Jeffrey Eric Jenkins

Jeffrey Eric Jenkins is Professor of Theatre at the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign. Prior to his current appointment, Jenkins served as Head of the Department of Theatre from 2012 to 2017, where he oversaw a restructuring of administration and helped set the department on a course that resulted in greatly enhanced engagement with online education, financial stability, and improved national rankings. Before his appointment at Illinois Theatre, Jenkins served as Director of Theatre Studies at New York University, where he taught dramatic literature, theatre history, and criticism for fourteen years. He also taught directing at the University of Washington and graduate dramaturgy at SUNY-Stony Brook. Jenkins has directed more than two dozen productions in theatres across the United States, and served on the management team of Peter Brook‘s acclaimed productions of The Mahabharata and The Cherry Orchard at the Brooklyn Academy of Music. A former chairman of the American Theatre Critics Association, Jenkins has published articles in major newspapers, reference books and scholarly journals. He took degrees in research and studio concentrations from the University of East Anglia (UK), Carnegie Mellon University, and San Francisco State University. His books include Under the Copper Beech: Conversations With American Theater Critics, eight volumes of The Best Plays Theater Yearbook series, and chapters in recent titles such as Interrogating America Through Theatre and Performance;Angels in American Theatre: Patrons, Patronage, and Philanthropy; Shakespearean Criticism; and Intertextuality in American Drama. Jenkins serves on the board of trustees of the American Theatre Wing, on the board of producers of the Krannert Center for the Performing Arts, and as a dramaturgical consultant to productions in development.