Everyone please welcome my Jennie Hughes, to A Broadway Body: Continued Conversations! Jennie is a multi-hyphenate theatre-maker based in New York City. She’s also the co-founder of Forager Theater Company, making art with those in her orbit to tell the stories she believes in. Jennie and I met in our college program, and her personal adversities as a stage actor helped shaped the story for my short film, A Broadway Body. Jennie’s body image resilience is admirable, and I’m obsessed with how Jennie’s experiences, as both an actor and a director/choreographer, lead her to cast a variety of different human beings in her productions.
In our conversation, we debunk “clean girl aesthetic,” how it feels to come out of a college musical theatre program and reorient to our health, “The Chicago Effect,” and finding the balance when it comes to food, movement, and overall health. I cannot wait for you to listen into Jennie’s thoughts around bodies onstage and her own body image journey too!
“I'm now trying to find the middle between working out and obsessing, and never working out and not thinking twice about any portion of my health. Like you said, it's all balance. And doing something for me instead of for other people is kind of where I'm at in my body journey.“
- Jennie Hughes
Megan Gill: Jennie, do you want to introduce yourself and a little bit about your work and the work you're doing in the world now?
Jennie Hughes: Absolutely. So I'm Jennie. I am a New York City-based theater maker. I am multi-hyphenate to the extreme. I am the co-founder and artistic director of Forager Theater Company, which I'm really happy that we just got our 501-C3 Nonprofit status, so I'm really excited to be in that world. It's gonna be a challenge but a new challenge and one where hopefully people can give us tax-free donations and their lives a little bit easier.
Yeah, so our mission as a company is actually my mission as a person, which is to make theater and art with what is around you and who you have in your orbit, the pieces that physically come to you. I'm a huge street picker. I love to take furniture and stuff from the street, and I kind of take that mindset with me in every aspect of the theater world. If I meet someone with an interesting idea, I'm like, “Oh, how can I make that a play or a concert, or things that.” And I also am really interested in the idea of sustainability, both environmentally but also humans, you know? I feel a lot of times in our industry, actors and directors and designers are kind of seen as commodities or things – obviously we're all humans, we're all people, but oftentimes we're expected to sort of be a machine and power through. And I'm really interested in creating space where you're a human first and an artist second. So that's a kind of my zhuzh as a person.
I moved to New York City almost nine years ago, and we'll get into it more, but I started as an actor you know, got my little BFA and then moved to New York City straight out the gate from graduating. I always directed in school and assisted everybody, and we can get into that a little bit more later, but I grew really sort of excited by the potential of making something from the ground up. So I do a lot of original work and a lot of plays and musicals and things like that. So that's me!
I of course have a side gigs barista teaching nannying, and I try to find work that excites me and I can still feel creative while doing so. So that's my biz!
Megan Gill: That's lovely. That's so important. And I also really appreciate how you have followed your heart, moving from being an actor to becoming a director and now having a theater company where you get to tell the stories you want to tell and you get to cast the bodies you want to see on stage. And I think it's so, so vital that more of us are doing that and making space for those types of productions.
Would you want to share a little bit about the ways in which you make sure that you're prioritizing centering different humans and different humans’ stories?
Jennie Hughes: Yeah, absolutely. I grew up obviously in the theater scene, and we went to the same college which I don't think our school is unique in its sort of fatphobia. I think that that is just a very common thread when it comes to many schools and BFA programs. But I was lucky enough during that time to be parallel learning with my mentor at the time. She ran a theater company, and she was really always pushing me to choreograph and assistant direct and help in any way I could. And she gave me the advice, you know, when I wasn't getting cast in school like, “Oh, well why don't you be the assistant director? Why don't you be the assistant choreographer and try to be the voice that you wish you had in the space, in the rooms?”
So I learned a lot by observing these directors and people, but again, the parallel person in my life, that's the reason I stuck with it. I think if I had just had the BFA program, I probably would've been so disheartened, you know? But I had this woman who was casting tall girls as ingenues. She was casting fat girls. She was casting any type of body in an unconventional casting way. I've always just known that that was the way to go, but I didn't have that example in school. I had it with my mentor.
