Branden Jacobs-Jenkins is an American playwright. He won the 2014 Obie Award for Best New American Play for his plays '' Appropriate'' and '' An Octoroon''. His plays '' Gloria'' and '' Everybody'' were finalists for the 2016 and 2018

Pulitzer Prize for Drama The Pulitzer Prize for Drama is one of the seven American Pulitzer Prizes that are annually awarded for Letters, Drama, and Music. It is one of the original Pulitzers, for the program was inaugurated in 1917 with seven prizes, four of which were a ...

respectively. He was named a

MacArthur Fellow The MacArthur Fellows Program, also known as the MacArthur Fellowship and commonly but unofficially known as the "Genius Grant", is a prize awarded annually by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation typically to between 20 and 30 indi ...

for 2016.

Early life

Jacobs-Jenkins was born in Washington, DC. His father, Benjamin Jenkins, is a retired dentist and his mother, Patricia Jacobs, is a business consultant. He graduated from Princeton University in 2006, with a major in anthropology, and earned a master's degree in performance studies from New York University's Tisch School of the Arts in 2007. He has taught playwriting at the Tisch School and also at Princeton. He graduated from the Lila Acheson Wallace Playwrights Program at The

Juilliard School The Juilliard School ( ) is a private performing arts conservatory in New York City. Established in 1905, the school trains about 850 undergraduate and graduate students in dance, drama, and music. It is widely regarded as one of the most elit ...

."Branden Jacobs-Jenkins"
Signature Theatre.com, accessed November 7, 2016 He worked at the ''New Yorker '' where he edited and wrote reviews.Gray, Margaret

''Los Angeles Times'', September 24, 2015

Career

He became a member of the Signature Theatre Residency Five program in 2013. The program "guarantees three full productions of new work." ''Neighbors'' premiered Off-Broadway at the

Public Theater The Public Theater is a New York City arts organization founded as the Shakespeare Workshop in 1954 by Joseph Papp, with the intention of showcasing the works of up-and-coming playwrights and performers.Epstein, Helen. ''Joe Papp: An American ...

/Public LAB in February - March 2010,Stasio, Marilyn
"New Play Puts an Old Face on Race"
''Variety'', March 7, 2010 and was then presented at the Matrix Theatre Company, Los Angeles in August 2010, directed by Nataki Garrett. The play was produced by the Mixed Blood Theater,

Minneapolis Minneapolis () is the largest city in Minnesota, United States, and the county seat of Hennepin County. The city is abundant in water, with thirteen lakes, wetlands, the Mississippi River, creeks and waterfalls. Minneapolis has its origins ...

, Minnesota in September to October 2011, also directed by Nataki Garrett. It premiered in Boston in 2011 with Company One. He received the 2014 Obie Award for Best New American Play for his plays '' Appropriate'' and '' An Octoroon''. ''An Octoroon'' is an adaptation of '' The Octoroon'' by

Dion Boucicault Dionysius Lardner "Dion" Boucicault (né Boursiquot; 26 December 1820 – 18 September 1890) was an Irish actor and playwright famed for his melodramas. By the later part of the 19th century, Boucicault had become known on both sides of the ...

. It first ran at

Performance Space New York Performance Space New York, formerly known as Performance Space 122 or P.S. 122, is a non-profitable arts organization founded in 1980 in the East Village neighborhood of Manhattan in an abandoned public school building. Origin The former eleme ...

from June 24 to July 3, 2010. It then ran

Off-Off-Broadway Off-off-Broadway theaters are smaller New York City theaters than Broadway and off-Broadway theaters, and usually have fewer than 100 seats. The off-off-Broadway movement began in 1958 as part of a response to perceived commercialism of the pro ...

at the Soho Rep in April 2014 to June 2014 and then at the Polonsky Shakespeare Center, Brooklyn, New York, from February 2015 to March 29, 2015.

Artists Repertory Theatre Artists Repertory Theatre (Artists Rep) is a professional non-profit theatre located in Portland, Oregon, United States. The longest-running professional theatre company in Portland, since 1982 the company has focused on presenting the works of ...

, Portland, Oregon, staged ''An Octoroon'' from September 3 to October 1, 2017. '' Appropriate'' was produced Off-Broadway by the Signature Theatre, at the Pershing Square Signature Center, from March 16, 2014 to April 13, 2014. The play was nominated for the Outer Critics Circle Award for Outstanding New Off-Broadway Play, and also won 2014 Obie Awards for Direction (Liesl Tommy) and Performance (Johanna Day). Michael Billington in his review of the 2019 production at the

Donmar Warehouse The Donmar Warehouse is a 251-seat, not-for-profit theatre in Covent Garden, London, England. It first opened on 18 July 1977. Sam Mendes, Michael Grandage and Josie Rourke have all served as artistic director, a post held since 2019 by Mi ...

