A Rockford native who recently finished a run in the musical Hamilton is now starring in another Broadway hit.
Lana Zoe Jensen is playing the role of Katherine Howard in the Broadway musical “Six.” This play tells the story of the six wives of Henry VIII.
Jensen uses her middle name for acting and said she never really used her first name. She said her parents have always called her by her middle name.
“I don't fully understand the story,” she said. “My mom's name is Lani, l-a-n-i and I don't know if, I mean, I'm sure that might be why they named me Lana, but I think they've always known that they wanted my name to be Zoe. But they were like it sounds better as a middle name. And now I have a cool fun fact.”
Jensen is an only child. She said her mother used to entertain her by letting her sing.
“There's a video of me sitting on the bathroom counter,” she recalled. “I'm probably like 3 years old and I'm opening my mouth and I'm singing while I'm like poking and prodding as if I'm like, ‘How is this happening right now?’ like pulling up my tongue like, literally.”
Jensen said she loved pretending to be Disney princesses and often played the part of Ariel from the Little Mermaid. Her stage – a balcony in her family’s home.
Her interest in theater didn’t happen until middle school. Carolyn Cadigan was Jensen’s sixth grade drama teacher. She encouraged Jensen to try out for a part in a local Wizard of OZ production. Jensen thought she would be a munchkin in the play but ended up grabbing the star role.
Jensen continued her education at Southern Illinois University in Carbondale. After graduation, many of her classmates headed to New York to find work but Jensen took a detour. Her first thought was to try and find work in Chicago. Instead, she ended up in another Midwest city.
“My first professional job was actually in Cincinnati, Ohio at a children's theater, the Children's Theatre of Cincinnati," she said, "which at the time, you know, if you look at a map, it didn't feel like I was going the right direction.”
It turns out that is the exact path that she was supposed to take. Jensen said she met people there who later served as mentors for her. These guides helped her with connections in New York.
Her first big job happened in 2019. She was cast to play the role of Elizabeth Schuyler Hamilton. Jensen said getting this role meant that her parents didn’t have to worry about her anymore.
“I get emotional because I was just like, so happy to show them that, like you believed in me,” she said. “And I knew that you believed in me. So, because of that, I knew that I had to work really, really hard. And yeah, I just love making my parents proud.”
She said most artists are conditioned to think that the chance of them making it big is slim.
Jensen said she misses being on the stage with the huge Hamilton cast but welcomes the more intimate production.
“I love Six because it's the opposite of Hamilton in the sense that it's very short. It's very happy even though my character song is a little down,” she said. “The show in general is very high energy and fun. And we get to look at the audience in the eye the whole time and it's so fun. By the end, everyone is like clapping and laughing and like smiling.”
Jensen does not want to make theater her main focal point. She said she loves learning about music production and music writing and wants to collaborate with other artists. She minored in journalism in college and said writing is another love of hers. She used to write poetry in high school and shares that her paternal grandmother was a poet.
Jensen has a message for hopefuls in her hometown.
“New York and Broadway and your dreams might seem far away -- as like being in a small Midwest area. But I'm telling you, you can do it. You can do it.”
Jensen is performing in Six for the next year. After that ends, she said she will simply walk the path that is laid out for her.
- Yvonne Boose is a current corps member for Report for America, an initiative of the GroundTruth Project. It's a national service program that places talented journalists in local newsrooms like WNIJ. You can learn more about Report for America at wnij.org.