And I think that I kind of went off on a tangent, but with my work, one of the big reasons I wanted to direct and produce was, yes, to tell my own stories and to tell the stories that I feel passionately about. And you learn very quickly when you move to a new city, or at least New York City, that if you want something done you can't just wait for it to happen. You do have to just make it. And not all of us have that privilege. Not everybody has the privilege to work a full-time job and then have the energy and the stamina to do your other work outside of that. I do think that's a very privileged thing that I get to do. Some people, you know, have to wait and things that. So I want to recognize that too.
But my purpose is I look at Broadway and I look at commercial theater and they're – not to shit on Broadway. They’re trying, but it’s still with the goal of just ticking a box and selling tickets. And I'm more interested in, well, why can't a fat person play a romantic lead? And same with queerness and transness too. I'm developing a show right now where we want it to be a collective of people, and we're pushing really hard to make the trans actors not only play trans characters, you know? Why do we put people in these tight boxes? I was always put in like, “Oh, well you're curvy, so how about you be the mom? How about you be the best friend?” Which, sure, I love playing those characters, but I was lucky to go to a program after college where I was putting myself in these boxes. We're getting a little bit into my actor side now, but I was putting myself in these boxes.
I went to the Open Jar Institute by the way. It was super eye-opening and really cool. And any young folks out there should try to go and check it out because the guy who runs it, his whole concept is that if you teach yourself that you can only jump so high, you'll never jump higher, you know? And I was sort of putting myself in this box. I was like, “Oh, well, you know, I know I'm kind of bigger, so I'm feeling really pressured to lose weight, but I just hate working out. No matter what I do, I can never be thin enough.” And in school they were like, “Well, so just try harder.” They're like, “Here's this diet book. Here's this exercise plan,” right? And when I got to New York City, my mentor goes, “Well, do you want to work out? Do you want to be thin?” And I was like, “Well, no, but I feel I have to.” And he goes, “You can dance circles around all these other girls. That makes you surprising. That makes you interesting. If you don't want to be thin, you don't need to be. Just do what you want to do and trust that whoever sees that is going to know what to do with it,” basically.
And that was great. And once I clocked that and once I understood, “Oh wait, it's actually a waste of my time and energy to force myself into this box, I started getting more and more callbacks.” Almost every dance call I went to, I got kept because I just went in with the knowledge that I know what I'm doing, you know? And sometimes it will be rewarded, you know, or not even rewarded, but that it's worth trying and it's not worth waiting until you're the right body to do something.
Megan Gill: Right. Do you feel that completely shifted your confidence and your alignment with showing up authentically as a human and a performer?
Jennie Hughes: Absolutely. It totally did. And I think it's still so ingrained. The fatphobia and the body checking is really, really ingrained in us depending on, you know, your upbringing and whatever. But at least if you went to a BFA program, you're aware of what your body looks like. But I honestly – and again, this might just be because this is my path in life – but I started to sort of collect other people like me in my circles. I started to find the people who were not aligning with five-foot-eight, a hundred and, you know, whatever pounds. And I started making stuff with them. I would start doing cabarets and play readings in my living room and things like that. I'm trying to find the right words. I feel everybody knows that what they're seeing on commercial Broadway is everyone's perception of the ideal. But if you look around you, everybody does not look like that. So I'm kind of like I want to create theater with people who agree that that's not reality. And I also want to make theater for people who want to see themselves represented in media.
And when I saw Head Over Heels with Bonnie Milligan, I saw it with my sister who could be Bonnie Milligan's daughter, you know not daughter literally, but they look very similar. They had a similar voice. I saw it with her, and if I had had that musical – because I was already living in the city at that point. But the whole concept is that Bonnie Milligan's character is this gorgeous princess and everyone wants to marry her because she's beautiful, and it's never a joke, it's never, “Oh ha-ha,” because oftentimes in musicals where there's a plus-size character, they have comments about her. That was never the case. The only comment that was ever made about Princess Pamela was that she was gorgeous and beautiful and everyone wanted to marry her. Crazy! And she was gay! And she was gay too, you know what I mean? She fell in love with the maid.
Megan Gill: This shouldn't even be crazy but it is.
Jennie Hughes: Angie, my sister, and I saw it and we were like, “What? A leading woman who is plus size and also a lesbian? That’s unheard of.”
Megan Gill: Yeah.
Jennie Hughes: Absolutely unheard of. But that's real life, you know? Anyway, that show really rocked my perception of reality. I'm so happy I got to see it.
