Foundation ATCA president and ‘ Best Plays’ editor Jenkins takes on chair at U. of Illinois

Foundation ATCA president and ‘ Best Plays’ editor Jenkins takes on chair at U. of Illinois

Jeffrey Eric Jenkins, editor of Best Plays, former ATCA chair, president of Foundation ATCA and chair of our international committee, is the new Head of the Department of Theatre at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign.

Jeffrey writes his friends in ATCA and elsewhere:

After fourteen years in the Department of Drama at NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts, I have accepted a position as Professor of Theatre and Head of the Department of Theatre at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. (Click here for news story.)

In my new position—in addition to heading the theatre program—I will serve as a member of the Board of Producers for the extraordinary facility known as the Krannert Center for the Performing Arts. Among my new collaborators is the brilliant Tony Award-winning director Daniel Sullivan, as well as a talented, committed group of professionals working in performance, production, and scholarship. I am very excited about the possibilities that lie ahead for the creation of substantial new work, making an artistic—and educational—home for established and rising generations of theatre artists, and building bridges to the profession for Illinois students.

Although I am moving the base of my operation to the middle of the country, my continued service to the profession as a historian and dramaturgical consultant will bring me to New York frequently. Indeed, I believe this new position will allow us to grow and enhance our working relationships in many positive ways. As you know, Dan Sullivan is perhaps the most versatile theatre director in our theatre today, and I believe we will soon find innovative ways of presenting new work while providing students with terrific pedagogical and experiential opportunities.

If you are interested in hearing more about the University of Illinois, its performing arts center, or the Department of Theatre, please feel free to contact me. My Best Plays Theater Yearbook e-mail address remains the same (editor@bestplays.org) and my cell phone continues to be 718-789-9025. But my new e-mail address at Illinois is jej@illinois.edu.