Award-winning actor brings talents to Bath House

By Shari Goldstein Stern

Congratulations to Jennifer Kuenzer on her recent honor of receiving the Dallas/Ft. Worth Critics Forum Award for her performance as Catherine Givings in “In the Next Room, or The Vibrator Play,” with Imprint Productions. Kuenzer exemplifies Dallas’ wealth of talent in live theater. 

Next month, the actor will appear with Susan Sargeant, WingSpan Theatre Company’s artistic director in WingSpan’s “Two by Beckett,” which includes two, one-woman plays, “Footfalls” and “Not I” at the Bath House Cultural Center. 

Kuenzer has extensive credits in film, television, theater and directing, along with storytelling, juggling, stage combat, basic dance/movement and painting. Her performances include film, a web serial and commercial spots for Denny’s and Dick’s Sporting Goods. On stage, the actor has performed at Second Thought, WaterTower, Brick Road Theatres, Uptown Players, and other companies and venues. Some of her favorite roles have been Desiree in Theatre Three’s “A Little Night Music,” Belinda in Contemporary Theatre of Dallas’ “Noises Off,” and Babe in Lyric Stage’s “Pajama Game.” In another favorite, Kuenzer was part of a hard-working group of Dallas actors who have taken their work across the country. Theatre Too’s endearing “Self Injurious Behavior,” in which she portrayed Sage, was one of her favorite roles. 

Her performance in Dallas actor and playwright Jessica Cavanaugh’s autobiographical “Self Injurious Behavior” was brilliant. While that show’s run at Theatre Too was the first fully staged workshop, in May the cast of “Self Injurious Behavior” performed for a month-long, Equity showcase in New York. The public performance was primarily for potential investors. Ticket sales were donated to the nonprofit Off-Broadway in New York. Now the show is having a successful, world-premiere production in Los Angeles through the end of the month.

The actor said: “[In Jessica’s play], I got to work with amazing artists for three years as it went through readings and workshops and beyond. It will always and forever be a treasured experience.

Now the actor is in rehearsal for WingSpan Theatre Company’s “Two by Beckett” at the Bath House Cultural Center. According to Sargeant, “The name Samuel Beckett transcends mere ideas or theatrical schools; it stands for a cosmic and comic vision of pessimism and passion, despair and destiny, wanting and waiting.” Sargent continued, “Samuel Beckett’s often bleak writings about alienation, death and language made him one of the 20th Century’s most influential playwrights.”

Sargeant added, “Kuenzer is loaded with talent, has a high level of craft, and is wonderful to collaborate with in the rehearsal process. Jennifer is just an all-round gem of a human being.” 

According to Kuenzer: “These two, one-woman plays work well together because of the time they were written, both near the end of Beckett’s career, both minimalist, and he wrote them for his muse, the actor Billie Whitelaw. Their tone is complimentary. The language used, some of the phrases in the plays themselves are the same.” She added, “They are short, he was a minimalist by this point, but very deep. They are dark, darkly funny, and a little unnerving. I love them.”

Kuenzer portrays May and Voice in “Footfalls.” Sargeant plays Mouth in “Not I.” Sargeant directs “Two by Beckett.” The production is designed by Nick Brethauer, Christopher M. Ham is lighting designer and Barbara C. Cox is costume designer. Lowell Sargeant does sound, image design and photography.

The show runs Oct. 4-19 at The Bath House Cultural Center, 521 E. Lawther Dr. in Dallas. For reservations, visit wingspantheatre.com or call 214-675-6573.