Branden Jacobs-Jenkins
Branden Jacobs-Jenkins | |
---|---|
Washington, DC, U.S. | |
Occupation | Playwright |
Education | Princeton University (BA) New York University (MA) Juilliard School (GrDip) |
Notable awards | Obie Award Steinberg Playwright Award |
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, respectively. He was named a MacArthur Fellow 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.[1] He graduated from the Lila Acheson Wallace Playwrights Program at The Juilliard School.[2]
Jacob-Jenkins worked at the New Yorker where he edited and wrote reviews.[3]
Career
In 2013 Jacob-Jenkins became a member of the
Neighbors premiered
He received the 2014 Obie Award for Best New American Play for his plays Appropriate and An Octoroon.[1][8]
An Octoroon is an adaptation of
War premiered at the
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.[22] Directed by Lila Neugebauer, the cast includes Jocelyn Bioh, Brooke Bloom, Michael Braun, Marylouise Burke, Louis Cancelmi, Lilyana Tiare Cornell, David Patrick Kelly, Lakisha Michelle May and Chris Perfetti. The role of Everybody is chosen by lottery.[23][22][24] 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.”[25] Everybody is a finalist for the 2018 Pulitzer Prize for Drama.[26]
His 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.[27][28]
His work has been seen at
Jacobs-Jenkins currently serves on the board of Soho Rep in New York City.[30]
He joined the faculty of the
Gloria
A production was staged at London's Hampstead Theatre in June and July 2017.[40]
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.[41][42]
Honors
He received the Helen Merrill Award in Playwrighting, Emerging Playwright category, in 2011.[43]
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.[33][44]
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.”[45]
He received the
He was named a MacArthur Fellow, Class of 2016. The fellowship comes with a monetary award of $625,000, made in installments over five years.[51] 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."[52]
In 2018, Jacobs-Jenkins was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for Drama for his play Everybody.[53]
In 2020, he was awarded USA Artists and John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Fellowships.[54]
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)
- The Comeuppance (Off-Broadway, 2023)
- Purpose (Steppenwolf Theatre Company, 2024)
Awards and nominations
Year | Award | Category | Work | Result |
---|---|---|---|---|
2017 | Critics’ Circle Theatre Award[55] | Most Promising Playwright | Gloria and An Octoroon | Won |
References
- ^ a b c Witchel, Alex (November 23, 2014). "Branden Jacobs-Jenkins Is, and Is Not, Writing About Race". New York Times Magazine. Retrieved 17 February 2015.
- ^ "Branden Jacobs-Jenkins" Signature Theatre.com, accessed November 7, 2016
- ^ Gray, Margaret. "Spotlight shines brighter on 'Appropriate' playwright Branden Jacobs-Jenkins" Los Angeles Times, September 24, 2015
- ^ Jones, Kenneth. "Signature's Resident Playwrights Group Welcomes Dramatists Martha Clarke and Branden Jacobs-Jenkins", Playbill, January 16, 2013
- ^ Healy, Patrick. "New Play Puts an Old Face on Race" The New York Times, February 2, 2010
- ^ Stasio, Marilyn. "New Play Puts an Old Face on Race" Variety, March 7, 2010
- ^ Hetrick, Adam. "Branden Jacobs-Jenkins' 'Neighbors' Will Open Mixed Blood Season" 'Playbill, August 1, 2011
- ^ Gans, Andrew. "59th Annual Obie Award Winners Announced; Sydney Lucas Is Youngest Winner in Obie History" Playbill, May 19, 2014
- ^ Jones, Kenneth. "Playwright Branden Jacobs-Jenkins, whose minstrelsy-filled play Neighbors made a highly publicized debut at the Public Theater last winter, has now taken over as director of his latest work The Octoroon: An Adaptation Of The Octoroon Based On The Octoroon, which has delayed previews to June 19 at PS 122." Playbill, June 14, 2010
- ^ Brantley, Ben. "Review: ‘An Octoroon,’ a Branden Jacobs-Jenkins Comedy About Race" The New York Times, February 27, 2015
- ^ Magaril, Jon. "Review. An Octoroon" curtainup.com, accessed March 1, 2016
- ^ "2017/18 Season" Archived 2017-11-23 at the Wayback Machine artistsrep.org
- ^ "Branden Jacobs-Jenkins". Princeton University. Retrieved 17 February 2015.
- ^ " Appropriate Off-Broadway" lortel.org, accessed March 1, 2016
- ^ Billington, Michael. " Appropriate review – Branden Jacobs-Jenkins pushes everything to the limit" The Guardian, 23 August 2019
- ^ Grode, Eric (12 December 2023). "Branden Jacobs-Jenkins Revisits His 'Illusion of Suffering' on Broadway". The New York Times.
