Meet Jenna Kuerzi | Actor, Singer, Candle-Maker

We had the good fortune of connecting with Jenna Kuerzi and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Jenna, what is the most important factor behind your success?
My brand is very DIY and scrappy, as a creator, an actor, a performer, and a candle-maker. I always say I’m a wearer of many hats, but my brand is, and will always be, finding the silly in sadness, the joy in the work, and the fun in the difficult. I take trash and turn it into treasures. I work on challenging plays and help theatre goers hear old words in new ways. I spin musical theatre tunes into clear storytelling and the things I make are surprising and new. Dumpster Fires For You, my candle company, is a direct expansion of Jenna Kuerzi, my entertainment career. I’m fun and funny and warm and surprising and weird and it took me a long time to have the confidence to be able to say that.

Alright, so let’s move onto what keeps you busy professionally?
I started performing when I was in high school. I was a 13 year old singing my heart out for “Titanic: The Musical” and it just kind of stuck. I went to a small school in South Jersey for my undergrad and moved to Philadelphia, PA after graduation. I had no meaningful institutional support and little to no professional contacts after graduating, so I just started auditioning in the city and tried to get my name out there. I fell into a group with other scrappy theatre makers and we started doing Fringe productions that caught steam and finally got my name into larger theatre institutions.

Just as I was starting to get some steam in the community as a non-union actor, I was diagnosed with Type 1 Diabetes and I had to restructure my entire life to accommodate a misunderstood disability. I joined Actor’s Equity and that’s a whole new working challenge that, I hope, will bring me to other cities.

Because the opportunities still weren’t flowing in, my friend Val Dunn and I sat down and wrote a silly little play called “Johnny Depp: A Retrospective on Late-Stage Capitalism” as an exercise for me to get better at solo performance and improv, which were two things I didn’t think I was good at. It’s become a cult hit in Philly, traveled to the Edinburgh Fringe, and I performed it at a comedy club in London’s West End.

When COVID-19 shuttered the entertainment industry, I started Dumpster Fires For You and started making candles in one of a kind, antique, and reusable containers to supplement the loss of income. It’s not a highly successful side gig that I’m in control of.

I still feel like I’m crawling up a large hill, and it’s kind of annoying, but I’m proud that everything I’ve ever accomplished I’ve gotten on my own and on the strength of my talent and perseverance.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
Philadelphia is the best place in the United States to live because of the extremely vibrant art, culture, food, and general weirdness of the place. It’s a town full of underdogs and I think following Rocky’s running path is a good start. We’d begin in my home neighborhood of South Philly, eat and shop up and down Passyunk Avenue, which has some of the best restaurants in the city. We’d walk up the Italian market into the Gayborhood and grab a pint at Fergie’s Pub. Continuing on, we’d visit Reading Terminal market and grab some more snacks and walk thru city hall and up Ben Franklin Parkway to the Art Museum. Heading back south, we’d walk down South Street and admire some of the weirdness. Stop into Philly AIDS thrift to find some treasures and go to the Magic Gardens. At night, we’d go to either a sports game or a concert because why not and on a Saturday we’d find a Farmer’s Market and patron the individual makers and farmers there. Then we’d drive to South Jersey and visit a winery and a farm, stopping in Collingswood for some shopping, and then circle around South Philly looking for parking for a few hours.

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
My biggest influence, in terms of art and the humor I can find in difficult situations, has to be Kurt Vonnegut. I discovered Cat’s Cradle at a formative time in my life and it’s helped shape me as a creator and human.

Website: www.jennakuerzi.com

Instagram: @lessthanamuffin

Twitter: @lessthanamuffin

Facebook: facebook.com/dumpsterfiresforyou

Other: For candles: Instagram is @dumpsterfiresforyou

Image Credits
Headshot: James Muir Photography Rent still (cow print skirt): Joe Grasso Photography Johnny Depp photo: Val Dunn