Branden Jacobs-Jenkins Jacobs-Jenkins
American playwright who interrogates the history and aesthetics of American theater itself through works of radical formal intelligence. An Octoroon remounted a 19th-century melodrama about slavery to explode contemporary racial discourse; Gloria examined ambition and violence in a New York magazine office. He won the MacArthur Genius Award in 2016.
Works
- An OctoroonPostmodern satire deconstructing racist melodrama and American theater history
- GloriaWoman's monologues unfold through objects and memory in comedy-drama form
- AppropriateSiblings inherit a house revealing family secrets tied to Confederate history
- NeighborsCouples grapple with belonging and otherness in a homogenized suburb
- EverybodyEveryman figure navigates mortality and meaning in race-conscious contemporary play