Residency Five playwright Branden Jacobs-Jenkins has
never shied away from tackling thorny issues head on.
His first play Neighbors features actors in blackface, engaging in a series of shocking, yet archetypal, minstrel
show acts, and in An Octoroon, his re-imagining of Dion Boucicault’s 1859 melodrama, Jacobs-Jenkins exposes
and explodes traditional representations of slavery in the American South. In his newest play Appropriate,
having its New York premiere at Signature this February, Jacobs-Jenkins continues his investigation of how
contemporary America deals with its histories– familial and otherwise. Taking cues from some iconic American dramas– A Streetcar Named Desire, Buried Child, and All My Sons, to name a few– Jacobs-Jenkins quietly
imbues the topics of history, belonging, ownership, and appropriation with even greater power.
Before diving into rehearsals for the play, Jacobs-Jenkins spent some time with Literary Director Christie Evangelisto
re-living his earlier work, unpacking his obsessions, and thinking about the great plays that have come before.
Signature: Let’s start with your origin story.
ran at The Studio Theatre in DC (where I grew up) sometime
Branden Jacobs-Jenkins: Um, what if I think I’m
in the 90s. In fact, I have this weird feeling my high school
still originating?
director was thinking about this production when we did it,
because it had been a kind of local controversy. Two black
Signature: Well then, how did you get your start in
the theatre?
actors had been cast in the lead roles and they– along with
BJJ: I “acted” mostly. “Acted” with scare quotes. In high
this bizarre way, slightly tweaking some of his language with
school. I wasn’t very good. I played Philostrate in
dialect and adding a certain... I don’t know what... to the
the director– had managed to sort of “racialize” Beckett in
an interview with
Branden Jacobs-Jenkins
A Midsummer Night’s Dream, which is the absolute worst
physical “bits.” All sorts of people freaked out, in as much as
part in the play, because you’re basically someone’s personal
you can freak out about the theatre, and I think my father
assistant, you’re only in the first and last scene, and you