By Nick Christophers
“The most challenging part of acting is acquiring the role. It has become more flexible lately where the parts offered are listed “for any ethnicity” but it is still a challenge. In the past it was more specific. The reason for the change I would thank for the need of diversity, especially in New York”
This is the case for the beautiful and talented Fenny Novyane who has come very far since hitting the pavement in the New York acting scene. She has performed in many theatre productions, both musical and non-musical. She once played a part as a Singaporean middle-aged mother with a grown son. It was a challenging role for her as she had to adopt a Singaporean accent to play the role. Being from Indonesia the accent was not as challenging than playing someone much older than herself. But she aced it as she would in many more roles and was nominated for Best Leading Actress in A Play for Planet Connections Theater Festivity.
Since then she has found her niche in comedic roles which she enjoys. In 2017 – 2018 she took part in successful projects like, “Full Moon Show: A Midsummer Night’s Dreammachine” by Rani O’Brien and “Lights Out! Dark in the Library” written by Kristine Niven. In those projects she played lead roles; the first was the character Lady Capulet — staged at the HowlArts Gallery in Manhattan and the other was the character Binna in Lights Out that was performed in Theater 54 at Shetler Sudios in midtown. “Lights
Out! Dark in the Library” was a fusion of script and improv since the actors met for the first time on the stage. The other project she worked on in 2018 was titled “Sketch of New York” a sketch play based on current New York issues that people face daily, which was a satire.
At the moment Fenny is gearing up for her most current project “Modern chalk circle; a Michael Coulter Conway Story” which was a collaboration with other writers that will be produced sometime in February. It will be staged at Theatre 54 as part of the Eclectic Festival by Artistic New Direction (AND) Theatre Company along with a play called “The C-Word” which was written by her. The title has people questioning what the play is about. But it will surely be a hit among audiences. Fenny herself, who produced the play once sat in the audience to watch it and could not hold in her laughter. The play will soon be out for all to enjoy in 2020 and be held at The Producers Club.
She has many other projects on the table which will keep her busy until 2022, including “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf” by Edward Albee, “Dinner with Friends” and “Tiny Beautiful Things”.
Her talents are evident as she keeps piling on more projects. Fenny is one of the many Asian artists developing within the mainstream theatre scene one role at a time.