(London), wrote: "...he appropriates the classic American family drama with results that are both gravely serious and mordantly funny...What is exhilarating about the play is that Jacobs-Jenkins pushes everything to the limits." ''War'' premiered at the

Yale Repertory Theatre Yale Repertory Theatre at Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut was founded by Robert Brustein, dean of Yale School of Drama, in 1966, with the goal of facilitating a meaningful collaboration between theatre professionals and talented stude ...

New Haven New Haven is a city in the U.S. state of Connecticut. It is located on New Haven Harbor on the northern shore of Long Island Sound in New Haven County, Connecticut and is part of the New York City metropolitan area. With a population of 134,023 ...

, in December 2014, as a commission from the Yale Rep. Directed by Lileana Blain-Cruz, the cast featured

Tonya Pinkins Tonya Pinkins (born May 30, 1962) is an American actress and filmmaker. Her award-winning debut feature film ''RED PILL'' was an official selection at the 2021 Pan African Film Festival, won the Best Black Lives Matter Feature and Best First Fea ...

, Philippe Bowgen, Rachael Holmes, Greg Keller and Trezana Beverley. ''War'' opened at the

Lincoln Center Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts (also simply known as Lincoln Center) is a complex of buildings in the Lincoln Square neighborhood on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. It has thirty indoor and outdoor facilities and is host to 5 milli ...

LCT3 series Off-Broadway on May 21, 2016 in previews, officially on June 6, directed by Lileana Blain-Cruz, and ran through July 3. He wrote ''War'' while on a Fulbright Fellowship in Germany. His play '' Everybody'' was produced Off-Broadway by the Signature Theatre, and opened on January 31, 2017 in previews, officially on February 21. The play is "a modern riff on one of the oldest plays in the English language." ''Everybody'' is suggested by the 15th-century morality play ''

Everyman The everyman is a stock character of fiction. An ordinary and humble character, the everyman is generally a protagonist whose benign conduct fosters the audience's identification with them. Origin The term ''everyman'' was used as early as ...

''. Directed by Lila Neugebauer, the cast includes Jocelyn Bioh, Brooke Bloom, Michael Braun,

Marylouise Burke use both this parameter and , birth_date to display the person's date of birth, date of death, and age at death) --> , death_place = , death_cause = , body_discovered = , resting_place = , resting_place_coordinates ...

, Louis Cancelmi, Lilyana Tiare Cornell, David Patrick Kelly, Lakisha Michelle May and

Chris Perfetti Chris Perfetti (born December 12, 1988) is an American actor. He currently portrays Jacob Hill on the ABC comedy ''Abbott Elementary'', for which he was nominated for a Critics' Choice Award. His other roles include Tim Fletch on the NBC series ...

. The role of Everybody is chosen by lottery.Sullivan, Lindsay
"Branden Jacobs-Jenkins' ''Everybody'' Extends Before Opening Night Off-Broadway"
broadway.com, February 13, 2017 Jacobs-Jenkins explained the play: "The concept...is that every night there’ll be a different Everyman, chosen by lottery, so the cast will shift a lot. This may be an insane idea. We’re assuming all these lovely actors are going to memorize the entire script.” ''Everybody'' is a finalist for the 2018

. His most recent play ''Girls'' premiered at Yale Repertory Theatre from October 4, 2019 to October 26. The play was directed by Lileana Blain-Cruz and choreographed by Raja Feather Kelly. The play is a contemporary version of Euripides’ Greek tragedy ''The Bacchae'', and contains dance music and live-streaming video. His work has been seen at

The Public Theater The Public Theater is a New York City arts organization founded as the Shakespeare Workshop in 1954 by Joseph Papp, with the intention of showcasing the works of up-and-coming playwrights and performers.Epstein, Helen. ''Joe Papp: An American Li ...

, Signature Theater, PS122,

Soho Rep The Soho Repertory Theatre, known as Soho Rep,The official website'now use "Soho", with a lowercase h, as do most articles from th''New York Times''/ref> is an American Off-Broadway theater company based in New York City which is notable for prod ...

, Actors Theater of Louisville, The Matrix Theatre in Los Angeles, Mixed Blood Theatre in Minneapolis, the

Wilma Theater (Philadelphia) The Wilma Theater is a non-profit theater company located at 265 S. Broad Street at the corner of Spruce Street in the Avenue of the Arts area of Center City, Philadelphia. The company's current 296-seat theater opened in 1996 and was designed ...

, CompanyOne and SpeakEasy Stage in Boston, Theater Bielefeld in Bielefeld, Germany, the National Theatre in London, and the HighTide Festival in the UK. Jacobs-Jenkins currently serves on the board of

in New York City. He will join the faculty of the

University of Texas The University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin, UT, or Texas) is a public research university in Austin, Texas. It was founded in 1883 and is the oldest institution in the University of Texas System. With 40,916 undergraduate students, 11,075 ...

at Austin MFA playwriting program, in the 2019 semester. He is joined by

Annie Baker Annie Baker (born April 1981) is an American playwright and teacher who won the 2014 Pulitzer Prize for her play ''The Flick.'' Among her works are the Shirley, Vermont plays, which take place in the fictional town of Shirley: ''Circle Mirror Tr ...

