Branden Jacobs-Jenkins News

The word octoroon is defined as 'a person of one-eight black ancestry.' THE OCTOROON is a 19th Century play by Irish playwright Dion Boucicault about which Wikipedia says, 'among antebellum melodramas, it was considered second only in popularity to Uncle Tom's Cabin.' AN OCTOROON is a new play by playwright Branden Jacobs-Jenkins, who adapted the play and added himself as a character, writing the play and playing all the while male parts in white face, with the original playwright and his assistant playing roles in redface and blackface, while a rabbit seems to pull the strings behind the scenes. Got all that? Believe me, it's a lot to take in, and the play says some pretty profound things about race and racism in the past and present. But despite being a little perplexing and intentionally offensive (in a way that's not really offensive because it's satire), the whole thing is kinda brilliant in a crazy sort of way.

Soho Rep. and Ars Nova present the New York premiere of Cesar Alvarez's FUTURITY, opening tonight, October 20, and running through November 15, 2015. Directed by Soho Rep. Artistic Director Sarah Benson, FUTURITY is a new, avant-Americana musical with music by Alvarez and The Lisps, and lyrics and book by Alvarez. The production, which features 13 actor-musicians, is presented at the Connelly Theater (220 E. 4th St.) and in association with Carole Shorenstein Hays.

Lupita Nyong'o is heading to Broadway in ECLIPSED. The Academy Award winner will reprise the role she now plays in an Off Broadway production of the show at the Public Theater

AN OCTOROON, which the New York Times proclaimed to be "this decade's most eloquent theatrical statement on race in America today," is a shrewdly awkward riff on The Octoroon, a 19th-century melodrama about illicit interracial love. A funny, disturbing, whirlwind of a play, AN OCTOROON riffs on the antebellum South as well as our present-day American selves, delves into the complexity of American identities and their unresolvable connection to our legacy of slavery and genocide, and perpetrates a full-blooded investigation of race and cultural politics. At the same time it is so theatrically mind-bending, funny, energetic, and demented, that it's impossible to look away.

The Public Theater presents the American play Eclipsed, written by Danai Gurira. Directed by Obie Award winner Liesl Tommy and featuring Academy Award winner Lupita Nyong'o in her New York stage debut, this powerful story of survival and resilience opens at The Public Theater tonight, October 14, and will now run an additional two weeks through Sunday, November 29.

YALE REPERTORY THEATRE (James Bundy, Artistic Director; Victoria Nolan, Managing Director), the internationally celebrated professional theatre in residence at Yale School of Drama and champion of new work since its founding in 1966, marks the 2015-16 season with three world premiere productions at its home in New Haven and five Yale Rep-commissioned plays scheduled for runs in Los Angeles, La Jolla, and New York City.

In response to popular demand, Soho Rep. and Ars Nova extend the New York premiere of Cesar Alvarez's FUTURITY to November 15. Directed by Soho Rep. Artistic Director Sarah Benson, FUTURITY is a new, avant-Americana musical with music by Alvarez and The Lisps, and lyrics and book by Alvarez. The production, which features 13 actor-musicians, is presented at the Connelly Theater (220 E. 4th St.) and in association with Carole Shorenstein Hays.

Road Less Traveled Productions (RLTP) will present the WNY-Premiere of Branden Jacobs-Jenkins' comedy-drama Appropriate, opening Friday October 30th and running through Sunday November 22nd. Appropriate, winner of the 2014 Obie Award for Best New American Play is a "bilously funny" (Washington Post) and "exceptionally brilliant piece of writing" (Time Out Chicago), and has garnered high critical praise for the skillfully crafted "spectacle of flamboyant family dysfunction" (LA Times).

