31 Quotes by Branden Jacobs-Jenkins

One of the most incredible and important things about the theater is that we're creating a safe space for all feelings, but especially, ugly feelings.

The first theater subscription I ever bought was the August Wilson season at Signature. I remember thinking a whole season to one playwright was a great way for a master to do a victory lap.

Theater is an old thing. It's thousands of years old. TV isn't. Film isn't. We're doing a really old thing.

I tried writing a novel, but plays were the thing that kept feeding me, asking me to come back, sit down and be with them.

You get better at the thing you do by having to explain it to someone else. That, I think, totally makes my work stronger.

I feel like I'm put in a position where I have to engage with what people bring to my work, which is an expectation for me to talk about race because it's not normal for a black writer to be writing in the theatre.

I don't hate people who colour-blind cast, but I hate people who colour-blind cast and pretend that they're not, who pretend that these bodies on stage don't actually carry specific meaning.

I wrestle in a big way with August Wilson's work in that I at times admire it and at times feel infuriated by it, which is weirdly more influential than loving someone entirely.

I'm not a really firm believer in theatre that is 'about anything.' I don't think theatre can be about anything other than the people who show up and the value that they hold.