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Friday, October 3, 2008

Holly Jensen

At the International Women's Playwriting Festival, Holly Jensen's play "Lizzy Izzy" tackles issue of violence towards women.


"Holly Jensen has been a writer most all her life, penning poems and short stories. A few years ago she began dabbling in playwriting, taking a class at Perishable Theatre with theater founder David Eliet.

Now her first play, written three years ago, Lizzy Izzy, has been picked as one of the three winners in Perishable’s biennial International Women’s Playwriting Festival, which opens today at the Empire Street theater. Jensen’s play, with Eliet directing, will be staged Oct. 9-12.

Lizzy Izzy is in something like its sixth incarnation. It started out as a one-woman monologue, with Isabella, an 18-year-old Portuguese-American girl telling a tale of violence. Now it is a 55-minute drama with a cast of six playing eight roles.

Jensen has written several short 10-minute plays since Lizzy Izzy, a couple of which were produced at a festival and one which appeared on cable television. She is now working on a full-length play about a woman who was laid off from her job and becomes obsessed with exposing online child predators, another subject ripped from the headlines.

Even though she has had some successes in the past couple of years, she was stunned to learn she was picked for the Perishable festival. When Perishable artistic director Vanessa Gilbert called her to tell her she was a winner."

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