Branden Jacobs-Jenkins News

Theatre for a New Audience (TFANA; Jeffrey Horowitz, Founding Artistic Director) presents the New York Premiere of C.I.C.T. - Theatre du Bouffes du Nord's The Prisoner, continuing Peter Brook's 40-year-long collaboration with playwright/director Marie-Helene Estienne.  

The Sandra Feinstein-Gamm Theatre (The Gamm) continues Season 34 (2018-2019) with Branden Jacobs-Jenkins' Gloria, an alarming and bitingly funny drama by one of the most celebrated young playwrights in American theater. Jacobs-Jenkins' scathing satire of the media and the public's hunger for sensational news stories was a finalist for the 2016 Pulitzer Prize. His last two plays, An Octoroon and Appropriate, took on race and bigotry and won him the Obie for Best American Play for both scripts. Jacobs-Jenkins 'has established himself as one of the country's most original and unsettling dramatists,' declared the New York Times.

Following their Jeff Award Recommended run of Branden Jacobs-Jenkins' regional premiere of EVERYBODY, Brown Paper Box Co. continues their 2018/2019 season with a 2-night presentation of BOOMBOX: a (sort of) solo show by Jeff Award nominee Hannah Starr (they/them). BOOMBOX runs 2 nights only - November 26, 2018 and December 1, 2018 at The Frontier (1106 W Thorndale Ave.).

This winter, Lincoln Center Theater/LCT3 will produce the world premiere of MARYS SEACOLE, a new play by Jackie Sibblies Drury, directed by Lileana Blain-Cruz, at the Claire Tow Theater (150 West 65 Street).

Nancy Manocherian's the cell (Artistic Director Kira Simring) in Chelsea, New York City has announced Sandra A. Daley-Sharif's play Straddling the Edge as part of the cell's ongoing residency series. Artistic Director Kira Simring will direct and features Almeria Campbell, Jacqueline Gregg, Nathan Hinton, Justin Jorrell, Travis Raeburn and Robert McKay. Perri Gaffney will read stage directions.

Playing On Air announced today the three winners of the inaugural James Stevenson Prize for comedic short plays. First Prize ($7,500, plus a Playing On Air recording for radio and podcast distribution) has been awarded to Hate Baby by Gracie Gardner. (Gardner is also the winner of the 2017 Relentless Award and author of the New York Times Critic's Pick Athena.) Second Prize ($2,000) has been awarded to Hedgehog Years by Lily Akerman. Third Prize ($1,000) has been awarded to Horse Latitudes (Who Wants to be an Equine Extra?) by Elizabeth Logun.

Vineyard Theatre's 2018-19 Paula Vogel Playwriting Award was recently presented to Jeremy O. Harris.

Southern Rep Theatre has announced that its Regional Premiere production of A DOLL'S HOUSE, PART 2, by Lucas Hnath, will extend one additional week, running now through October 28. The production opened Monday, October 8 to rave reviews and is the first Mainstage production of Southern Rep's 2018-19 season in their new permanent home located at 2541 Bayou Road, New Orleans. 

The New York premiere of Ngozi Anyanwu's GOOD GRIEF, directed by Awoye Timpo, will begin performances the Vineyard Theatre (108 East 15th Street) on Thursday, October 11.  Opening night is set for Tuesday, October 30th.

Following their Jeff Award Recommended run of Branden Jacobs-Jenkins' regional premiere of EVERYBODY, Brown Paper Box Co. concludes their 2018/2019 season with the Chicago storefront premiere of Little Women the Musical running January 11-February 9, 2019 at Strawdog Theatre Company.

Today ChiChi Anyanwu of the NYC Black Theater Network, Marcia Pendelton, President of Walk Tall Girl Productions/Black Theater Online, and the award-winning Vineyard Theatre announced BLACK PLAYWRIGHTS: THEY SPEAK. WHO LISTENS? A Black Theater Fall Preview: Off Broadway Edition.