There was also in that show Peppermint played a non-binary character. There was a character who was sort of this goddess who was neither man nor a woman, you know? And I was just like that's the Broadway I want to see in the world.
Megan Gill: I don't know if you've seen Too Much on Netflix with Megan Salter, but it's kind of a similar concept. She is not gay. She’s straight, but the fact that she's the leading woman in this Netflix TV show and not once is her weight mentioned and not once is it about what she looks or how much she weighs or her body. And it's like why is this, A, a recent development and why do we feel shocked to finally see this type of media? And yeah, it's few and far between, which hopefully we are continuing to just make more and more and more of it. But that's why it's so important that someone you is out there with your own company, mind you, actively making theater that represents real life.
Jennie Hughes: Yeah. Yeah.
Megan Gill: Because you’re right. We go to Netflix, we go to Broadway, and we do not see real life a lot of times. And it fucks with our heads.
Jennie Hughes: Also just commenting on Megan Stelter, by the way, genius. A genius. She's so funny. She’s a very normal-looking person, you know what I mean? She's not stick thin, but she's just a person, a human person having an experience, so I love that. I need to watch that show. Haven't started it, but I love that it's out there.
But yeah, I was going to say, when it comes to casting or creating work for the historically underrepresented groups, I know specifically we're talking about body shape, body size, body ability too, that's something that I can always do better at, is pushing for the casting of people who aren't, you know, able-bodied, have certain mobility devices and things like that. That's something that I have not done yet that I think it's just a part of opening up your network and opening your community and figuring out the best way to make theater like that. But I have a lot of friends who specialize in that and have communities that they support through that type of work.
But something that I think about a lot when I'm casting, and I don't know if it's a supply problem or a demand problem, do you know what I mean? When I'm casting – I just cast – I did a big open-call type thing on Actors Access and Playbill for a show. And when I post specifically leading roles, I try to specify, “Any body type, all bodies should apply for this,” because it's always my dream to get a plus-size or fat person on stage as a romantic lead. That's always my dream. I'm sure you won't be shocked to know that most of the people who submit are thin, able-bodied people, you know? And so, again, I don't know if it's just that people see – we have to retrain our own perceptions as well, the people creating the shows. I think that there are more and more people casting and directing that want other bodies on stage. I do think that that's true, but I think the other issue comes with the actors and the creatives not – they're putting themselves in their own boxes because they're like, “Oh I could never –,” you know, “That's not my type. I'm not pretty, and I'm not, you know, the leading lady type. I'm the best friend.”
Megan Gill: It reminds me of what you were speaking to with yourself as well, which also just I want to point out and note that a lot of that does stem from the educational spaces that we spend a lot of time in –
Jennie Hughes: One hundred percent.
Megan Gill: – and how important it is that we as the educators in these creative, educational spaces are moving further and further away from those outdated narratives and conditioning young people to believe these things about themselves. I just want to slide that in there because I feel like that’s a part of the conversation.
Jennie Hughes: Absolutely, absolutely. It's one hundred percent trained. You don't know you're fat until someone says, “Oh, well I can't really see you in that costume. I don't think I could cast you as that role,” do you know what I mean? And I'm like, “But I would eat down. What are you talking about?” I try really hard to push for that. and I think you're right. By making our own stuff, we are training – that's, that's sort of my purpose with my theater company. I don't want anybody to tell themselves that they're not, you know, good enough or thin enough or pretty enough or whatever. Obviously, there are certain things. If your nature is shy and timid, it's gonna be hard for you to play a leading role or to play a bold and brash villain. That's different than saying, “Oh, but like, you know, I'm a size 14. I don't think I could play the leading role in this certain play,” or whatever.
Megan Gill: Right, right, right.
Jennie Hughes: And it's so fascinating because I did a production of Tick, Tick… Boom! and my John was under 5’5”. He’s a very small, little guy. My entire cast actually was all under 5’5”. They were all very short people, so it kind of worked out. And it wasn't intentional. I didn't do that on purpose. But so my John was this very thin person. And normally Susan is typically cast as sort of the nineties aesthetic, thin girl. And I cast this, first of all, stunning actress, beautiful voice. No one can do it better than her. I cast her as Susan, and she is a curvy, gorgeous person. We did it in the city, and then it got picked up and we took it to another theater. And the artistic director of the theater was like, “I'm just so impressed. I would never have thought to cast the show this,” do you know what I mean? She was like, “That actress can really dance. She can really move. I believe she's a dancer.” And I'm like, “Yeah, right?”
