1973 JENNIFER WELLS

After graduating from Point Park College, Jennifer received a graduate assistantship and earned an M.A. in Theater Arts at Ball State University. She came back to Pittsburgh and was hired by David Novich to act and tour with the Knickerty Knockerty Players, which she did for a year and then left for New York City. There, Jennifer pursued acting and landed small parts in daytime television: As The World Turns and Ryan’s Hope. She began writing by creating a play with Michael Oakes (who later became her husband), which they performed at the Westbeth Center in New York City. This play was a finalist for the Eugene O’Neill Play Festival. From then on she devoted herself to writing. She and Michael’s plays focused on Western Pennsylvania and dealt the changes the people there were facing due to the closing down of the Steel Industry.

They were offered a MacDowell Colony Fellowship to write a piece that became their first screenplay. The screenplay, DRIVE ALL NIGHT, concerns a man’s fight against foreclosure armed only with his trust in love and the gaming tables of Atlantic City. DRIVE ALL NIGHT received the NY Foundation for the Arts grant for screenwriting.

During this same time Jennifer worked for Paramount Pictures in the Film Acquisition Department. While continuing her collaboration with Michael, Jennifer also began writing with Judith Martin, Artistic Director of The Paper Bag Players. Judith and Jennifer wrote 10 plays together that have been performed throughout the country. Jennifer also collaborated on 2 musicals with Mark Bramble (42nd Street & Barnum); one was commissioned by David Merrick. Jennifer along with Michael began the Drama Workshop for NYC teenagers at the Greenwich Village Youth Council. A few of the plays that they wrote for the teens have been published by Samuel French and have been performed throughout the United States and Canada. From there Jennifer was offered a job as a College Advisor in a small progressive public school on the Lower East Side of Manhattan. As a College Advisor Jennifer gets to write about the amazing lives of the students she works with.

Jennifer was blessed with her daughter Amelia Whitney, who graduated from Union College in Schenectady last year. She studied dance and performed throughout high school and college. Amelia is currently working with Kema a company that consults on green energy.

I send my love and wish I could be there. My Playhouse years are such an important part of who I am...I don’t think a day goes by that I don’t think about the incredible experience I had in that wonderful building.....and the amazing classmates I had.