Meet the Maker: Tori Keenan-Zelt
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Photos: Courtesy of Tori Keenan-Zelt/IF Theatre
Meet Tori Keenan-Zelt, an award-winning playwright whose work blends horror and humor to shine a light on the "dark corners of women's lives that often go unseen."
The inspo: Keenan-Zelt told Axios that her upbringing in an evangelical fundamentalist church has influenced her playwriting process.
- The child of a pastor, she said her involvement in church activities like Christmas pageants fed her passion for imaginative play and dress-up at an early age.
- Her first real playwriting experience came while she was working a middle school teaching job and was tapped to direct musicals.
- The moment that motivated her to go to grad school and make playwriting her career was seeing the audience positively respond to a pirate-themed production she led.
What she's making now: "The JonBenét Game" at the Basile Theatre.
- The play centers on women in a repressed, culturally violent community who use the murder of JonBenét Ramsey to explore themes like beauty, sex and violence within a context of a cautionary tale.
- She said the play also looks at the impact of the true crime genre and how it allows women to face their worst fears.
- The play premiered in Indy on Jan. 9 and doubled as a celebration of IF Theatre's 20th anniversary campaign.
What she's saying: "There aren't any actual mothers and daughters in the play except for Patsy and JonBenét, but it's about mothers and daughters … and how mothers teach daughters to navigate a dangerous world and how that desire to protect can be violent," Keenan-Zelt said.
If you go: "The JonBenét Game" will be presented at the Basile Theatre at IF through Sunday.
- Tickets start at $25.