Backstage Spotlight: Junie B. Jones in BOO…and I Mean It!

Meet playwright Allison Gregory and get your tickets for this kid-friendly Halloween show running October 5-27.

What inspired you to become a theater maker and playwright?

I had been a dancer, and then an actor. I would act in new plays and get to know the playwrights, and as we talked about making choices as an actor,  I became interested in writing the stories rather than simply interpreting them.   

What kind of education or experience prepared you for this career?

I started as a dancer in high school and then studied dance in college. One summer I was working in professional ‘summer stock’ doing musicals, and eventually I got cast as an actor with lines to speak! Soon I started writing plays. There’s no blueprint for this business; you have to make your own path. For me, I bring my dance/acting sensibility along with life experience to all my plays.  

What school subjects that our students may be studying do you use everyday?

Spelling(!), any language-learning, reading, history, math, geography, photography, cooking… You can use anything and everything to  make a play — the more you learn the more you have to use in your story.

You have written a few Junie B. Jones plays, what keeps you coming back to this character?

I just love this character and the world Barbara Park (the late, beloved author) created. It is so joyful and funny and clever. I love Junie B.’s ‘voice’; she speaks like children think, which is not always perfect, but there’s so much truth in what she says. 

Can you describe your process as a playwright? How do you go from an idea to a script?

It’s different for every play, depending on if it’s an original story I’m making up or, like Junie B.: Boo…And I Mean it, an adaptation of existing material. If I’m working on Junie B. I try to imagine how that character feels, what they think about, why they do what they do, and what keeps them from making better choices. If I have a sense of what the character needs, it helps me figure out the story.

This production of Junie B. Jones BOO…and I Mean It is the world premiere! Can you describe what it is like to see your words take life on stage for the first time? 

 I forget that I’ve written any of it while I’m watching those wonderful actors on stage. They’ve made the characters and the dialogue their own, and I’m as surprised and delighted as anyone in the audience seeing the show for the first time.   

Junie B. Jones thinks Halloween is too scary. When you are feeling scared or nervous, what is something you do to make yourself feel more brave? 

I think about goldfish. They swim around their bowls in endless circles, yet they’re perfectly content; that’s because they don’t remember anything that happened even ten seconds before. So when I get nervous or scared, I say ‘goldfish’ to myself, to keep calm and content in the moment. 

Junie B. is accused of being ‘ a sore loser. Have you ever lost a game and been upset about it? How did you help yourself feel better? 

All the time! I just try to replay the game in my head with a better ending.                                          

What are three words you would use to describe this production? 

Fun. Friends. Fruitcake. You need to see the show to see how it all plays out onstage.