Jenny Avery

Artist Bio

Jenny Avery has been a professional actor in Chicago for the past eleven years and has performed at Steppenwolf Theatre, Victory Gardens Theater, Writers Theatre, American Theater Company, The Next Theatre, About Face Theatre, Roadworks Productions and Strawdog Theatre Company, where she has been an ensemble member for the past five years.  She studied at the New Actors Workshop with Mike Nichols, Paul Sills, and George Morrison, training in a variety of techniques, including Spolin games, Linklater, Stanislavsky, Viewpoints, and Meisner.

Educational Philosophy

Avery uses theater games and writing exercises to teach the art of storytelling.  She teaches students to value the stories they read as well as understand the importance of their own stories.

A residency will draw on the discipline of acting and creating new work through theater improvisation games.  We will focus on how one writes for the stage by creating original characters and situations; this may lead us to developing a play or performance based on the students’ experiences or on a historical era they may be studying.  We can also incorporate disciplines of movement and choreography to allow for non-verbal expression.