MY JANIS WRITTEN AND PERFORMED BY ARIANNA VERONESI
My Janis
MY JANIS
AN INTIMATE PORTRAIT
Starring: Arianna Veronesi
My Janis is a window into Janis Joplin’s private world as she
struggles to find her identity in the summer of 1966. Joplin has just
spent a reclusive year at her parent’s house in Texas after nearly
dying from speed and alcohol addictions in San Francisco. At 23,
she works hard to fit in and get rid of her destructive habits; she
goes back to college, gets a part time job, goes to psychotherapy
and waits for her boyfriend to come and marry her… He never
shows up. But she keeps singing. She keeps having very controlled
fun. She keeps her sobriety. While on a vacation with her friends in
Austin she waits for a call from her old friend, Chet Helms who is
now a big manager in San Francisco. Things are changing fast with
the music revolution and the hippie movement and he wants her to
sing for one of his groups “Big Brother and The Holding Co”. Janis
doesn’t know what to do. She is scared of San Francisco, scared of
her own monsters, but this is her dream come true, after years of
failures. Can she finally be true to herself and be loved for what she
really is?
Written and directed by: Arianna Veronesi
Creative consultant: Greg Braun
Photography: Rudolf Bekker
Stage Manager: Jazmine Pollinger