Gloria & Appropriate Playwright Branden Jacobs-Jenkins Awarded 2016 MacArthur Foundation 'Genius' Grant

Playwright Branden Jacobs-Jenkins has been awarded a 2016 “Genius" Grant from the MacArthur Foundation. He and this year’s 22 other recipients will receive a no-strings-attached $625,000 grant for potential future contributions in their respective fields.

Jacobs-Jenkins’ Gloria, which premiered last year at off-Broadway’s Vineyard Theatre, was a finalist for the 2016 Pulitzer Prize for drama. After his first play in 2010, Neighbors, he received the Helen Merrill Award in Playwriting and the Vineyard’s Paula Vogel Award. His additional works include Appropriate, An Octoroon and War. He is currently a Residency Five playwright through Signature Theatre.

Among the additional members of the MacArthur Fellows Program’s Class of 2016 are theater artist and educator Anne Basting and composer Julia Wolfe. Last year’s recipients included Lin-Manuel Miranda, puppet designer Basil Twist and and set designer Mimi Lien.