Cosmetics job inspires Wheaton native's new play

The inspiration for Jennifer Dobby's new play "Tester," about a cosmetics worker trapped in a dysfunctional family, came to her while she was at work - at cosmetics retailer Sephora.

"I went to this huge training seminar," Dobby says. "We were studying and learning all this stuff about cosmetics and skin care."

In a flash she had her premise, an interlocking group of hard-boiled dysfunctional characters and at the center a woman, Dinah, who is determined despite her less-than-ideal circumstances to become a cosmetologist. That story line turned into "Tester," opening Friday, Nov. 7 at the Viaduct Theatre in Chicago.

Nicole Gilman, who directs the production calls it a "definite brick-to-the-jaw play...distinctly Chicago, strong, gritty, and straight to the point."

And where did Dobby learn her gritty Chicago voice? Wheaton, where she grew up. And Benet Academy in Lisle. That's where she graduated in 1998. If that seems unlikely, remember that Diablo Cody, the woman who wrote the screenplay for "Juno" also came from Benet. "She is about four years older than me," Dobby says.

Dobby credits Benet with giving her the foundation for her writing. "The school has a very serious college preparatory program," Dobby says, crediting her creative writing teacher, Tom White, who just retired, with giving her the courage to write.

"I wrote a play for my creative writing class," Dobby says, "and I entered it in a student play competition at the University of Wisconsin - Whitewater. It all started right there."

After Benet, Dobby went to the University of Illinois and then returned to Chicago to break into theater. Oddly enough, the place where she broke in was the publicity department at the Goodman Theatre, where she worked as the assistant to the Goodman's legendary publicist, Cindy Bandle.

"She taught me that writing is about cutting everything down to the bare minimum," Dobby says, "She would write all over my press releases: "Too much fluff." It was a completely different kind of writing than I was used to. "

Dobby was working at the Goodman when Bandle was stricken with cancer. Her death left a void at the Goodman - and in the Chicago theater scene.

"I stayed about six months after she died," Dobby says. "But everything was so different."

So Dobby moved on, leaving her still nascent career in public relations to return to her first love in theater, writing. She enrolled in the newly formed Screen + Stage master of fine arts program at Northwestern University. There she studied with the likes of playwright Rebecca Gilman. It was in Gilman's class that Dobby wrote an early draft of the play that became "Tester."

"We had to write a different 10-minute play every week," Dobby says. "The challenge for me was to write a naturalistic play. I was more comfortable writing comedies. But Gilman said to me, 'You write best with your feet in the mud.'"

That is, she did best when she was writing about people who did not like to get dirty who are forced by circumstances to do just that.

"I started thinking," Dobby says, "who would hate to have their feet in the mud?" That's when Dobby came up with the cosmetologist Dinah and her many travails trying to learn her craft.

It took her about three weeks to work out the story - and then she continued to polish the story through numerous workshops and readings. But the basics all came to her in that one flash of insight while she was at her training seminar.

"Tester" opens November 7 at the 20% Theatre Company at the Viaduct Theater, 3111 N. Western, Chicago, and runs through December 6. Get tickets at (773) 296-6024 or viaducttheatre.com.