Day 17 Jenn and Tony

Luckily for Tony, Jenn liked short, bold men on the stocky side. They met in a bar on Addison and Broadway in Chicago. But before they met, Jenn noticed Tony across the bar and thought, “Oh my God, who is that guy”.

Lina: What made you notice him?

Tony: Because I’m hot.

Jenn: Because he reminded me of my uncle Bruce. He looked like a quiet, strong man with strong morals. The kind of man that if you ever needed anything he’d be there. And then he came over and sat at the adjacent table!

It was their first time in ‘Jay’s’ (Joe’s, corrects Tony). They were both hanging out with their respective theatre companies and it so happened that someone from Jenn’s theatre company knew someone from Tony’s theatre company. And so they got talking. They got talking so much they closed the bar that night. And then Tony gave Jenn his business card.

Jenn was directing a show about strippers, so she emailed Tony the next day and asked him if he would be her sound designer.

Lina: Did you have ulterior motives?

Jenn: Yes.

Tony: Workplace harassment.

The crew had their first production meeting in a strip club. The set designer was stressing Jenn out, and she remembers thinking if she could keep her foot touching Tony’s foot, it would be ok. Tony didn’t notice.

They got together that night after it took Tony four hours to kiss Jenn, and it was like nothing Jenn had ever felt before.

They dated and broke up three times that year before they could make it work. Tony was working a part-time job that was sucking his soul, and he was homeless, trying to make it as a theatre artist. Jenn was struggling with undiagnosed depression. They were the right people for each other at the wrong time.

Jenn had been life-searching for two years before she met Tony. The apex of her self-discovery coincided with her meeting him. Having the right person in her life made her realise how wrong everything else was. So it didn’t work between them again and again. But they kept finding ways to be in each other’s lives through theatre productions and Tony didn’t judge Jenn through any of it.

And eventually it all came together. Once they were happier people alone, they figured out how to be happy together. Jenn and Tony married in 2005 and founded their own theatre company, Halcyon, in 2006. They have a three-year old, Tony Jr. and a one year-old, Charlotte.