Janet Preus

Janet Preus

Janet Preus is an award-winning journalist, songwriter, creative nonfiction writer and playwright. She’s directed dozens of plays, musicals and light opera and now reviews Twin Cities theater for www.howwastheshow.com.

She founded, produced, directed and sang with a vocal jazz ensemble that helped support A Center for the Arts, Fergus Falls, Minnesota. During that time, she also ran the theater...
Janet Preus is an award-winning journalist, songwriter, creative nonfiction writer and playwright. She’s directed dozens of plays, musicals and light opera and now reviews Twin Cities theater for www.howwastheshow.com.

She founded, produced, directed and sang with a vocal jazz ensemble that helped support A Center for the Arts, Fergus Falls, Minnesota. During that time, she also ran the theater program at the Fergus Falls Community College and taught English, speech and theater classes.

The other half of her work life has been in journalism as an on-air reporter for radio, news editor for a daily newspaper and currently as senior editor for Advanced Textiles Source and Specialty Fabrics Review.

She is an alumni member of the New Tuners Workshop in Chicago, where her show “Ever After” (composer/co-lyricist) was featured in the Stages Festival of New Musicals, and “Snip, Snap, Snute” received a public reading.

She has written for Nashville-based Church Musicals Inc., and spent quite a bit of time in Nashville, honing her skills with some of the best songwriters in the world.

She holds a Master of Liberal Arts degree from Minnesota State University, Moorhead, a Bachelor’s in English from Luther College, Decorah, Iowa, and a speech and theater major from Hamline University in St. Paul. She is the recipient of grants from the Jerome Foundation and the McKnight Foundation.

She is a member of The Minneapolis Writers Workshop, Dramatists Guild of America Inc., the Playwright’s Center, ASCAP and co-founder of the New Musical Theatre Exchange, Minneapolis.

Plays

  • Hank & Jesus by Janet Preus
    Recommendations: 1
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    Cast: 
    8
    ·
    Genre: comedy, drama + 2 more
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    Keyword: songwriting, Jesus + 1 more
    Genre: comedy, drama, faith-based, holiday
    Keyword: songwriting, Jesus, dysfunctional family
    Hank's finally sober and wants nothing but to be a country songwriter, but he's not very good. When a guy named Jesus shows up at his place, Hank is talked into going home to be with his somewhat dysfunctional family for Christmas - something he hasn't done for years. The reunion shakes up the family, shakes loose some memories, and a real song emerges. A play with songs that's heartwarming...
    Hank's finally sober and wants nothing but to be a country songwriter, but he's not very good. When a guy named Jesus shows up at his place, Hank is talked into going home to be with his somewhat dysfunctional family for Christmas - something he hasn't done for years. The reunion shakes up the family, shakes loose some memories, and a real song emerges. A play with songs that's heartwarming, but not too sweet that asks the question, "What would Jesus really do?" (Note: "Jesus" is Spanish pronunciation)
  • Water from Snow by Janet Preus
    Cast: 
    10–20
    ·
    Genre: musical
    ·
    Keyword: emotional abuse
    Genre: musical
    Keyword: emotional abuse
    Setting: A small Minnesota town, 1990s.

    Act I
    Kathy is heard off having an argument with her boyfriend – another “Bubba,” as far as daughter Annie is concerned. Annie is 15, bright, and a handful. She knows way too much about Kathy’s indiscretions, and has stepped up to hopefully provide something better for her baby sister, Marigold, who she adores. The phone rings, and it’s Kathy’s...
    Setting: A small Minnesota town, 1990s.

    Act I
    Kathy is heard off having an argument with her boyfriend – another “Bubba,” as far as daughter Annie is concerned. Annie is 15, bright, and a handful. She knows way too much about Kathy’s indiscretions, and has stepped up to hopefully provide something better for her baby sister, Marigold, who she adores. The phone rings, and it’s Kathy’s oldest friend, Stevie, with the news that Kathy’s mother, Gwynne, is dead.

    Kathy battled with her mother her whole life, and finally just ran away to escape the put-downs. It hasn’t worked. Kathy just found other abusers in men attracted to her good looks and vulnerability. But her mother’s death forces her to return home. As the only heir, she’s inherited her mother’s café, a place she detests for its bitter memories, but she won’t get a dime of her mother’s money until she runs the café successfully for two years. She’s faced with a choice: keep running or try to show Annie, much more herself, that’s she’s worth something after all.

    Even though her beloved Grandpa Ya, who lived with Gwynne, died years before, she decides to stay for a while, and soon makes a few life-changing discoveries, revealed in flashbacks and scenes that meld past and present. Her best friends are still there and pick up with their pal as if they’re fresh out of high school. Kathy finds that she’s got a knack for bringing in customers that goes way beyond her looks, and she’s managed to raise a bright and gifted daughter who’s not only a straight shooter, she loves her mother no matter what. That’s fortunate, because by the end of the act, Kathy has discovered the ugly truth about Bubba and his slimy behavior with Annie.

    Act II
    Kathy decides she’s never been a morning person and turns the café into a night spot, where the “old farts at the bar” can be just as comfortable as the young dudes stopping by for a late night beer. She may be light on basic skills, but she knows how to turn a stodgy diner into a small town hot spot with decent food, cheap drinks and a hip proprietor. She’s working her ass off, but she’s getting her feet under her – and earning her daughter’s respect. It looks like she’s going to call her mother’s bluff and make a go of it after all. Furthermore, her high school boyfriend Free (and Annie’s dad) hasn’t forgotten about her either. Gwynne didn’t like her daughter dating an Indian and managed to keep them apart – until now. Free is determined to be a father to the daughter he hardly knows.