Megan Gill: Why are we tying people's talent and skill and ability to execute said talent and skill to the way their body looks?
Jennie Hughes: It's based on these assumptions. It's based on these really, really outdated fatphobic assumptions.
Megan Gill: And the conditioning from Broadway, from the educational spaces, and from our social experiences growing up.
Jennie Hughes: I hope that by, you know that by – not to be to my own horn, but by casting alternative bodies in roles that are traditionally made for dancers or leading men, the people in this town and this company that saw this musical, I hope that I had altered their perception of what's possible. That's all we can do as these indie – I'm not on Broadway. I'm not casting shows on Broadway, but I'm hoping that by doing my small part in changing the way that we do things as a theater industry, not just around body type, around care of our people, around casting Black and Indigenous people of color, casting Latino actors and Asian actors in roles that you don't particularly think they would be cast in, someone has to show everyone how to do it. And I think it's up to indie theater and it's up to indie film as well because I know that's what you're in. We are where the movement starts usually, I think. So I'm hoping to make my small impact in that way.
That's how it starts, you know? If you align with the tradition and you align with the norms, it won't change. It takes people being like, “No, fuck that. I'm not doing that. I'm doing this and it's better.”
Megan Gill: Yeah.
Jennie Hughes: And believing in that too. And sometimes you're wrong. It's not always gonna be the best, most beautiful art that you've ever made. But it's the act of trying, I think is a form of resistance to that.
I was gonna say on Broadway right now, it's about to close, but Cabaret, I don't know if you've seen Cabaret on Broadway. Another show that blew my mind a little bit, healed little Jennie. One of the ensemble members, MiMii Scardulla, is this fierce dancer. I couldn't take my eyes off her the whole show. She was incredible just in the ensemble. But she is a plus-sized girlie. She's a big girl up there, and she's wearing the same costumes as everyone else. She's showing the same amount of skin. They don't have her strapped into a corset. She is doing the show like every other ensemble member and telling the story in a really fabulous, beautiful way. And again, she wasn't – I've heard this time and time again from casting directors. “Well, it'll be distracting if you're, you know, in the costumes. People will be a little bit confused.”
Megan Gill: What the hell.
Jennie Hughes: I've heard that. You know the story from school, from our school. You know, I was told I couldn't be cast as the ensemble of Chicago because I was too big. They couldn't envision me in the costumes. I'm just so happy that they're doing that on Broadway, at least in a small part, you know?
Megan Gill: Yes. Right. Because you're right, it is baby steps, and it is these little things that influence and that shift perspective and allow people to see differently and help decondition some of that bullshit.
Jennie Hughes: I'm obsessed with her right now. She also just did a huge Broadway Bares thing, MiMi Scardulla. She was the leading part of this Broadway Bares number as a fat actress. Broadway Bares, if you don't know, is kind of a strip show to raise money for the Actors’ Equity Fights Aids coalition thing. And yeah, it's just great to see at least the community under the top tier of Broadway supporting that and then, you know encouraging it and hopefully, like you said, baby steps, chipping away at the wall of the traditional way of doing things. So, I'm really excited that that's on Broadway.
21:09
They always tell you to go see shows and then pick the person in the show that you could follow, career-wise. That's a big advice thing for people to do. And for so long I was like, “Well, I can't really be anybody on Broadway because no one looks me.” But now there are more and more people. And again, it's not like it's not changing at all. You know, I do have to remind myself like, okay, it is changing. You know, even in the culprit of the Broadway thinness of it all, Chicago, on Broadway. Do you know about “The Chicago Effect”? Have I told you about this?
Megan Gill: You have not
Jennie Hughes: Okay. So it's kind of sad, but I'll give some context about the Chicago Revival on Broadway, just in case people don't know. It was in the nineties. It was written in the sixties, and it was done, and it was really great and so fun. It was Fosse, hands down, which a lot of people assume Fosse dancers have to be thin, which is another thing. But that assumption came mostly from the nineties revival (which is still on Broadway right now) where everybody that was cast in that show was incredibly thin, like stick thin because they were in these skin-tight, scantily-clad black outfits.
