Sponsorship

Jennifer Pacenza

Jennifer Pacenza

A former scholar in Renaissance literature and drama, Jennifer Pacenza has had an enduring love for all types of theater and performance. After coming from Texas to Bloomington in 2009, she was inspired by the wealth of performance talent, organizations, and venues found here. She has been writing about theater for the Limestone Post since January of 2017. When not immersed in the world of theater and performance, Jennifer works in communications at Indiana University and enjoys reading comic books, painting miniatures, and playing fantasy RPGs with her husband and son.

Posts by this contributor 17 results
Just as theater teaches us about ourselves and about the world we live in, local youth theater programs help students (of all ages) learn literacy, creativity, self-determination, critical-thinking skills, and empathy, writes Jennifer Pacenza. | Photo courtesy of Cardinal Stage Company

Behind the Curtain: The Ways the Stage Teaches
Jennifer Pacenza
Just as theater teaches us about ourselves and about the world we live in, local youth theater programs help students (of all ages) learn literacy, creativity, self-determination, critical-thinking skills, and empathy, writes Jennifer Pacenza. In her latest column for Limestone Post, she looks at how theater does much more than just entertain. Click here to read the full story.
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‘The Goat, or Who is Sylvia?’ is “a difficult play for both directors and actors,” writes LP’s performance columnist Jennifer Pacenza. But IU’s production of this Tony Award-winning play by Edward Albee is also “emotional but liberating,” one that will give audiences “a flurry of emotions — love, betrayal, disgust, pity, and delight.” In the play, a secret tears apart Martin Gray (played by Jay Hemphill, on couch) and his wife, Stevie (Glynnis Kunkel-Ruiz), and son, Billy (Josh Hogan) — “a perfect American family.” | Courtesy photo

Behind the Curtain: IU’s ‘The Goat’ Built On Vulnerability and Trust
Jennifer Pacenza
‘The Goat, or Who is Sylvia?’ is “a difficult play for both directors and actors,” writes LP’s performance columnist Jennifer Pacenza. But IU’s production of this Tony Award-winning play by Edward Albee is also “emotional but liberating,” one that will give audiences “a flurry of emotions — love, betrayal, disgust, pity, and delight.” Click here to read the full story.
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Marc Summers, host of the gameshow 'Double Dare,' is back in town for the screening of the documentary 'On Your Marc' at IU Cinema. Writer Jennifer Pacenza talked to Summers and BPP’s Chad Rabinovitz about “Summers’s deeply personal story” and the 2016 BPP play, 'Everything In Its Place' (pictured here), during which much of the documentary was filmed. | Courtesy photo

Behind the Curtain: New Film on ‘Life and Slimes’ of Gameshow Host Marc Summers
Jennifer Pacenza
Marc Summers, host of the gameshow Double Dare, is back in town for the screening of the documentary On Your Marc at IU Cinema. Writer Jennifer Pacenza talked to Summers and BPP’s Chad Rabinovitz about “Summers’s deeply personal story” and the 2016 BPP play, Everything In Its Place, during which much of the documentary was filmed. Click here to read the full story.
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Writer Jennifer Pacenza, pictured far right at a Bollywood dance class, spoke with experts who say a body-positive fitness model is more important for achieving physical and mental well-being than exercise regimens promoted by fitness and weight-loss industries. Pacenza says it's important to find a way that you love to move your body. | Limestone Post

Honoring the Body with Body-Positive Fitness
Jennifer Pacenza
While many people use exercise regimens hoping to achieve impossibly thin, sculpted bodies promoted by “diet culture,” few people are physically or even genetically capable of achieving such results, says writer Jennifer Pacenza. Experts she talks to say a body-positive fitness model is more important for achieving physical and mental well-being. Click here to read the full story.
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Abby Lee, who plays Sarah Whitmore, during rehearsal for Jewish Theatre of Bloomington's "Church and State." | Photo by Chaz Mottinger

Behind the Curtain: Jewish Theatre of Bloomington’s ‘Church & State’
Jennifer Pacenza, Chaz Mottinger
Politics, like theater, relies on the relationship between the stage and the audience, writes LP columnist Jennifer Pacenza in her Behind the Curtain preview of Church & State. The latest production of Jewish Theatre of Bloomington puts this relationship center stage in a “funny and heartrending play with a powerful message about God, guns, and politics.” Click here to read the full story.
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Director Jonathan Michaelson, second from left, chats with (l-r) Nina Donville (Jasmine), Talia Santia (multiple characters), and Longfei Zhao (Maurice) during a rehearsal of "Nice Nails." | Photo by Chaz Mottinger

