Jenny with a Fringe on Top

With the 2015 Melbourne Fringe Festival upon us, there are too many choices for us to see all on offer…Coral Drouyn talks to Tegan Jones about the rising independent theatre company Boutique and their new play The Intelligent Design of Jenny Chow.

I love independent theatre. I love the tiny budgets and lack of funding (though I’m sympathetic to both) which lead new companies to be innovative and imaginative, and I love their passion and commitment. Some of my most memorable nights of theatre have been spent with independent companies, and they renew my faith in theatre every time. Boutique is a relatively new theatre company making a big splash in the Melbourne scene. With an agenda to present international plays that haven’t been seen here before, and to ALWAYS be entertaining, they burst onto the scene only three years ago, and have been garnering fans ever since. The company is the creative love child of actress/vocalist Tegan Jones (Company Manager), Actress/Director Emma Caldwell (Co-Artistic Director) and Director/Composer and theatre critic Byron Bache (Co-artistic Director). They are the heart and soul of Boutique, along with resident designer Nick Casey.

Their new production opens this Friday (18^th Sept.). This time it’s Rolin Jones offbeat play The Intelligent Design of Jenny Chow. The play itself was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize and Jones himself is a highly sought after television writer. The story is of Jennifer Marcus, a half Chinese adopted genius with OCD and Agoraphobia who, confined to her room, builds a robot duplicate of herself – Jenny Chow – to travel the world looking for her biological parents. While there’s more than a touch of “Shaggy Dog” in the story, Tegan wasn’t a “done deal” in the casting.

“When we decided on the play, we planned to audition to find our Jennifer, then Byron and Emma started muttering with their heads together and they said ‘we want you to read for this – we think you’d be great.’ I had to think about it because I am a part of the company – but then Emma has played the lead in one of our shows, and that is all part of being an ensemble company.”

Not that Tegan is any stranger to performing; she’s been doing it since she was 2 years old. An exotic beauty of mixed heritage, Tegan gets mistaken for Hawaiian, Filipino, South American, Asian.

“Initially it annoyed me,” she says/ “I thought ‘why do I have to be someone or something else because I’m ethnic looking – why can’t I just be me.’ But I’ve come to realise that it’s an added advantage, especially internationally. There’s a whole world of nationalities that have opened up to me – roles I might not have been considered for but for the fact that no-one is entirely sure where I’m from. So now, I’m really glad and I think it gives me an edge.”

Tegan started life as a singer and Music Theatre is a great love for her. She has created a number of Musical Cabarets – one honouring Ella Fitzgerald (she loves the music and works with her jazz trio) and another with the music of Eva Cassidy, but acting is rapidly over-taking singing as her major love.

“When I’m acting, I really miss singing – and when I’m singing I want to be acting. Well I guess singing is still acting, but I mean without music. I studied the Meisner Technique of acting and it really was a revelation to me,” she tells me.

Recently Tegan had a chance to study the technique in New York. “It changed my life completely. Being able to take classes with so many brilliant talents, and classes that concentrate entirely on the actor. And then, in between classes, being able to swap ideas with all these American actors, and see dozens of Broadway shows.” Her excitement is obvious as she speaks. “It was pure magic. This is my first role since I got back. Jennifer is such an interesting, driven character, yet, even though she knows she’s loved, she still feels a sense of alienation, of not belonging – and needing to find out who she is.”

And what about the play itself? “It’s very funny, but also poignant and wistful and has a lot to say. I only hope the audiences love it like I do.”

We’ll be able to see for ourselves when The Intelligent Design of Jenny Chow Previews at Brunswick Art Space on Sept 17^th and then plays till Oct 3^rd.