Playwright Branden Jacobs-Jenkins to Receive MacArthur Genius Grant

The MacArthur Foundation has awarded playwright Branden Jacobs-Jenkins with a 2016 "genius grant" for "exceptional creativity and potential for future contributions" to his field. As a MacArthur Fellow, Jacobs-Jenkins will receive a no-strings-attached $625,000 grant.

In the announcement, the foundation described the writer as follows: "Branden Jacobs-Jenkins is a playwright exploring complicated issues around race and class in plays that are risky, unconventional, and designed to provoke strong reactions from viewers. His use of theatrical devices such as melodrama, spectacle, and satire allows him to engage frankly with such topics as the history of minstrelsy or workplace politics."

Jacobs-Jenkins is the author of the play An Octoroon, Neighbors, Appropriate, War, a finalist for the 2016 Pulitzer Prize for Drama for Gloria, and is premiering the upcoming Everybody. He received an Obie Award in 2014.

For tickets to the upcoming Goodman Theatre production of Gloria, click here.

For tickets to the upcoming Signature Theatre premiere of Everybody, click here.