Behind the Curtain: ‘Nice Nails,’ A Play That Cuts to the Quick
Jennifer Pacenza, Chaz Mottinger
Social issues are rarely black and white, as revealed in Nice Nails, a play by Aaron Ricciardi, presented by IU’s theatre department. LP columnist Jennifer Pacenza looks Behind the Curtain at the circumstances in which a Korean family, a South African immigrant, and a trans man are entangled in labor-law violations in Long Island nail salons. Click here to read the full story.
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Tenor Simon Kyung Lee and soprano and founder of ÒperaMaya Mary Grogan sing a duet during the ÒperaMaya summer music festival. | Courtesy photo

Behind the Curtain: Maya and Hoosiers Share Culture Through Opera
Jennifer Pacenza
Mary Grogan, creator and director of ÓperaMaya, is introducing Bloomington to the Maya culture — and introducing opera to the Maya in Mexico. ÓperaMaya tours, festival-like, all over the Yucatan Peninsula, where few have experienced the art form. Writer Jennifer Pacenza talks to Grogan about what this means for Bloomington and the Maya. Click here to read the full story.
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Image courtesy of Natasha Komoda at Femmeography

A New Year’s Resolution: Living Body Positive
Jennifer Pacenza
“Body positivity” is a philosophy, a movement, and, perhaps most of all, a commitment to how one looks at their body. Looking ahead to 2018, writer Jennifer Pacenza considered past resolutions, which ultimately made her feel worse about herself. But with the help of others in Bloomington, she has resolved to be more body positive. Click here to read the full story.
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Friends Emily Bedwell, left, and Sarah Ruggles play Florence and Olive in the Monroe County Civic Theater production of "The Odd Couple (Female Version)" this weekend at The Waldron. | Limestone Post

Behind the Curtain: Friends Play Female ‘Odd Couple’ in New MCCT Production
Jennifer Pacenza
Longtime friends Sarah Mae Ruggles and Emily Bedwell have acted in the Monroe County Civic Theater for years, and now they play opposites in Neil Simon’s The Odd Couple (Female Version). Jen Pacenza looks Behind the Curtain at Olive and Florence in this hilarious performance playing at The Waldron this weekend. Click here to read the full story.
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The graceful and mesmerizing aerial acrobats of AsaBela WINGS Aerial Academy will perform in both the matinée and evening Va-Va-Va-Vaudeville shows. | Photo by Chris Rall

Behind the Curtain: Va-Va-Va-Vaudeville
Jennifer Pacenza
It’s a juggernaut! It’s a celebration of Bloomington’s amazing talent! It’s an extravagant array of performers — jugglers, dancers, comedians, aerial acrobats, burlesque performers, musicians, and even clever canines! It’s Va-Va-Va-Vaudeville! Jennifer Pacenza takes you Behind the Curtain of this variety show playing this weekend at the Buskirk-Chumley Theater. Click here to read the full story.
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Bella Bravo's 100-percent-local theater production of their play "As Bad As They," about opioid addiction, will be showing Friday, June 30, at The Blockhouse. | Photo by eric molina from New York City, United States [CC BY 2.0], via Wikimedia Commons

Behind the Curtain: ‘As Bad As They’ [a play]
Jennifer Pacenza
Bella Bravo’s play As Bad As They explores the darkness of opioid addiction and the impulse of nonaddicts, especially loved ones, to exert a new form of control over the addict. And it’s a comedy. In her column, Behind the Curtain, Jennifer Pacenza calls this timely play “local theater as a form of activism.” Click here to read the full story.
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Kenneth L. Roberson (right), director and choreographer of this summer's "Dames at Sea" production by Indiana University Summer Theatre, instructs during a rehearsal. | Courtesy photo

Behind the Curtain: The Joy of Summer Theater
Jennifer Pacenza
Attending summer theater allows us to truly enjoy the moment, says Jennifer Pacenza in her Limestone Post column, Behind the Curtain. And local theater lovers have many shows to choose from in the next few months. In this preview of the IU Summer Theatre season, Jennifer says the lineup promises some “lasting summer memories.” Click here to read the full story.
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