Jillian Walker

Jillian Walker is a playwright, performer, dramaturg, and thinker who is shaping culture through interdisciplinary forms of performance. Commissioned by Soho Rep and named “one of New York City’s most exciting playwrights” by the Bushwick Starr, her play, SKiNFoLK: An American Show, has appeared in ANT Fest at Ars Nova and the inaugural SPARK Festival for new small musicals at Pittsburgh CLO. Her first play, Sarah’s Salt., has received developmental support from Roundabout Theater Company, MCC Theater, and was chosen as an Honorable Mention for the 2017 Relentless Award (American Playwriting Foundation).

With dramaturgy as the core of her artistic practice, Jillian is theatermaker as archaeologist. She investigates the processes and workings of time, ritual, identity and structure to unearth the ways theatrical forms can impact the larger cultural landscape. She was the 2017-18 artist-in-residence at University Musical Society (University of Michigan) where she researched her new play, Tignon and a solo lecture/performance entitled Songs of Speculation which explores her challenges and encounters with and of the historical archive. She will perform Songs of Speculation at JACK in November 2018.

Jillian works actively on new play development around the United States. In addition to her work as an associate curator of the Starr Reading Series, she has dramaturged for Donja Love, Taye Diggs, Awoye Timpo, Andre Holland, P73, LIT Council, National Black Theatre, Ars Nova, The University of Michigan. She has devised theater in collaboration with the Anishinaabe Theater Exchange on the sacred lands of the Sault Ste. Marie Tribe of Chippewa Indians. She holds an MFA in Dramaturgy from Columbia University.