And after that show – typing out is something that people do in open calls where they just look at a bunch of headshots and they say, “Okay, yes, I want to see them.” “No, I don't want to see them.” They would start typing actors by whether or not they were showing their collarbone in their headshots. So if you could see someone's collarbone, they would get typed in. Well, so it's like, okay, so me, I serve good collarbone, but, you know,, I don't think about that when I'm doing headshots. But people started to do headshots in, you know, shirts that you could see their collarbone, because if you can see someone's collarbone, that means they're probably thin or fit.
Megan Gill: What? Oh, my god. Wild. This is wild.
Jennie Hughes: So that's called “The Chicago Effect.” Isn't that crazy? So that's what happened in the early nineties, but also heroin chic was a huge thing in the nineties and two thousands and we're starting to – well, we were starting and now we're kind of dipping back down. We gotta stop that. But yeah, it's the collarbone effect. And so, they would type out people – not just girls, I'm sure guys too. They would type out people who didn't have a collarbone when they were casting ensemble and dance shows. So it's very deep seated. It's a very deeply-held problem and belief in a lot of casting directors, but yeah, the collarbone effect, “The Chicago Effect” is a real thing.
Of course, Chicago was the, the show, the famous show for me in college that I was told I could not be in, even though I danced circles around everybody who auditioned. And so, I started looking up – I was like, why the fuck? Because when I, when something happens to me that I don't like, I get researchy about it. I'm like, “Let me get my computer out, and I'm gonna solve this problem.” Yes, “What's going on here? What's going on? I need to solve this problem.”
So I did a bunch of research on when did it become the norm to be thin onstage and why? And it's, yeah, mostly Chicago, 1990 on Broadway. But I mean, it's always been a thing and it's also like – I don't want to speak too much on it because I'm not an expert, but it's also white supremacy too, the idea that in order for a body to be good, it must look a certain way. And fatphobia is wrapped into that as well. So it's very deep, but I think we are chipping away at it slowly but surely, slowly but surely.
Megan Gill: I agree with you. Indeed, and it's people like you telling the stories that you're telling and leading the spaces that you're leading that are a part of that movement.
Jennie Hughes: I hope to be.
Megan Gill: And hopefully these conversations that help educate people and open people's eyes. I think that's also a running theme of just our conversations so far, with Tick, Tick… Boom! and was it the…
Jennie Hughes: The artistic director.
Megan Gill: Oh, the artistic director, yeah. You opened her eyes. And it's unfortunate that we have to carry that weight and that that's now on our shoulders, in a sense. But also I it's a weight that, at least for me, I'm willing to carry.
Jennie Hughes: Oh, yeah. What a gift that I get to lead the charge.
Megan Gill: Yeah. Yes.
Jennie Hughes: Absolutely.
Megan Gill: For sure.
Jennie Hughes: Absolutely.
Megan Gill: So just for context, for anyone listening , we both went to school at the same time in college, in the same theater program. When I was writing A Broadway Body, which is the short film I created in 2021, I had reached out to you and a couple other of our friends and peers just asking if you were open to sharing your stories of your time in school and how body image played a role in your educational experience. And you were so kind to share so openly and vulnerably with me. But how has your relationship to your body shifted since graduating, since being removed from a place where you were not cast because of the size of your body and where people were feeding you these just, “It's fine. No one likes to do it. No one wants to work out, but work out anyways. You have to, otherwise there's no other way forward.” Now being nine years out of that, almost a whole decade out of that, where is your relationship with your body at now?
Jennie Hughes: That's a huge question. Well, I will say it was not an immediate like, “Oh, I left college and suddenly I'm free,” you know? I feel like even still I have a lot of habits, just even mentally, around perception of my own body. What I will say is I've never – probably in college, I knew it was fucked up, so I was trying to fight the demon of like, “Oh, well if you were just thinner, it would be better. If you looked this way, it would be better.”
