South High grad finds success in performing arts

When Valley Stream South High School alumna Jenny Weinbloom took her first acting role in district-wide productions as a seventh grader, she aspired to be a theater arts professional. But Weinbloom said she could not have predicted that she would go from playing Storyteller No. 1 in “Once On This Island” to being a member of the marketing team for Drama Desk Award winner, “Sleep No More.”

“I am lucky to be working at all in this economy, luckier still to be working in my field, luckier still to be working on a show I love so deeply, and lucky that that show is receiving the success it deserves,” she said. “I am a pretty happy camper.”

Whether she is performing in, producing or promoting performances Off-Broadway and elsewhere, Weinbloom said she feels fortunate to have gotten her start in the field after receiving a quality arts education in her hometown.

Weinbloom, who graduated from South High in 2006, said she realized she loved the theatre arts when her mother took her to see a Broadway revival of “Showboat” when she was 6 years old. In a few years, she attempted to write and direct her own musical revue called “Our Chorus Line” to be performed by other sixth graders. Although her “really, really bad” play never did see an audience, Weinbloom said this was a formative experience that she would remember when producing performances in college.

Before heading to New York University, Weinbloom became involved in the Valley Stream Central High School District Performing Arts Program when it was established in 2002. The program, which dance teacher Kristin Martine said currently serves more than 140 students district-wide and is housed at Central High School, allowed those like Weinbloom to learn and develop their acting, dancing and musical theater skill sets.

Elizabeth Kott, who worked with Weinbloom when she was in the program and remains in touch, said her former student reminds her of Julie Taymor because of the scope of her knowledge base and creativity. Kott said she hopes that one of thing Weinbloom took away from her time in the Performing Arts Program is a willingness to take chances while working on a production.

“The ability to risk putting a piece of yourself out there, to risk essentially looking like a fool in a room full of your peers is extraordinary, especially in a high school setting,” she said. “I think that as an adult artist, Jenny is certainly taking risks. Even in high school, Jenny’s total commitment to the emotional journey of a character set her apart from her fellow artists.”

Kott said that one risk Weinbloom took after leaving Valley Stream was forming a burlesque troupe at SUNY New Paltz. When she transferred to the Ulster County school after being exposed to New York City’s politically subversive, gender bending neo-burlesque scene, Weinbloom decided that this was an art form she wanted to see more of at her new school.

Alpha Psi Ecdysia, the nation’s first collegiate-sponsored burlesque troupe, was founded by Weinbloom. A group of student performers, with stage names like Gemma Stone, Spartacus Rising, Izebel Vivant and Angelique A’LaMode, continued to perform as a troupe after they graduated. Now named Rhinestone Gorilla Burlesque, the group launched a performance series to be held the second Sunday of every month beginning Oct. 9 at the Triad Theatre on 72nd Street and Broadway.

Weinbloom said her interest in burlesque truly began when Kott and Martine were helping her prepare to sing the “sexy” song “Always True to You in My Fashion” in a production of “Kiss Me Kate” at South High. “It was my first experience embodying a femininity other than my own, which is the core of my burlesque work,” she said. “Burlesque, for me, is female impersonation — the art of the lady drag queen. It’s not what they meant to teach, but it’s what I learned that day.”

The connections Weinbloom made while producing and performing burlesque led her to work on “Sleep No More,” which she described as an immersive theatrical installation based on “Macbeth.” After being cast in a musical by an owner of a New York City burlesque club she met through booking shows for the troupe, he offered her the opportunity to be on the “Sleep No More” marketing team.

Weinbloom’s promotional tasks for the show, housed in the McKittrick Hotel where theater-goers can move from room to room to see different scenes and performances, focus on devising new marketing tactics that have included her creation of the game Gallow Green, a 14-day text adventure puzzle hunt with live events in New York, Boston and London, and players collaborating via Facebook, Twitter and text message.

The production, which has attracted celebrity audience members such as Lou Reed, Justin Timberlake, James Franco and Natalie Portman, is addictive, according to Weinbloom. “Exploring ‘Sleep No More’ fills me with a child-like wonder I’ve experienced nowhere else,” she said. “I have rarely believed in anything so earnestly as I believe in this show, and that makes my job of marketing it incredibly easy. I love getting to know our diehard fans because, needless to say, I relate to them.”

Weinbloom’s passion is what Martine said will keep her working consistently in the theatre arts. “She is everything that we hope students who graduate from the Performing Arts Program can be,” Martine said. “There is work out there, in all aspects of the arts. Jenny has always found a way to involve herself in projects that allow her to express herself and share her talents.”