The Intelligent Design of Jenny Chow

Rolin Jones is an established contemporary playwright and television writer. A native of the Woodland Hills section of Los Angeles, the 32-year old Rolin began his writing career after getting his undergraduate degree in filmmaking and English from Cal State Northridge and being accepted in the Yale School of Drama in 2001. Jones wrote his first play, "Once by the Pacific" that was staged at his undergrad alma mater, Cal State Northridge, in 1998, which seems to be the reason that he was accepted into the Yale School of DramaThe Intelligent Design of Jenny Chow was Jones's first "big hit" play. It was first staged at South Coast Repertory Theater in Costa Mesa, California around 2002. In 2004, Jones graduated from the Yale School of Drama, was named Playwright in Residence at YSD, and his second play, "Jammer" won the award for Best New Writing at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, which was also produced at the New York Internation Fringe Festival in 2004. in 2006, Jenny Chow won the Obie Award for Excellence in Playwriting and Jones was a finalist for the 2006 Pulitzer Prize. The play went on to be performed at many top theaters, including the Yale Repertory Theater and the Atlantic Theater Company in NYC.  He has written several other plays, including Soverignty, Ron Robby Had Too Big A Heart, The Mercury and the Magic, Extremely, and Chronicles Simpkins Will Cut Your Ass, all of which were compiled to be produced together with the title, Shortstack, performed at Wellfleet Harbor Actor's Theater in Wellfleet, MA.

After his acclaimed success in playwrighting, Jones was offered a job writing, producing, and story editing for Showtime's popular series, Weeds, and has had continued success today.

The Intelligent Design of Jenny Chow is a full length play chronicling the life of an adolescent agoraphobic Asian-American teenager who was adopted as an infant. The play follows the teen, Jennifer Marcus, through her quest to find her birth mother all without leaving the confines of her home in Calbasas, California. Born a mechanics wiz, Jennifer is able to build an actual robot in the image of her desired self, named Jenny Chow, sans her pestering American mother. The play follows Jennifer in her quest for an identity all while highlighting the new norm of online/cyber communication versus real human interaction.

Questions to think about:


1.) What effect does Rolin's choice to include both Acts of the play without strict scene assignments (there aren't really "scenes" designated in the play, mostly the word blackout in the stage directions every now and then).

2.) Did you find the stage directions more helpful in a sense that they didn't just describe the setting but actually what the setting meant?

3.) What do you think is important about Todd as related to Jennifer?

4.) What do you think about Jones's choice to have Su Yang Chow played by the same actress who plays Adele Hartwick?

5.) Is it possible that Adele Hartwick could be cast as an Asian-American woman? What about Mr. Marcus and Todd?

6.) What do you think is the significance of the character of Terrence?

7.) Did you find this play hard to imagine as far as how the flying of Jenny Chow would be staged?

8.) Did you find the timeline hard to follow because of the lack of designated scenes?