    Then, on a bitter cold winter night, a fire (set by her disgruntled former boyfriend) shuts the place down. Kathy barely escapes with her life. Her whole life, this would be a “time to leave” moment, but not this time. Grandpa Ya’s voice speaks to Kathy and Annie: “It’s only winter … remember spring,” and a new Kathy is determined to rebuild – the café, her self respect, her life with her daughter, and – at last – a true partnership with Free, the only man she ever really loved.
  • wth (Welcome to Hell, Please Choose from the Following Options) by Janet Preus
    Recommendations: 1
    ·
    Cast: 
    4–7
    ·
    Genre: dark comedy, drama
    ·
    Keyword: emotional abuse, Expressionism
    Genre: dark comedy, drama
    Keyword: emotional abuse, Expressionism
    NOTE: This play has had a unique production that features deaf actors co-playing in ASL with hearing actors performing in spoken English. This play is not about being deaf, and there are no deaf characters. It is, rather, meant to provide an opportunity for deaf actors to just be actors, and to create a completely accessible performance for all.

    ACT I
    “Welcome to Hell,” the voice says. “...
    NOTE: This play has had a unique production that features deaf actors co-playing in ASL with hearing actors performing in spoken English. This play is not about being deaf, and there are no deaf characters. It is, rather, meant to provide an opportunity for deaf actors to just be actors, and to create a completely accessible performance for all.

    ACT I
    “Welcome to Hell,” the voice says. “Please choose from the following options: to speak to the person with whom you would least like to spend eternity, press one ...” SHE doesn’t know how she ended up in “Hell,” but it’s all too familiar, especially when she realizes that HE is there. Voices speak to them, usually through their phones, but even that is random, unpredictable and unsettling. The conversations and the topics careen from one corner of her life to another. All she can do is react—and wait for another flippant reply, an irrelevant comment, an abusive tirade. It may come; it may not, but the threat is always there.

    She’s baited into sparring with him in trite and pointless dialog and tries to match his barbs, but it only takes her farther from where she wants to be—from where she wants them to be. But didn’t she leave him? Wasn’t this over? What is she doing here again?

    ACT II
    “Welcome to Hell. Please choose from the following options,” the voice says. Again. For some reason that even SHE doesn’t comprehend, she isn’t suckering for his jokes, lies and put-downs this time. She’s doesn’t know what to do, and there’s no one in her past or future—or wherever she is in time and space—to tell her. She has to just be honest with herself and forge ahead.

    And say, “stop.” To her surprise, things begin to change for her and she eventually realizes that taking back her own power is not only possible, it’s the only way out.
  • Snip, Snap, Snute by Janet Preus
    Cast: 
    15–25
    ·
    Genre: adventure, comedy + 3 more
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    Keyword: children, family + 2 more
    Genre: adventure, comedy, fable/folktale, musical, young audiences
    Keyword: children, family, Scandinavian, trolls
    Set in rural Norway a long time ago, “Snip, Snap, Snute” tells the story of Annemarie, the Farmer’s daughter, who was stolen by the Troll Ma as a baby and raised in the trolls’ hovel under the bridge. Annemarie tries to get along with the trolls, but she is constantly taunted and challenged. More than anything, she wants to be a good troll and to be accepted, but she is by nature much too sweet and tidy. She...
    Set in rural Norway a long time ago, “Snip, Snap, Snute” tells the story of Annemarie, the Farmer’s daughter, who was stolen by the Troll Ma as a baby and raised in the trolls’ hovel under the bridge. Annemarie tries to get along with the trolls, but she is constantly taunted and challenged. More than anything, she wants to be a good troll and to be accepted, but she is by nature much too sweet and tidy. She has something important going for her, however: she has learned the secret of the Troll Ma’s heart. Meanwhile, the Troll Ma’s daughter, Huldra, has, unwittingly been raised by the Farmer. Because she’s a troll, she’s a terror, but the Farmer is undaunted in his devotion to his daughter, in spite of his neighbors’ careless jeers about her.

    Now young teens, Annemarie and Huldra no longer simply accept their lives as they are and venture away from their homes, longing for something more. Just then, the trolls capture the Farmer as he is attempting to herd his billy goats across the trolls’ bridge. The trolls want supper, and decide that even though their captive is not a goat, they’ll eat him anyway. Huldra and Annemarie meet by chance, and plot to save the Farmer, setting off to find and return the Troll Ma’s heart to her. This will, they believe, transform the Troll Ma into a nice troll, at least. The alliance grows with the addition of the Farmer’s friends and neighbors, who are all avoiding the trolls. It becomes an elaborate chase, without which no show for children could be complete. They succeed in their adventure, the Troll Ma confesses her history of crime, the secret of the changeling babies is revealed and families are reunited.

    Although it uses the wonderful stories and motifs of Norwegian folklore, this story is not meant to be an accurate representation of Norwegian culture or tradition, but rather serves as a springboard for more universal themes: adolescents who don’t feel that they fit in; stereotyping gender behaviors; getting along with people—even family—who are very different from us; step families and blended families; and challenging ourselves to forgive past grievances. The young heroines learn to believe in themselves, set out to do what seems impossible, and succeed in bringing everyone together. Because of them, perseverance and tolerance are rewarded and everyone finds their “heart.

    Please note: At least half of the roles are youth or children.