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<\/p>\nAfter 13 years as a TV news investigative reporter, Jenna Jane put on the brakes and re-invented herself. Between 2019 and 2024 she\u2019d been Jenna Bourne at 10 Tampa Bay, who did her hair and makeup every day, dressed nice for the camera and set out to change the world for the better, one story at a time.<\/p>\n
At the same time, the news business was dramatically changing, from the top down. \u201cI had to finally accept that my fantasy of what journalism should be was very far from what it is,\u201d recalls Jane, who has a degree in the field from Northwestern University. \u201cAnd it was going farther in the opposite direction.\u201d<\/p>\n
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During her tenture at WTSP (10 Tampa Bay), Jane produced a documentary-style investigative YouTube series called \u201cWhat\u2019s Brewing.\u201d Screengrab.<\/p>\n
So began Plan B.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen I decided to move on from the TV news industry, I was really looking at, \u2018What am I passionate about? What do I want in this next chapter?\u2019\u201d she says. \u201cAnd what I wanted was creativity and independence.\u201d<\/p>\n
She\u2019d been acting in community theater shows since her little-kid days in Orlando, and continued through Jenna Bourne\u2019s TV reporter gigs around the country. Getting paid acting jobs would be nice.<\/p>\n
Jane installed a professional recording outfit in her home, and hung out a shingle as a voiceover artist. To date, she has narrated dozens of commercials, corporate videos and other projects that put her TV-trained dulcet tones to good use.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s called voice acting for a reason,\u201d Jane explains. \u201cEven in corporate narration, you need to be telling a story. You need to know who you are, who you\u2019re talking to, and why you\u2019re saying each specific thing to them. And that\u2019s acting.\u201d<\/p>\n
She also took up playwriting. A staged reading of her newest work, the vampire comedy Fangs, will take place Tuesday, Oct. 20 at the Beach Theatre.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t know that I\u2019m allowed to say this as the writer, but it\u2019s hilarious,\u201d Jane laughs. \u201cIt\u2019s a farce. But often, farces are written by men and suffer from the trope of, women have jokes made about them, they\u2019re not the ones making the jokes. They\u2019re the ones whose clothes are falling off.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is a feminist farce and you won\u2019t miss that stuff. Turns out, women can be extremely funny while fully clothed.\u201d<\/p>\n
Fangs is about a guy, Steve, who\u2019s engaged to Nora, who happens to be a vampire. But before you can say Darren and Samantha, the plot opens up to another plane. Steve has to meet the family, and they\u2019re \u2026 odd, but not in a \u201860s sitcom kind of way.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a matriarchal society, so only female vampires can create more vampires. The male vampires still bite, they drink blood, but they can\u2019t turn people. Only the females can.\u201d<\/p>\n
Nora\u2019s \u201clife choices\u201d cause an uproar in the family \u2013 her desire to marry a mortal man is only part of the uneasy equation.<\/p>\n
Jane is dedicated to turning the theatrical tables, giving women strength and the upper hand, at every opportunity.<\/p>\n
Since the beginning of this new adventure, that\u2019s been a guiding principle for everything she creates. Even as an actor.<\/p>\n
\u201cI had made a pledge to myself that I was no longer going to do any roles that involved perpetuating stereotypes or my clothes coming off,\u201d she says. \u201cAnd you\u2019d be amazed how fewer parts I was doing \u2013 I couldn\u2019t even audition. I\u2019d look at the available roles and go, \u2018Well, I can\u2019t do those.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
Her recent onstage roles have all been strong, smart women \u2013 Inez in Sartre\u2019s No Exit at the Off-Central, Lucius in the all-female Julius Caesar at The Studio@620 and, most recently, the inventor of the first home pregnancy test in Predictor, from Powerstories Theatre.<\/p>\n
She admits to writing constantly and compulsively. Several of her short plays have been produced around the country; one will be onstage soon in Seoul, South Korea.<\/p>\n
Fangs is a full-length play; the director is Ivy Sunflower, who directed an earlier staged reading of Jane\u2019s Bionic, another full-length effort.<\/p>\n
Last February, American Stage produced a staged reading of Fangs at Green Light Cinema.<\/p>\n
Oct. 20 at the Beach Theatre, Fangs bites a second time. \u201cI did a major structural re-write after the February reading,\u201d Jane explains, \u201cand this is going to be my first time hearing that major re-write out loud. And I imagine there will be more re-writes after this.<\/p>\n
\u201cI have made countless changes because of feedback from audiences after staged readings. It\u2019s really important to me.\u201d<\/p>\n
All signs indicate that Jenna Jane\u2019s transformation to actor, voiceover artist and playwright is a success. Bourne again, as it were.<\/p>\n
\u201cYour whole life, you grow up being told you can\u2019t make money as an artist,\u201d she says. \u201cI have found ways to do it, but it does require being very organized, very on top of your contracts, and submissions and auditions. I have business plans for all three sectors of my business.\u201d<\/p>\n