Lavinia Andronicus Is YOUR Spin Instructor!
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Jaden Tyler
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SYNOPSIS
Lavinia Andronicus is happy! Lavinia Andronicus is healthy! Lavinia Andronicus is YOUR fitness instructor! Lavinia Andronicus does NOT want to think about that one very bad thing that happened to her last summer! Okay?!?! Now let’s get on our bikes and start pedaling, ladies!!!!!!!!!
PLAYWRIGHT’S BIO
Jaden Tyler Urso is a playwright who hails from New Jersey. She writes about the weird, the queer, the chronically ill, and the classical. Her work has been shown at Playwrights Downtown, The Emerging Artists Festival, The Tank, and the American Theater of Actors. She has been supported by The Elif Collective/3P (Oven Writers Cohort 2024) and LOVECHILD Theater Company. Winner of the Seth Barkas Prize for Fiction. Best of the Net Nominee for Poetry. Finalist: Concord Theatricals Off Off Broadway Play Festival 2025; Red Bull Short Play Competition 2024. Semi-finalist: Eugene O’Neill National Playwrights Conference 2025; Playwrights Center Jerome Fellowship 2025; Seven Devils Play Conference 2025; SHE-NYC Summer Festival 2025. Jaden currently serves as the Literary Director for DTC, a grassroots collective cultivating queer theatre for early-career artists. BFA in Drama: NYU Tisch / Playwrights Horizons. BA in English and Creative Writing: NYU. jtuwrites.com
A BIT ABOUT THE PLAYWRIGHT
When did you start writing plays? If you had a moment where you realized you wanted to write, what was it?
When I was 15, I wrote a ten-minute play about a merman who went to high school. It was performed very lovingly at my sleep-away camp, and I haven’t stopped since. I was a very theatrical kid but had a lot of stage fright, so I think I just gravitated to telling stories rather than acting them out.
How did you come to write your OOB play? Was there a particular inspiration behind its creation? How has it developed?
I’ve always had a soft spot in my heart for Shakespeare’s Titus Andronicus (specifically, the Julie Taymor 1999 film adaptation). I don’t think it’s as bad as everyone says it is; I actually think it’s a pretty great depiction of cycles of violence and inherited trauma. Back in those days, some freaky people believed that “immoral” women had too much blood in their bodies, so I’ve always felt that Lavinia is perhaps a reflection of her warped time, with her constant stream of blood that never purges her non-existent “sin.” Some may say that she only exists to be brutally harmed and then die, but to me, she’s more than that. She’s flawed, downright nasty at times, but also incredibly smart. My girl has read Ovid and knows that a fly buzzing around your head is NEVER a good sign metaphorically! All of this is to say – Vinny is my handless and tongueless imaginary friend. I hold a lot of love for her in my heart.
I was thinking about how Lavinia represents the horrors we allow women to be subjected to in fiction and the humiliation we subject ourselves to in real life. Then I started thinking about the Pink Tax, which led me to the glammed-up fitness industry that started in the ’80s with Jane Fonda and has become the boutique fitness classes Peloton and Lululemon today. Thus, Lavinia as a spin instructor was born.
What are five words that describe who you are as a playwright?
Experimental. Naturalistic. Loud. Quiet.
…Contradictory.
What/who are some of the major influences on your writing?
Jacobean Theater, Reality TV, the State of New Jersey, and my amazing friends and family (sorry guys!)
What’s one fact someone would never guess about you?
I own every single Barbie movie on DVD.
What are some of your favorite plays?
Sarah Kane’s Cleansed, Martyna Majok’s Sanctuary City, and Henry VI: Parts 2 & 3. Sometimes Streetcar, sometimes not.
Any new projects you’re working on or shameless plugs?
The saddest play I ever wrote is going up – It’s called Stoner Comedy. It’s happening in August at the American Theater of Actors. Check out the producer’s Instagram (@lovechildtheaterco) or website (www.lovechildtheater.com) for ticketing information.
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