Morgan Jenness

Morgan Jenness is a dramaturg and theatrical consultant. At The Public Theater under Joseph Papp and George C. Wolfe, she served as the Director of Play Development and Associate Producer of The New York Shakespeare Festival. She was also an Associate at. New York Theater Workshop, and Associate Director at LATC (Los Angeles Theatre Center). She was the Creative Consultant at both the Helen Merrill and Abrams Artists agencies as well as being on multiple theater funding and award panels including NEA, NYSA, NEFA, the Drama Desk and Herb Alpert Award. For her life in support of the new American playwright, Jenness received an Obie Award Special Citation for Longtime Support of Playwrights in 2003. She reveived the G. E. Lessing Award for Career Achievement given by the Literary Managers and Dramaturgs of the Americas, the most prestigious award given for lifetime achievement in the field of dramaturgy, and only the sixth such award given as of 2015. In 2015 she also received a Doris Duke Impact Award. She is currently the Creative Director/founder of ‘In This Distracted Globe,’ doing consultant and dramatugical work.

Morgan Jenness’s collaboration with The Young Playwrights Festival also brought the work of unknown playwrights (and directors) to The Public, The Mark Taper Forum, Playwrights Horizons, The Cherry Lane and many other avenues of public performance. Realizing New York City was not the epicenter of new play work, yet it did offer the ‘Imprimatur’ to all commercially viable plays, she questioned how new playwrights got on the ’TCG Ten Most Produced Plays List,’ all of whom had New York premieres. Jenness was able to fashion a willing network of LORT B and C level theaters outside of New York City to give limited productions to these untried playwrights, qualifying them as ‘produced plays.’ BEE-LUTHER-HATCHEE by Thomas Gibbons was produced in ths manner and became the first play to get on the ‘TCG Ten Most Produced Plays’ list without having to have its first production in New York City. Since then, in the same manner, other playwrights have received similar productions and recognition.

Mentioned in Interview

Reza Abdoh, Harry Abrams, David Adjmi, Luis Alfaro, Thomas Babe, Tom Bade, Lewis Black, Robert Blacker, Beth Blickers, Eric Bogosian, Alan Bowne, Peter Boyle, Lee Breuer, Anne Cattaneo, Joseph Chaikin, Gerald Chapman, Caryl Churchill, Max Stafford-Clark, Nilo Cruz, Merle Debuskey, Robert De Niro, Jessica Dickey, Sarah L. Douglas, William Dumaresq, Laura Eason, Zelda Fichandler, Richard Foreman, Maria Irene Fornes, Emmett Foster, Bernard Gersten, Thomas Gibbons, Spalding Gray, Bill Hart, Rupert Holmes, Lynn Holst, John Pynchon Holmes, Daniel Alexander Jones, Tommy Lee Jones, Raul Julia, Carson Kievman, Kevin Kling, Larry Kramer, James Lapine, Wilford Leach, Ken Lin, Taylor Mac, Ralph Macchio, Galt MacDermot, Deb Margolin, Donald Margulies, Des McAnuff, Taylor Mead, Anne Meara, Helen Merrill, Rene L. Moreno, David Oyama, Joseph Papp, Gail Merrifield Papp, David Rabe, Lisa Ramirez, Lloyd Richards, George Rose, Lawrence Sacharow, Heidi Schreck, Paul Selig, John Patrick Shanley, Sam Shepard, Howard Sherman, Jimmy Smits, Ellen Stewart, Anna Deavere Smith, Jerry Stiller, David van Tieghem, Diane Venora, David Henry Wang, August Wilson, George C. Wolfe, Robert Woodruff, Burt Young, The Bushwick Starr, The Cherry Lane Theatre, The Chocolate Factory, Crossroads Theatre Company, Eureka Theatre, Intar, La Mama, Mabou Mines, National New Play Network, New York Theatre Workshop, NYSF/The Public, Pig Iron Theatre Company, Playwrights Horizons, Young Playwrights Festival, ANGELS IN AMERICA, ANNA IN THE TROPICS, AROUND THE WORLD IN 80 DAYS, AS IS, BEE-LUTHER-HATCHEE, BEIRUT, BLACK RUSSIAN, BURIED INSIDE EXTRA, THE COLORED MUSEUM, DANCING ON HER KNEES, DEAD END KIDS, THE DREAMER EXAMINES HIS PILLOW, ELECTRICIDAD, FEN, FENCES, FOB, FOUND A PEANUT, GOOSE AND TOM TOM, THE HUMAN COMEDY, KING FISH, MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM, MEDEA, THE MYSTERY OF EDWIN DROOD, THE NORMAL HEART, OEDIPUS EL REY, A ONE MORMON SHOW, PERMANENT COLLECTION, PIANO. LA PUTA VIDA, SEX WITH STRANGERS, SOME MEN, PLENTY, TAKEN IN MARRIAGE, TALK RADIO, THE TEMPEST, TONGUES, TOP GIRLS, TRUE WEST, WAKE UP, IT’S TIME TO GO TO BED, WHAT HAPPENED ON THE WAY HERE, WHAT THE CONSTITUTION MEANS TO ME

The primary Stages Off-Broadway Oral history Project

Mentioned in Interview