Essie Jenyns

Elizabeth Esther Helen Jennings was born in Brisbane in 1864. Her father, Charles Jennings, was a chemist who died in 1871 when Jenyns was seven. To support the family, her mother, Emily née Morse or Moss, became an actress using the stage name Kate Arden and married William James Holloway, an actor and stage manager in 1877.[1]

Jenyns began her stage career in Leah, the Forsaken at the Theatre Royal in Hobart in January 1879. Her performance was reviewed as "childlike and natural as little Leah, and gave promise of future success in parts of this description".[2] Next, in After Dark, she "surprised everyone by her natural rendering of Johnny Williams, a 'sidewalk merchant prince'".[3] At age 18 her Ophelia was described in The Bulletin as "a performance full of promise... We shall watch this young lady's career with interest".[4]

In 1884 she went Europe with her mother and step-father where she studied the acting techniques of Sara Bernhardt, Ellen Terry and Mary Anderson. Returning to Sydney in 1886 the Holloway company opened at the Opera House. with a 14-week season with Jenyns in the leading roles and playing to capacity audiences. This was followed by a further 16 weeks at the Criterion Theatre and a 14-week season at the Opera House in Melbourne.[5]

Jenyns received acclaim for performances as Juliet in Romeo and Juliet, Viola in Twelfth Night and Portia in The Merchant of Venice and in other Shakespearean roles.[5]

Jenyns married John Robert Wood, a Newcastle brewer, at St. Andrew's Cathedral, Sydney on 5 December 1888 and retired from the stage. She died in a private hospital in Killara on 6 August 1920. The funeral took place at the Christ Church Cathedral before her burial at Sandgate Cemetery, near Newcastle.[6] She was survived by her husband and two children — Lieut. John Morton Devereux Wood, M.C. and Esther Lyal Wood.[7]