The Lark, a theater company devoted to the support of visionary playwrights and the development of new plays, is thrilled to announce five New York City-based playwrights have been named as the 2018-19 Rita Goldberg Playwrights' Workshop Fellows. The group spans a wide range of backgrounds and professional experiences and will meet regularly throughout the year to develop new plays.

West Coast premiere of Gloria - Extended through Oct. 28: A razor-sharp, darkly comic drama about ambition, office warfare and pecking orders.

Southern Rep Theatre today announced that The Acting Company, Southern Rep's selected group of exceptionally talented local performers who collaborate and create with the organization annually, will present a production of Branden Jacobs-Jenkins' EVERYBODY. A smash hit Off-Broadway in 2017, the production will be directed by Southern Rep's newly appointed Associate Artistic Director, Helen Jaksch, and will play a limited engagement, November 7 - 17, 2018 at Southern Rep's new permanent home located at 2541 Bayou Road, New Orleans. 

Producer Victoria Weinberg announced today that Ali Skye Bennet's new play RAFETUS will receive an invited presentation, directed by Jill DeArmon, this Today, September 28, 2018 at 11:00am and 2:30pm at The New Ripley-Grier (305 W. 38th St.) in New York City.  Based on a true story, RAFETUS was developed in part at the HBMG Foundation's National Winter Playwright's Retreat, is a 2018­19 Woodward/Newman Drama Award Finalist, and a 2017 Finalist and 2018 Semifinalist for the National Playwrights Conference at The Eugene O'Neill Theater Center.

Playwright Aleshea Harris' play IS GOD IS, receiving just its second production at Minneapolis' Mixed Blood Theatre, is a revenge play. More than that, it's a revenge fantasy. Filled with the kind of vengeance that we don't resort to in real life because we're civilized people, but it sure is fun to think about. When you hear of a man who does horrible things to his wife and/or children, or even worse, experience it first hand, there's a part of the primal brain that wants to deliver an eye for an eye. This play is the cathartic fulfillment of those desires. It reminds me of the Dixie Chicks' song 'Goodbye Earl,' in which two friends conspire to kill the abusive husband of one of them. Critics cried - you're advocating violence and murder, how horrible! No - it's fiction, art, fantasy, metaphor, seeing an evil someone get what they deserve, if only in our imagination. Such is IS GOD IS, tenfold, in all its horrific yet somehow satisfying violence to avenge great hurts against one's self and loved ones.

Producer Victoria Weinberg announced today that Ali Skye Bennet's new play RAFETUS will receive an invited presentation, directed by Jill DeArmon, this Friday, September 28, 2018 at 11:00am and 2:30pm at The New Ripley-Grier (305 W. 38th St.) in New York City.  Based on a true story, RAFETUS was developed in part at the HBMG Foundation's National Winter Playwright's Retreat, is a 2018­19 Woodward/Newman Drama Award Finalist, and a 2017 Finalist and 2018 Semifinalist for the National Playwrights Conference at The Eugene O'Neill Theater Center.

The Echo Theater Company's west coast premiere of playwright Branden Jacobs-Jenkins' Pulitzer Prize-finalist GLORIA receives a sturdy mounting with a very capable cast handling the witty, words-heavy monologues. Plot centers on a group of lower-level publishing employees stuck (for various reasons) in their respective, non-upwardly mobile positions. GLORIA illustrates the various common office behaviors, such as back-stabbing, condescension, 'Mean Girl' insulting, and stressing out.

California Shakespeare Theater announced today the return of its record-breaking hit play black odyssey for a special limited engagement, September 25 through October 7, 2018 at the Bruns Amphitheater. Marcus Gardley's music-filled journey through African-American folklore garnered box office records, critical acclaim, sold-out houses, and standing ovations during its initial August 2017 run.

American Theatre magazine, published by Theatre Communications Group (TCG), has just released its annual lists of the Top 10 Most-Produced Plays and Top 20 Most-Produced Playwrights for the new season.