Two Henrys

Artistic Staff Bios

KENNETH JONES (Playwright) is a playwright, librettist and lyricist. His play Alabama Story, a 2014 Finalist in the O’Neill National Playwrights Conference, had its world premiere by Pioneer Theatre Company in January 2015 following development in Pioneer’s 2014 Play-By-Play Series and at Alabama Shakespeare Festival (Southern Writers’ Project) and Off-Broadway’s TACT/The Actors Company Theatre (NewTACTics). In 2016, Alabama Story will be seen in three new productions by Florida Studio Theatre in Sarasota, Peninsula Players Theatre in Wisconsin and Wellfleet Harbor Actors Theater on Cape Cod. An earlier draft of his play Two Henrys was a Semi-Finalist in the O’Neill NPC in 2015 and, in its current PTC Play-By-Play version, was just named a 2016 O’Neill NPC Semi-Finalist. With Karen Azenberg, he co-conceived Pioneer’s 2015 holiday musical It Happened One Christmas. His darkly comic Christmas revue Naughty/Nice (with composer Gerald Stockstill) is published by stagerights.com. His musical Voice of the City (with composer Elaine Chelton) enjoyed readings by York Theatre Company in NYC and Human Race Theatre Company in Ohio. He writes about his own work and advocates for other playwrights, new plays and theatre makers at his website ByKennethJones.com.

KAREN AZENBERG (Director) This marks Karen Azenberg’s fourth season as Artistic Director at PTC. This season she directed Fiddler on the Roof, The Rocky Horror Show Concert Version and It happened One Christmas. In previous seasons she has directed and/or choreographed The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, The Rocky Horror Show, Alabama Story, The Music Man, Something’s Afoot, A Few Good Men, Sweet Charity, A Christmas Carol –The Musical, Next to Normal (Regional Premiere), Rent, Miss Saigon, and she created the musical staging for the record- breaking 2007 production of Les Misérables. Originally from New York, her work there includes Lyrics and Lyricists (92nd St. Y), Blocks (a collaboration with Jonathan Larson), Prom Queens Unchained, and choreography for Richard Greenberg’s The Dazzle (Roundabout). Other credits include national tours of Carousel and Brigadoon, West Side Story (over 15 productions), and productions at Indiana Rep, Geva, Alabama Shakespeare Festival, Goodspeed, and many others. Karen is on the Board of the New York Musical Theatre Festival and a past President of the Stage Director and Choreographers Society (SDC). Her favorite productions are her son Alexander and her daughter Emelia.