So I would say I have a good relationship with my physical body and what it looks like now. I've gained curves in places I never knew I could, you know, and that just is part of aging, it's part of growing up. And something I am sort of on the upswing of right now is trying to re-align myself with fitness and physical health with a different lens because I think that in school, working out and eating healthy was only to be thin. That was the entire purpose. I talk about my life like a pendulum, right? When I was in school and when I freshly graduated, I swung really far into the pendulum of like, “I have to work out five times a week. I have to plan every calorie. I have to only think about what I'm doing to look a certain way.” And then, the pandemic hit, as it rocked all of our perception of everything, and I sort of swung in this other direction where I was like, “I'm gonna shave my head. I'm going to eat whatever I want. I'm never gonna work out again.” And you know, sort of, which again, shaving your head, do it. Everyone should do it. But, you know, I sort of really swung in this other direction, and now I'm sort of like, “Okay, I do still need to take care of my body, but I have to do it for the reason of my literal health and being strong enough to do the life I want to do.” And I think that that's something that we just never were taught in school. It was never like, “Hey, you should lift weights and run on the treadmill so that you can climb a ladder and belt a high B or, you know, what I mean. That should have been the reason.
Megan Gill: Yeah. I absolutely agree.
Jennie Hughes: Not, “You need to lift weights and run so that you can fit the costumes.”
Megan Gill: Right. It should have been, “You need to lift weights and run so that you are able to execute a full two-hour dance show and have the strength to do so,” or in a lift or if you're doing cartwheels, you have the mobility and the strength to execute the movement. Right.
Jennie Hughes: Exactly. Exactly. Absolutely, and that's something that – again the pendulum swings, right? So I hadn't worked out in years. I was dancing still. I think dancing is exercise, but I was not – something that never clicked for me that my partner actually told me was that dancing is great, but that's not training. “You love to dance and you should dance, but you need to train so that you can sustain the classes.” Because it's like I would take a class and then for three days after, be like, “Ugh, my back, my knees,” you know? Danny was like, “Well, if you work out, you'll be strong enough to do the things you want to do without pain,” you know?
To go back to answering your question, I'm now trying to find the middle between working out and obsessing and never working out and not thinking twice about any portion of my health. So I'm trying to find the middle ground, but I think that it's important to indulge. I think that mental health-wise, food is life.
Megan Gill: Food is life!
Jennie Hughes: I will never eat another iceberg lettuce with one cherry tomato for dinner again, you know what I mean? That's crazy.
Megan Gill: Yes, I know exactly what you mean.
Jennie Hughes: Like you said, it's all balance. And doing something for me instead of for other people is kind of where I'm at in my body journey.
Megan Gill: Ooh. Yeah. That's a really, really, really lovely recognition and a place that I think it does take us a while to get to.
Jennie Hughes: Oh, yeah.
Megan Gill: I'm right there with you. I’m in a very, very similar place in my relationship to my body and my health and movement and food, and it's there is a happy medium. It’s like there is this place where we are not obsessing about it and we do feel strong.
Jennie Hughes: It's not easy, and it's hard because I have, you know – as every person that grew up in the early two thousands, we have this obsession, whether we want it or not, with being thin, with eating healthy. And it's really, really hard. It's a constant reminder. And for me, rejection is my sort of obsession. I'm like, “Well, fuck that. I'm never gonna work out. I'm never gonna eat healthy.” And that's also not great, you know? So it's like you're either dealing with one or the other. But for me, it's sort of like I'll tell a little short story.
Early 2024, so early last year, I got my first big injury as an adult. I was teaching full-time. I was teaching music and dance for kiddos, and then I was also doing my theater company in my spare time, the evenings and weekends. And I was teaching a class for my theater company. We do donation-based classes, and my calf muscle absolutely strained, basically, in this class. And I was like, “Oh my god.” I couldn't work for three weeks. I was basically in bed, and it was huge. And I luckily started going to this physical therapist who has saved my life. I go to him every week now, almost Symbio Physio. Shout out! If you're in NYC, definitely check them out. They were lifesavers.
But something that he explained to me, because of course my first thought was, “Oh my god, I am so out of shape. My body just couldn't sustain the work I was doing.” And he was like, “That's actually not the case. You're not taking care – you're not hydrating enough. You're not stretching. You're not getting –,” you know? It was even just changing that – of course, if I was a little bit stronger and agile, I maybe wouldn't have had such a bad injury. But it's also about the repair of your body and the upkeep within it. You don't have to be running ten miles a day, but you have to do something for yourself in order to sustain life. You just have to, you know? Especially the life I want to live, you know?
Megan Gill: Right. Yeah, and I feel this is going back to the piece that we were not taught in school or that we're not taught by our society and by our culture, that it's about so many other things than just being thin.
Jennie Hughes: Yes.
Megan Gill: And that dials it down to one of the major core issues with the messaging that we receive about our bodies.