, with whom he served as co-artistic directors for the MFA playwriting program at Hunter College of the City University of New York.

''Gloria''

'' Gloria'' was produced Off-Broadway at the

Vineyard Theatre The Vineyard Theatre is an Off-Broadway non-profit theatre company, located at 108 East 15th Street in Manhattan, New York City, near Union Square. Its first production was in 1981. It is best known for its productions of the Tony award-winning ...

from June 15, 2015 to July 18, 2015 and was directed by Evan Cabnet. The play received a workshop at the Vineyard Theatre in January 2013. The play concerns an "ambitious group of editorial assistants at a notorious Manhattan magazine." ''Gloria'' was nominated for the 2016

Lucille Lortel Award The Lucille Lortel Awards recognize excellence in New York Off-Broadway theatre. The Awards are named for Lucille Lortel, an actress and theater producer, and have been awarded since 1986. They are produced by the League of Off-Broadway Theatre ...

, Outstanding Play. ''Gloria'' was a finalist for the 2016

. The Pulitzer committee wrote: "A play of wit and irony that deftly transports the audience from satire to thriller and back again." ''Gloria'' received two nominations for the

Outer Critics Circle The Outer Critics Circle Awards are presented annually for theatrical achievements both on Broadway and Off-Broadway. They are presented by the Outer Critics Circle (OCC), the official organization of New York theater writers for out-of-town newspa ...

Award: Outstanding New Off-Broadway Play; and Outstanding Director of a Play. The play was nominated for the 2016

Drama League Award The Drama League Awards, created in 1922, honor distinguished productions and performances both on Broadway and Off-Broadway, in addition to recognizing exemplary career achievements in theatre, musical theatre, and directing. Each May, the awards ...

for Outstanding Production of a Broadway or Off-Broadway Play. A production was staged at London's

Hampstead Theatre Hampstead Theatre is a theatre in South Hampstead in the London Borough of Camden. It specialises in commissioning and producing new writing, supporting and developing the work of new writers. Roxana Silbert has been the artistic director since ...

in June and July 2017. A production was staged at San Francisco's American Conservatory Theater opening in February 2020 and closed early due to the COVID-19 pandemic. A livestream of the show was made available for a limited time.

Honors

He received the Helen Merrill Award in Playwrighting, Emerging Playwright category, in 2011. He received the Paula Vogel Award from the Vineyard Theatre in 2011. The award is "presented annually to an emerging writer of exceptional promise." He was in residence at the Vineyard Theatre in 2011 because of the award.Jones, Kenneth
"Vineyard Plans New-Play Readings and "Reunion" Presentations of Hits The Dying Gaul, Pterodactyls and More"
Playbill, September 14, 2012. He was given the Steinberg Playwrights Award in 2015. Paige Evans, the artistic director of LCT3 said that his "plays are fiercely intelligent, ambitious, and boldly theatrical.... They challenge, entertain, and unsettle audiences, making us laugh, gasp, and think deeply about race, class, personal ambition, and other complex issues.” He received the Windham–Campbell Literature Prize (Drama) at

Yale University Yale University is a Private university, private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the List of Colonial Colleges, third-oldest institution of higher education in the United Sta ...

in 2016; the prize includes a cash amount of $150,000. He received the 2016 PEN/Laura Pels Theater Award, Emerging American Playwright. In 2016, he also received a

Creative Capital Creative Capital is a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization based in New York City that supports artists across the United States through funding, counsel, gatherings, and career development services. Since its founding in 1999, Creative Capital has commi ...

award with collaborating artist Carmelita Tropicana. He was named a

, Class of 2016. The fellowship comes with a monetary award of $625,000, made in installments over five years. The foundation noted, in part: "Many of Jacobs-Jenkins’s plays use a historical lens to satirize and comment on modern culture, particularly the ways in which race and class are negotiated in both private and public settings." In 2018, Jacobs-Jenkins was a finalist for the

for his play ''Everybody''. In 2020, he was awarded USA Artists and John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Fellowships."Brandon Jacobs-Jenkins"
John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation

Plays

* ''Neighbors'' (Off-Broadway, 2010) * ''War'' (Yale Repertory Theatre, 2014) * '' Appropriate'' (Off-Broadway, 2014) * '' An Octoroon'' (Off-Broadway, 2014) * ''Gloria'' (Off-Broadway, 2015) *'' Everybody'' (Off-Broadway, 2017) *''Girls'' (Yale Repertory Theatre, 2019)

Awards and nominations

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Jacobs-Jenkins, Branden 21st-century American dramatists and playwrights African-American dramatists and playwrights Obie Award recipients Living people Princeton University alumni 1984 births American male dramatists and playwrights MacArthur Fellows MacDowell Colony fellows Writers from Washington, D.C. Juilliard School alumni Tisch School of the Arts alumni Tisch School of the Arts faculty 21st-century American male writers