[NoHo Arts District, CA] – A NoHo Arts theatre review of “My Year of Saying No,” written and performed by Janice Creneti and developed and directed by Jessica Lynn Johnson.
“My Year of Saying No” is a masterclass in what a solo show can be – beautifully paced, poignant, purposeful and funny. Janice Creneti guides us through the last few years of her life…and ours. An awakening journey, connected to us through Covid and the collective re-examining of our lives.
How many of us have flipped a switch, turned a corner, changed our lives and, in Janice’s case, learned how to say no? Covid gave us more space than many of us were comfortable with, while also exposing us to a heightened sense of mortality and danger. This combination had a profound effect, whether we have chosen to acknowledge it or to explore that ourselves.
In “My Year of Saying No,” Janice Creneti bares her soul and shows us her own very personal journey with covid the mirror to her own life and what it became. The characters she conjures up to help her tell her story, pieces of herself, are subtle and ingeniously drawn. For a solo show the ‘show’ is kept to a minimum in many ways. She doesn’t rely on drama or the zany to tell her story. Instead, she shares herself intuitively, gracefully, and this highly relatable storytelling technique is incredibly effective and compelling.
An overachiever. A ‘yes’ woman. A career expanding, force of nature, Janice Creneti was the last person on earth anyone would expect to put limits on herself, or what others ask or expected of her. But what the Covid shutdown and the subsequent political push back taught us anything, it was to expect the unexpected.
In this hour-long deep dive into her own awakening Janice expertly and with nuanced and often hilariously accurate eloquence picks apart the flawed and supremely feminine need to please, to support others and to never put ourselves at the top of anyone’s list, let alone our own. Janice turns the tables on herself, her own perceptions, her own misplaced and misdirected resentments and, through that, she finds her peace.
“My Year of Saying No” is a show so well written it should be an essay on the female evolution. But then Janice Creneti is well equipped to present such a thorough, delightfully complex and highly entertaining solo show. Her background is in education, and wow…what a presence she must be in the classroom!
We are always curious about the how and why of solo shows…so we asked Janice about it!
You are a gifted writer. You could have written a book, a movie script, why a solo show?
Theater is my love, my passion. There is just something about a dark room and a lit stage that magically transports me to a new world. I thrive off the in-person connection with an audience. I had a coach say to me once that my voice, my performing was my power. So it made sense that theater would be the medium I used to share the most important story of my life. I’ve been performing for over thirty years and I always thought “some day, I’ll do a one-woman show.” The story and the opportunity aligned in July 2021 so I just dove in!
How long did this take you to take from idea to stage?
About 4 months – what I now consider to be an insanely short timeline. But it was one of those situations where unexpected events lead to new possibilities. I’d thought for years about doing a one-woman show but had no idea what the subject matter would be. It was just after the first anniversary of COVID when I was talking to a friend and mentioned how year one of COVID had been my year of saying no. She commented it was a great title for a book. About a month after that, I received a notice that Powerstories Theatre in Tampa, where I had previously performed and directed and where I had learned the art of personal storytelling, was holding their first Voices of Women Theatre Festival and they were seeking original scripts for consideration. But I had another theater project scheduled for the same time, so I didn’t think about moving forward with it. Then, less than a week before the submission deadline, the other theater project fell through. The thought flickered through my mind that maybe My Year of Saying No was the title of a one-woman show and I decided it was a sign to move forward. I banged out the initial story in four days – nothing like a sudden deadline to get you moving! Then I worked with Jessica Lynn Johnson, Soaring Solo Studios over the next three and a half months to turn what was really just a narrative story into a show with multimedia and multiple characters. In the month leading up to performance it was a lot of rehearsing and rewriting as I found each of the character’s voices.
Tell me about your process, how do you get the ideas out of your head and onto the paper?
I am a brainstormer. I do a lot of ruminating and then I just jump in head first pouring out everything I can. For me, it works better to move with inspiration rather than force it. I try not to judge the initial writing but just get it captured. Then I can edit and refine as needed. I did several things with Soaring Solo that really helped including FREEwrite Fridays, their character intensive and one-on-one coaching. These were critical in helping me really develop and shape the many characters in my show as well as getting the arc of the story really solid.
What advice would you give aspiring writers and performers?
Not to steal from Nike, but just do it. Put all the judgment and questioning aside and just let the art come to life through you. Consume a lot of the art you are wanting to produce. Jessica encouraged me to watch as much solo theater as I could and that has been great advice. Embrace being a beginner. Let yourself enjoy the process. Embarking on the solo theater journey, there was so much to learn but that made it exciting and invigorating. Find collaborative spaces where you can share with and learn from other artists. Find a great teacher and coach. My working with Soaring Solo Studios was not only pivotal in the quality of the final product but in how much I was able to enjoy creating it.
Please add anything you would like to say about the play and why you wrote it.
Before the pandemic, I was moving at 90 miles an hour, just surviving from one day to the next. When COVID shut everything down and my life came to a grinding halt, I started to take a hard look at my life. I realized how much of what wasn’t serving me was from years of societal programming about who and how I should be. I also realized I had a choice to continue to operate from that place or choose a different path. Having some serious health scares during that time amplified the message that life is short and tomorrow isn’t promised to us and it’s up to us to create the life we want, one small choice at a time. I regained control of my life by outing all the pesky voices in my head like guilt, perfection, and the Patriarchy so I could let go of what wasn’t serving me. It was challenging work but it was DOABLE and I want to share that message with everyone I can – embrace your right to thrive.
Thank you Janice! “MyYear of Saying No” is a truly inspiring show…
“MyYear of Saying No” will be next be seen as part of the Tampa Fringe Festival on May 11th, 13th and 14th. So if you happen to be in Florida I would highly recommend it!
You can find out more about Janice and her many, many skills on her website: