David Roe: Home

Patti McKenny was a playwright, a lyricist, a voiceover performer, a writer of corporate communications, an oral interpreter, a director, a tireless proponent of the arts in Chicago and an organizer with a work ethic that was astounding to behold. Above all, she was a storyteller who was never more at home than in a theatre putting on a show with the theatre people she loved. Her heart, which never failed anyone in life, finally failed her in death on June 28, 2008. Patti was born in Dayton, OH, in 1951, where she attended Alter High School and was a co-founder of Summer Youth Theatre Company (SYTCO). At Northwestern University she earned both a Bachelor's and Master's degree in Oral Interpretation. She liked to say that she majored in reading aloud, something she did with extraordinary flair. While at Northwestern she wrote her first play, Chautauqua. Major works since then include 90 North (written with her longtime collaborator Doug Frew and composer Daniel Sticco), Becoming George (with Doug Frew and composer Linda Eisenstein), Lady Lovelace's Objection (with Doug Frew) and Towertown. She was for several years a regular contributor to Garrison Keillor's "A Prairie Home Companion." At the time of her death she had just completed her first draft of a play about the Greek goddess Psyche. Patti was a founding member of Chicago Musical Theatre Works (CMTW), a driving force in Chicago Women in Publishing, a proud member of the Dramatists' Guild and a founding partner (way back when) of Studiomedia Recording Studio in Evanston. Recently Patti and Doug, with composer Andrew Hansen, won the After Dark Award and a Joseph Jefferson award nomination for the music and lyrics in She Stoops to Conquer at Northlight Theatre. Patti was a 2007 recipient of the Tim Meier & Helen Coburn Meier Achievement Award for Arts Professionals in Mid-Career. She is survived by her brother Don (Diane) McKenny; her nieces Trish and Molly; and nephew Sam; and a countless extended family of friends across the country. She joins her parents Donald and Martha McKenny somewhere in the great beyond, a realm she spent a lifetime exploring in her neverending spiritual quest. She was a friend to the goddesses, the universe and the Earth. She was a true and loyal friend, a loving sister and beloved aunt. She was and is an inspiration. And everyone who knew her will miss her. There will be a memorial service held at a later date.

Published in the Chicago Tribune on 7/2/2008.

...music originating in New Orleans around the beginning of the 20th century and subsequently developing through various increasingly complex styles, generally marked by intricate, propulsive rhythms, polyphonic ensemble playing, improvisatory, virtuosic solos, melodic freedom, and a harmonic idiom ranging from simple diatonicism through chromaticism to atonality.
jazz. Dictionary.com. Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1). Random House, Inc. http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/jazz (accessed: January 06, 2008).
...A form of American music that grew out of African-Americans' musical traditions at the beginning of the twentieth century. Jazz is generally considered a major contribution of the United States to the world of music. It quickly became a form of dance music, incorporating a “big beat” and solos by individual musicians. For many years, all jazz was improvised and taught orally, and even today jazz solos are often improvised.
"jazz." The American Heritage® New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, Third Edition. Houghton Mifflin Company, 2005. 06 Jan. 2008. http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/jazz>.

Check out the music page for clips from 2 new albums I helped record last year. Eliza Carney's children's album, and Janet Bates' "For All His Wealth"