Meet Finalist Jen Huszcza

Don’t miss Jen’s play, Flowers, in our Planting the Seed Festival in Prescott, Jan 2nd and 3rd!
Tickets available HERE.
Bookmark our Blog or follow us on Facebook!

Jen Huszcza is one of three 2014 Finalists whose work has been featured in all three ONSTAGE Project festivals!  We’re obviously big fans of her her sparse dialogue and clean writing style.

In the Dirty Laundry Festival, her play Rinse told the story of a water-torture victim and his assailant on the verge of religious epiphany.  For From the Mouths of Babes, Jen wrote POP, a brilliant satire on the economy featuring banker-babies playing with balloons. This year, Jen sent us Flowers – a wonderfully understated little piece featuring three men sitting on a porch, drinking beer and talking about failed romance and potted plants.

We love this playwright, and can’t wait to share her piece in this year’s festival!

LBDI:  Why did you decide to submit your work to the ONSTAGE Project?

Jen: The Planting the Seed theme inspired me. There are many possibilities from a seed.

LBDI: Describe your writing space…

Jen: I don’t have one specific writing space. I have many different spaces. I like to write in motion.

LBDI:  If you could be any cartoon character for just 24 hours, who would you be?

Jen: I can’t picture myself in animated terms. If I could be any fictional character for 24 hours, it would be Yoda. I would use that time to rearrange my furniture.

LBDI:  What was your first play titled/about?

Jen: My first plays was called Viper. It was about the ruler of the universe who falls for the wrong girl.

LBDI:  Which playwrights do you admire and what about them inspires you?

Jen: Playwrights I admire: Beckett, Gombrowicz, Shepard, Churchill, Fornes, Foreman

LBDI: Why do you write for theatre?  (as opposed to other written media…)

Jen: I don’t write for theatre. Theatre can crumble into ash as far as I’m concerned. I do write in other forms, but I write plays because I enjoy it. There’s also usually an idea in there somewhere too.

LBDI:  What is your spirit animal?

Jen: Sorry, I don’t have a spirit animal. The human animal is hard enough.

LBDI:  Paper or Plastic?

Jen: Paper. It won’t last a thousand years and is good for writing on.

Jen Huszcza is a playwright currently based in Los Angeles.  She has a BFA in Dramatic Writing and an MFA in Musical Theatre Writing from NYU.  After many years in New York, she moved to Los Angeles for better weather and more trees.  In Los Angeles, four of her plays have been presented as staged readings in the Monday Night Living Room Series at The Blank Theatre in Hollywood.  She wrote and acted in Gunfighter Nation’s collectively written piece, LA History Project: Pio Pico, Sam Yorty, and the Secret Procession of Los Angeles, presented at the Lost Studio last year.  She is a member of the Playwrights and Directors Lab at the Actors Studio West.  She blogs for the Los Angeles Female Playwrights Initiative. In addition to plays, she has written ad copy, film reviews, blogs, bad poetry, screenplays, an unpublished epic novel, and several short stories.  Jen’s plays Rinse and POP! were performed in Little Black Dress INK’s first two festivals.

The Planting the Seed Festival runs this week for 3 performances only
at the First Congregational Church Theater in Prescott.
Showtimes – Jan 2nd @ 7:30, and  Jan 3rd @ 2:30 & 7:30.
Tickets just $14 online or at the door!