John Lahr, long-time drama critic for The New Yorker and winner of the 2015 National Book Critics Circle Award for his acclaimed biography Tennessee Williams: Mad Pilgrimage of the Flesh, will talk about his newest book, JOY RIDE: Show People and Their Shows (W. W. Norton: September 21, 2015), a collection of some of his most popular and engaging New Yorker pieces, which puts the plays on Mr. Lahr's watch in the context of the lives of the artists who created them. Lahr will speak tonight, October 7, at 7:00pm at Polonsky Shakespeare Center, 262 Ashland Place.

Branden Jacobs-Jenkins is a young, upcoming playwright whose Neighbors back in 2010 was an alluring eye-opener about racism and the human condition. It declared that race is just an illusion, so the outrageous display of some black characters wearing black face and other blacks sublimating their heritage as white wannabes was in the end a painful reminder that a black man is still a black man; he is first and foremost a man who will help to shape a shared human experience.

At the Connelly Theater (220 E. 4th St.), Soho Rep. and Ars Nova present the New York premiere of Cesar Alvarez's Futurity, a new, avant-Americana musical with music by Alvarez and The Lisps, and lyrics and book by Alvarez. Directed by Soho Rep. Artistic Director Sarah Benson, the production will feature 13 actor-musicians. The production is presented in association with Carole Shorenstein Hays. Performances begin tonight, October 6, 2015.

Branden Jacobs-Jenkins' razor-edged new comedy APPROPRIATE opened this weekend on October 4 and continues through November 1, 2015, at the Center Theatre Group/Mark Taper Forum. BroadwayWorld has photos from the opening night festivities below!

Kate Mulgrew and Anne-Cecilie Engell Speyer host Vineyard Theatre's Annual Emerging Artists Luncheon today, September 30, from noon-2pm at the National Arts Club (15 Gramercy Park South) in Manhattan.

Branden Jacobs-Jenkins' razor-edged new comedy APPROPRIATE opens this Sunday, October 4, and continues through November 1, 2015, at the Center Theatre Group/Mark Taper Forum. BroadwayWorld has a first look at the cast in action below!

At the Connelly Theater (220 E. 4th St.), Soho Rep. and Ars Nova will present the New York premiere of Cesar Alvarez's Futurity, a new, avant-Americana musical with music by Alvarez and The Lisps, and lyrics and book by Alvarez. Directed by Soho Rep. Artistic Director Sarah Benson, the production will feature 13 actor-musicians. The production is presented in association with Carole Shorenstein Hays.

The Public Theater presents the American play Eclipsed, written by Danai Gurira. Directed by Obie Award winner Liesl Tommy and featuring Academy Award winner Lupita Nyong'o in her New York stage debut, this powerful story of survival and resilience begins previews at The Public Theater tonight, September 29, and will now run an additional two weeks through Sunday, November 29 with an official press opening on Wednesday, October 14.

John Lahr, long-time drama critic for The New Yorker and winner of the 2015 National Book Critics Circle Award for his acclaimed biography Tennessee Williams: Mad Pilgrimage of the Flesh, will talk about his newest book, JOY RIDE: Show People and Their Shows (W. W. Norton: September 21, 2015), a collection of some of his most popular and engaging New Yorker pieces, which puts the plays on Mr. Lahr's watch in the context of the lives of the artists who created them. Lahr will speak on Wednesday, October 7, at 7:00pm at Polonsky Shakespeare Center, 262 Ashland Place. 

Playwright Branden Jacobs-Jenkins enjoys ambiguity and messing with traditional concepts and constructs. His 2014 Obie Award-winner for Best New American Play, APPROPRIATE, is a prime example as it defies categorization. He borrows themes and tropes from classic American family dramas, and the ensemble of actors in the SpeakEasy production carve out brilliant individual performances that rival anything one might see on a Broadway stage. M. Bevin O'Gara directs this breathtaking drama.

Award-winning playwright Branden Jacobs-Jenkins' biting new comedic drama, APPROPRIATE, begins previews tonight, September 23, 2015, at 8 p.m. at the Center Theatre Group/Mark Taper Forum. Opening is set for Sunday, October 4 at 7 p.m. and performances continue through November 1.