Jeffrey Eric Jenkins

Biography

JEFFREY ERIC JENKINS is Professor and Chair of Theatre Studies at the University of Illinois Urbana–Champaign, where he is also Director of Graduate Studies in Theatre, and affiliate faculty of Discovery Partners Institute in Chicago. He served two terms as Chair of the University Senate Executive Committee (SEC), and one term as Vice Chair of the University Senates Conference (USC) for the University of Illinois System, before his election as Chair of USC for 2024-25. He is a member of the University Faculty Advisory Committee and a 2024-25 Fellow of the President’s Executive Leadership Program (PELP).

Prior to his current appointment, Jenkins served as Head of the Department of Theatre and Producer of Illinois 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. With his creative partner, Tony Award-winning director and Swanlund Professor Daniel Sullivan, Jenkins also developed The Sullivan Project, which provided new plays with fully realized productions, including works by David Auburn (2014) and Donald Margulies (2016). Both plays went on to successful runs Off Broadway in New York. Jenkins was a key collaborator on the Spotlight on Broadway documentary series, a forty-part series on Broadway theatres commissioned by the Mayor’s Office of the City of New York.

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, graduate dramaturgy at SUNY-Stony Brook, and served as a curricular consultant to Primary Stages. Jenkins has directed more than two dozen productions in theatres across the United States and was a member of the management team for Peter Brook’s acclaimed productions of The Mahabharata and The Cherry Orchard at the Brooklyn Academy of Music.

Jenkins is in his second term as the 14th President of the International Association of Theatre Critics (AICT-IATC). The Paris-based nongovernmental organization advocates for building relationships between and among global performance cultures while working to enhance freedom of expression and democratic values. He has been executive editor of the bilingual, peer-reviewed journal Critical Stages/Scènes critiques since 2013. 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 titles such as Interrogating America Through Theatre and Performance; Angels in American Theatre: Patrons, Patronage, and Philanthropy; Shakespearean Criticism; and Intertextuality in American Drama. He is a regular contributor to The News-Gazette, a daily newspaper in Central Illinois.

Jenkins served four consecutive terms on the board of trustees of the American Theatre Wing, before returning to its advisory committee, and has chaired the Henry Hewes Design Awards since 2002. His service to the profession includes a dozen years on the executive committee of the Theatre Hall of Fame and as a consultant to theatres and artists throughout the globe.