- ^ Brantley, Ben. "'War,' Branden Jacobs-Jenkins’s New Play" The New York Times, December 8, 2014
- ^ Clement, Olivia. "LCT Off-Broadway Season to Include Marco Ramirez' The Royale Plus Greg Pierce and Branden Jacobs-Jenkins Plays" Playbill, September 21, 2015
- ^ Clement, Olivia. "Branden Jacobs-Jenkins’ War Begins Tonight" Playbill, May 21, 2016
- ^ Stasio, Marilyn. "Off Broadway Review: War by Branden Jacobs-Jenkins" Variety, June 6, 2016
- ^ Sokol, Fred. "Regional Reviews. War. Yale Repertory Theatre" talkinbroadway.com, December 1, 2014, accessed March 2, 2016
- ^ a b Sullivan, Lindsay. "Branden Jacobs-Jenkins' Everybody Extends Before Opening Night Off-Broadway" broadway.com, February 13, 2017
- ^ Clement, Olivia. "Branden Jacobs-Jenkins’ 'Everybody' Begins Jan. 31" Playbill, January 31, 2017
- ^ " Everybody Off-Broadway Production" lortel.org, retrieved February 14, 2017
- ^ Haun, Harry. "Why You Need to Know the Name Brandon Jacobs-Jenkins" Playbill, February 27, 2017
- ^ McPhee, Ryan. "Martyna Majok’s 'Cost of Living' Wins 2018 Pulitzer Prize for Drama" Playbill, April 16, 2018
- ^ Clement, Olivia. "Branden Jacobs-Jenkins' Girls Will Be All-New Spin on The Bacchae—With Live DJ, Dance Music, and Video" Playbill, March 29, 2019
- ^ Girls yalerep.org, accessed August 23, 2019
- ^ "Branden Jacobs-Jenkins". Signature Theater. Archived from the original on 18 February 2015. Retrieved 17 February 2015.
- ^ "Staff & Board | Soho Rep". sohorep.org. Retrieved 2017-03-21.
- ^ "Annie Baker and Branden Jacobs-Jenkins to Join Faculty of UT Austin" americantheatre.org, January 29, 2019
- ^ Gloria lortel.org, accessed March 1, 2016
- ^ a b Jones, Kenneth. "Vineyard Plans New-Play Readings and "Reunion" Presentations of Hits The Dying Gaul, Pterodactyls and More" Playbill, September 14, 2012.
- ^ Gloria vineyardtheatre.org, accessed April 18, 2016
- ^ "2016 Lucile Lortel Award Nominations Announced" Playbill, March 30, 2016
- ^ Viagas, Robert. "'Hamilton' Wins 2016 Pulitzer Prize; Miranda Reacts" Playbill, April 18, 2016
- ^ "Winners" pulitzer.org, accessed April 18, 2016
- ^ Viagas, Roibert. "2016 Outer Critics Circle Nominees Announced" Playbill, April 19, 2016
- ^ Gans, Andrew. "2016 Drama League Awards Nominations Announced" Playbill, April 20, 2016
- ^ Franklin, Marc J. "First Look at Hampstead Theatre's Production of Gloria " Playbill, June 19, 2017
- ^ "A.C.T. To Stream GLORIA and TONI STONE on BroadwayHD".
- ^ "A.C.T. Offering Ticket Holders—And New Patrons—Access to Recordings of Gloria and Toni Stone". 17 March 2020.
- ^ Hetrick, Adam. "Playwrights Branden Jacobs-Jenkins, Dorothy Fortenberry, Dan LeFranc, Radha Blank and Lisa Kron are the recipients of the 2011 Helen Merrill Awards in Playwrighting" Playbill, September 28, 2011.
- ^ "Branden Jacobs-Jenkins Wins 4th Annual Paula Vogel Playwriting Award" stage-directions.com, accessed March 2, 2016.
- ^ "Branden Jacobs-Jenkins, Dominique Morisseau Win 2015 Steinberg Playwright Awards" americantheatre.org September 22, 2015.
- ^ Clement, Olivia. "Branden Jacobs-Jenkins Named Windham-Campbell Prize Winner" Playbill, March 1, 2016
- ^ "Branden Jacobs-Jenkins". Windham–Campbell Literature Prize. February 29, 2016. Archived from the original on March 4, 2016. Retrieved March 2, 2016.
- ^ Maggie Galehouse (March 1, 2016). "PEN Literary Award winners announced". Chron. Retrieved March 2, 2016.
- ^ "2016 PEN Literary Award Winners". PEN. March 1, 2016. Retrieved March 2, 2016.
- ^ "Creative Capital - Investing in Artists who Shape the Future". creative-capital.org. Archived from the original on 2016-11-15. Retrieved 2016-11-14.
- ^ "Fellows Class of 2016" macfound.org, accessed September 22, 2016.
- ^ Gans, Andrew. "Playwright Branden Jacobs-Jenkins Among MacArthur “Genius” Grant Winners" Playbill, September 22, 2016.
- ^ "Pulitzer Prize Winners" The New York Times, April 16, 2018
- ^ "Brandon Jacobs-Jenkins" John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation
- ^ "2017 Results | Critics' Circle Theatre Awards". Critics' Circle Theatre Awards. 2018-01-31. Retrieved 2020-12-06.