of my family members' pleading and desperate applause. Fast forward many lengthy episodic re-enactments of Xena: The Warrior Princess later: I studied acting for undergrad and tried my first playwriting course--primarily because to fill a credit. Not only was the professor amazing (huge shout out to Lydia R. Diamond!), but after my first reading, the response from my peers was way more enthusiastic than that of any I'd received after a performance. At the time, having my pages read aloud was the most creatively vulnerable I'd ever let myself be, for which I'd received the most encouraging and empowering response. I was hooked. In a lot of ways, I'm still that little girl obliviously belting Desiree's "You Gotta Be" for any and all who might enjoy it/those who time and again continue to listen.
A: Currently working on a couple pieces! One I'm particularly stoked about right now explores running as a recreational/therapeutic activity for Black women and the cultural stigmas surrounding participating in said activity. I'm also working on a play about the youth congregation at a Unitarian Universalist church navigating a chaperoned (but still co-ed! WHOO!) sleepover during the incredibly comprehensive sexual education portion of their Bridging Ceremony. And then there's another play I'm having an equally fantastic time writing, about a woman who slowly turns into a coyote and then eats her boyfriend. They're all comedies!
Q: Tell me, if you will, a story from your childhood that explains who you are as a writer or as a person.
A: I have always loved entertaining people or making people laugh. When (...or, rather, 'since') I was was young, I would devise some sort of bit--be it a song or enacting something I'd just seen on TV--and I would perform it for my family. They would clap and cheer and I would soak it in and keep singing...and singing...and singing. An oft heard phrase during these performances would be my mother gently to passionately encouraging me to "bring it on home!" after I had continued hamming it up through several rounds of my family members' pleading and desperate applause. Fast forward many lengthy episodic re-enactments of Xena: The Warrior Princess later: I studied acting for undergrad and tried my first playwriting course--primarily because to fill a credit. Not only was the professor amazing (huge shout out to Lydia R. Diamond!), but after my first reading, the response from my peers was way more enthusiastic than that of any I'd received after a performance. At the time, having my pages read aloud was the most creatively vulnerable I'd ever let myself be, for which I'd received the most encouraging and empowering response. I was hooked. In a lot of ways, I'm still that little girl obliviously belting Desiree's "You Gotta Be" for any and all who might enjoy it/those who time and again continue to listen.
Q: What kind of theater excites you?
A: Theatre that invites my active attention in experiencing it. I'm most excited by theatre that feels to me to be the most authentic expression of that playwright's voice at that point--that's what I think makes it come alive for me, regardless of whether or not I "like" that particular piece. I'm excited by theatre where I can feel the playwright/theatre maker's process, but I can't necessarily see it--if that makes any sense. Recently, the plays that have been engaging this perspective tend toward non-linear plot structures--I personally like having to piece it all together, to me that most closely resembles my thought process during moments of self-reflection. Rather than attributing my connection with a piece to an specially salient line, I love walking away from a theatrical event thinking, "that whole experience--that's exactly how I feel!"
Q: What advice do you have for playwrights just starting out?
A: The secret to writing really is that you actually have to write in order for the thing to be written. When you're writing and you get to a point where the subject matters feels tender enough that you want to stop--honor that...and/also, in my experience, when I've decided to include that one super emotionally raw bit in the "finished product", it's been the part of the piece that people resonated with most and helped that bit feel considerably less raw. Each play--no matter the "success" of the last--is an opportunity to start again at square one. It's a marathon, not a sprint--when you have difficulty remembering that on your own, surround yourself with (or seek to!) a community who will remind you every single time.
A: The secret to writing really is that you actually have to write in order for the thing to be written. When you're writing and you get to a point where the subject matters feels tender enough that you want to stop--honor that...and/also, in my experience, when I've decided to include that one super emotionally raw bit in the "finished product", it's been the part of the piece that people resonated with most and helped that bit feel considerably less raw. Each play--no matter the "success" of the last--is an opportunity to start again at square one. It's a marathon, not a sprint--when you have difficulty remembering that on your own, surround yourself with (or seek to!) a community who will remind you every single time.
Q: Plugs, please:
A: My first full-length world premiere--Karaoke at The Golden Sun Convention Center--is happening at the end of October! Directed by Molly Clifford as a part of Two Headed Rep's fifth rep, Karaoke explores the questions '"am I happy?" "what is 'happy'?" and '"how did I learn that?" during a mandatory, intra-company karaoke hour, organized amidst a yet-finalized merger between both companies! Running Oct. 22 - 27, Karaoke is a boozy, office-supply-laden, existential dread-ridden hoot-and-a-half! For tickets and more information, visit https://www.twoheadedrep.com/
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A: My first full-length world premiere--Karaoke at The Golden Sun Convention Center--is happening at the end of October! Directed by Molly Clifford as a part of Two Headed Rep's fifth rep, Karaoke explores the questions '"am I happy?" "what is 'happy'?" and '"how did I learn that?" during a mandatory, intra-company karaoke hour, organized amidst a yet-finalized merger between both companies! Running Oct. 22 - 27, Karaoke is a boozy, office-supply-laden, existential dread-ridden hoot-and-a-half! For tickets and more information, visit https://www.twoheadedrep.com/
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