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Dining Room

Dining Room

Volunteer of the Month:

by Jillian Keith, TNP, Marketing Coordinator
orn and raised in Ottawa, Ontario, to be near my mom and dad, so we built a house in Canada, and I
Canada, Clue: On Stage and 42 Street started my second life as a teacher. I taught for 15 years in Ontario
Bstar, Jennifer Mance, remembers -mostly at the primary level because I enjoyed having my own
watching a production of West Side Story and classroom. I directed the junior intermediate choir and the school’s
saying to herself, “I have got to be on that musicals. It was during this time that I gave birth to my daughter,
stage.” Madison, and rediscovered my love for community theatre.”
The same pining coursed through Jennifer When Jennifer and her family made the big move back to
after she watched The Naples Players’ (TNP) the United States, Jennifer was the most sad to leave behind the
production of Something Rotten! and now, community theatres she’d been a part of from a young age. “We
after 11 years performing on cruise ships and ended up in Florida because lots of our friends from our cruise
15 years working as an educator, Jennifer sees ship days live down here, and we’ve never really been fans of the
her at TNP as her “third life” and one that she’s “incredibly grateful cold anyway. My father had recently passed away, and I needed to
for. TNP means a lot to me. I feel very proud to be a part of TNP as get away from the memories of home. Our whole family needed
an educator and a performer. It all goes back to the people and the a change, and Madison was young enough to see the move as an
community. Sure, TNP puts on great shows and does great things, adventure.”
but the people and their passion make TNP what it is. You can tell “When we moved to Naples, Brett was the one who found TNP
everybody loves what they do. It’s a community and that’s important for Madison and I. He sent us a video of the theatre along Fifth
to me.” Avenue, and said, ‘there’s a beautiful theater down here, you’ll have
Jennifer’s “first life” started with a spontaneous audition in to check it out.’ And that’s how our journey started at TNP. We were
Toronto for Jean and Ryan Productions, a company that put on full fortunate to dive right into our life in Florida, and it’s been a great
scale Broadway musicals on cruise ships. “After I graduated from experience for sure. My first interaction with TNP was during the
the University of Windsor for acting, I took a year off and went summer of 2022 when I was looking for something for Madison to
to Teachers College for Junior Intermediate Dramatic Arts. No do. She’d been doing theater and Broadway boot camps since she
teaching jobs were available at the time, so I auditioned for a cruise was five. When I went on TNP’s website, I noticed that they had an
ship. A three month contract turned into 11 years, and meeting my education department, and I liked what I saw, it was hard to believe
husband, Brett in 1999. He was a cruise director. We got engaged that it was a community theater. Since being at TNP, Madison has
and married in 2001, and at that time we thought we were done with been bitten by the theater bug -she would move to New York City
cruise ships, so we moved to New London, Connecticut, and started right now if she could. It’s my dream to one day get to do a show
our land life. That was the first time I lived in the US with a green with my daughter.”
card.” When signing Madison up for classes, Jennifer mentioned that
After living in the US for one year, Jennifer and Brett ended up she was a school teacher and actor and started volunteering with our
back on cruise ships for six years before settling down in Canada. KidzAct program. “I loved working as an instructor and Assistant
“I’ve been so fortunate to go everywhere. I’ve been on all seven Directing Brothers Grimm, and I think that is the next step for me
continents, and have been to 52 countries and 160 cities. I wanted doing more programming for the Education Department. I would
love to direct a children’s musical next.”
66 Life in Naples | April 2024