Jennie Hughes: Yeah. Oh, absolutely. And you know, I've never wanted to be thin so bad that I would get lipo or, you know, do anything like that. But the folks who do that, they're still not actually healthy. They're still not actually well. And we have this whole industry that's built on wellness and “clean-girl aesthetic” and eating clean and healthy, and it's actually not with the best interest of the people in mind, you know?
So it's a big learning process, and I'm still not – I'm proud of myself. I got my membership to a gym back. I did used to go to the gym five days a week, and I would portion out every meal. I was really into it. But then, you know, I had my whole feminist awakening of like, “I’ve gotta swing the other way.” But I've got a gym membership. I'm trying again. You know, that's all we can do.
Megan Gill: Yay for strength!
Jennie Hughes: Yeah, I'm just trying to make choices now that I will be grateful for in the future. That is what I'm trying to do. Yeah.
Megan Gill: That is a word. Truly, that's so important, and I appreciate you talking about that and sharing that.
Jennie Hughes: Of course.
Megan Gill: I am wondering, before we wrap up, what your favorite thing or things about your body are. It can be physical, non-physical, both. Totally up to you!
Jennie Hughes: Okay, I'm gonna say two.
Megan Gill: Okay, great.
Jennie Hughes: First, I'll say a non-physical thing. I'm grateful I am very strong. I'm not benching or anything like that. But living in New York and doing the work I do with my theater company, I'm often carrying doorframes down the street or couches or three bags full of props and costumes, and I feel very, very grateful and very, very happy that my body is able to sustain that and do that. Again, I can have the life I want because I have this body. If I was, you know, different, I wouldn't be able to carry and do the things that I do. And it's also a way for me to help my community. I have a lot of people in my network who can't carry their backpack up the stairs, so I can help and do that. I'm a body. I can carry things. So I love that.
And then I will say I'm kind of obsessed with my curves. I love that about my body. I've always low key – I will sometimes just like – and I love the jiggle. I jiggle all the time. That's who I am. I've always been jiggly. And yeah, so I love that I jiggle, and I love the curves that I have. I'm really obsessed with that.
Megan Gill: I love that answer, those answers, both answers! They’re just so wonderful, and thank you for sharing!
Jennie Hughes: Thanks, Megan.
Megan Gill: Of course. Thank you for coming today to chat with me about this stuff.
Jennie Hughes: Yeah, of course. This was amazing!
Megan Gill: It really was.
Jennie Hughes: Yeah, I’d forgotten about all those stories. I was like, “Oh, damn!”
Megan Gill: I know. Wow!
Jennie Hughes: I want to say though, also thank you, Megan, for doing this. You're doing something that I would've never have considered to do, and it's really brave, and it's really important. So I'm happy that you're doing this.
“ They always tell you to go see shows and then pick the person in the show that you could follow, career-wise. That's a big advice thing for people to do. And for so long I was like, ‘Well, I can't really be anybody on Broadway because I don't know one who looks like me.’ But now there are more and more people.“
- Jennie Hughes
Jennie Hughes (she/her) is an NYC based award winning director, choreographer, educator and the founding director of Forager Theatre Company. She prioritizes work that is women-led and tells stories that are often overlooked in commercial theatre. Jennie believes in creating spaces where everybody feels seen, heard, and safe enough to truly challenge themselves through collaboration. Her most recent credits with Forager include: The Hand That Feeds You (Players Theatre), Flora the Red Menace (Court Square Theatre) and Tick, Tick...BOOM! (New Ohio and Kitchen Theatre). Jennie also works regionally and within NYC as a freelance director/choreographer. Notable credits include: Frizzled (director) at The PIT andThe Tank, Leading Lady Club and The Things I Did While Waiting For You To Fall Back In Love With Me (director) at 59E59 and Edinburgh Fringe Festival.
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While I’m not a licensed therapist, registered dietician, or medical health professional and cannot speak to body image topics from a clinical, trauma-informed place, I am an expert of lived experience. I’m an academic of my own body, and I’m passionate about facilitating conversations with other humans about their relationships with their bodies. I believe it’s important to continue conversations about healthy body image in creative spaces as a means to heal individuals as well as the collective whole. But just know the information presented in this medium is not professional mental health advice or medical advice, and any questions or concerns you have should always be directed to your health providers.
