UR to Host Award-Winning Playwright Branden Jacobs-Jenkins

UNIVERSITY OF RICHMOND — Obie award-winning and two-time Pulitzer Prize-nominated playwright Branden Jacobs-Jenkins will give a talk to the campus and greater Richmond communities Friday, Oct. 25, 8 p.m., Modlin Center for the Arts, Camp Concert Hall.

Jacobs-Jenkins is a 34-year-old American playwright who 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 the drama category.

Jacobs-Jenkins’s plays often comment on modern-day society and its issues surrounding identity, race, class, and family. 

“Branden Jacobs-Jenkins is unafraid of offending his audience’s delicate sensibilities, especially since we live in an era of ‘delicate sensibilities,’” said Professor of English and American Studies Bert Ashe, who played an integral role in bringing Jacobs-Jenkins to campus.

“He dreams up situations and plots and then plays them out to the end, and sometimes they are bruising and confrontational, but always in a thoughtful manner.”

Jacobs-Jenkins’ plays have made appearances in Richmond four times in the last 18 months, including the UR Department of Theatre and Dance’s performance of Appropriate earlier this month, Virginia Rep’s Gloria, TheatreLAB’s An Octoroon, and the Virginia Rep’s version of Appropriate. 

“Jacobs-Jenkins has a lot to say with his plays, on-stage, and he’ll have a lot to say, himself, on stage,” said Ashe. “The mind that produced these plays is compelling. It’ll be interesting to see and hear what’s on that mind.”

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Media wishing to cover the event should RSVP to Lindsey Campbell, media relations specialist, at lcampbe4@richmond.edu.