SPOTLIGHT ON THE ARTIST: Jenny LeDoux
This is your second show at the Playhouse this season. What excites you about returning to Duluth for another project?
Playing Cinderella in the Playhouse’s winter 2024 production was the actualization of a dream I’ve carried with me since I was a little girl, and being able to tell it on the historical NorShor Stage only heightened the magic within that production. As I grew to be a teenager, I became aware of and fell in love with The Light In The Piazza, and had dreams of telling Clara’s story too. Clara is a girl who yearns desperately to know the world around her and find her particular place within that world, and I feel a strong kinship to her. To be able to stand on this unique stage again and breathe life into yet another dream of mine brings tears to my eyes, and the fact that I am doing this in Duluth, a city full of dear friends and family, only sweetens that reality.
How have you approached bringing your character to life?
My main focus has been to make clear along every step of Clara’s journey who the center of her world is. It is the nature of every person to begin life glued to the people who made and raised us, but over time, we have to learn to shift the gravitational pull from them to within ourselves. Clara is the definition of a vibrant, young person full of questions, desires, and needs, and I really believe that traveling to Italy and meeting the people of Florence has awakened many of these things for the first time within her. She feels seen and understood by these people in a way that she never has by her home community of 1950’s Winston-Salem. As she immerses herself in this new world and falls in love with Fabrizio, we begin to see her evolve into a woman who knows her worth and can really claim with confidence those desires and needs that we see her discovering at the beginning of the show. I’m lucky to have a deep connection with my own Mother, and so much of what I am bringing to Clara draws on both that depth and the respect I have for our commitment to loving each other through every stage of our lives.
What do you hope audiences take away from The Light In The Piazza?
Now more than ever we could use a reminder that all love is valid; that love is available to everyone, regardless of what makes them different. The Light In The Piazza reminds us that for every person who sees us as flawed and broken, there is someone who finds our individuality beautiful. This show is also a reminder that love is complex, especially the love between parents and children, and that complexity only grows as children age. I hope audiences of this show go forth into their lives with a renewed sense of respect for the unique nature of love in all of its forms, and to pursue love in their own lives in whatever way feels authentic and right for them.
When did you start performing, and what inspired you to pursue it?
I am so grateful to have a family who values the arts and noticed my love for it at a very young age. My parents Dean and Sarah LeDoux and Grandmother Sally Sneve learned from about the time I could talk that singing was something I loved, and starting at the age of 5, I began taking piano and singing lessons. I was immediately hooked by the lulling melodies and dynamic words of the pieces we began exploring, and I remember feeling throughout elementary school like I had found the clearest way to express the big emotions I had inside. After seeing my dear cousin Caroline Sneve Routley in a performance of West Side Story at her high school in Duluth, I knew telling stories through music was something that would travel with me for the rest of my life, and I became determined to find as many ways to include it as possible. I also credit my parents for introducing me to many different styles of music growing up, which has led to me seeking a multi-faceted career in music and theater covering genres such as rock, pop, classical, and folk.
What has been one of your most memorable experiences as a performer?
Five years ago I tried my hand at writing music, and I have to admit I was terrified. To create my own text and melodies was an artform I had never really explored before, and alongside the creation of that music was the birth of rock band Gently, Gently. In August of 2024 we performed at The Hook and Ladder in Minneapolis to celebrate our 11 track studio vinyl release, and to know that what started as a creative experiment grew to be something so tangible felt like a triumph. That feeling of standing up in front of an audience to sing my own words was so delightfully vulnerable, and I get a particular thrill every time I bring my own words to life through song.
