Jenny Kemp – May 20 2018

Schizophrenia Awareness Week – May 20-27 2018

Jenny is Writer and Artistic Director of Black Sequin Productions. Over the last two decades she has created a distinctive body of work with Black Sequin Productions, including Still Angela, The Black Sequin Dress, Remember, The Call of the Wild and Goodnight Sweet Dreams. She has been the recipient of an Australia Council Theatre Fellowship, The Kenneth Myer Medallion for Performing Arts and Greenroom awards for both Direction and her collaborative work in Dance. Jenny has been an Honorary Research Associate at Monash University and frequently conducts workshops throughout Australia in writing. She lectures in Postgraduate Directing at the Victorian College of the Arts and Music. Jenny has also worked as a freelance director at Malthouse Theatre, Playbox, MTC, STSA, Performance Space, Belvoir Street, The Mill, The APG and the VCA.

Madeleine
Australian Script Centre, 2010
80 minutes, 3 female, 2 male;
Cast age: 16 to 18, 18+; Audience age: Young adult, adult
Maddy is turning 19 and her sister returns to the family home for the birthday. She finds Maddy very changed. Her world is becoming increasingly bizarre as psychic forces beyond her control take hold. She is showing signs of schizophrenia. The family begins to split apart as each tries to deal with the situation in radically different ways. Desperate to obey the demands of her inner voices, Maddy proceeds regardless, dragging the whole family towards a tragic outcome.

Kitten
Australian Script Centre, 2008
90 minutes, 3 female, 1 male
Cast age: 16 to 18, 18+; Audience age: Young adult, adult
A bi-polar soap opera / concert. Kitten’s husband Jonah has committed suicide and she is overwhelmed with grief and guilt, swinging from depression to mania as she pieces together Jonah’s research on intelligence in the animal kingdom. Inspired by what she discovers she devises a bizarre plan to make a come-back as a singer in order to rescue Jonah. As Manfred her lover watches over her unable to help, her excitement builds to mania, until she finally collapses. Once again Kitten is reduced to nothing. And from her hospital bed, Kitten very slowly begins to discover a new voice. She begins to sing….