Julie Jensen

Julie Jensen

Blog URL: https://mappingliteraryutah.org/utah-writers/julie-jensen

   Beaver, UT

Julie Jensen is Utah’s most-produced playwright. She grew up in Beaver, Utah, and graduated from College of Southern Utah and Utah State University, receiving a B.A. and M.A. in English. She also holds a Ph.D. in Theatre from Wayne State University in Detroit. Having taught playwriting as a guest at more than a dozen colleges and universities, she was a professor of theatre at Saint Mary’s College and the University of Notre Dame and directed the graduate playwriting program at University of Nevada, Las Vegas. She also spent five years working as a writer in Hollywood. She now makes her home in Salt Lake City where she works with three theatres there: Salt Lake Acting Company, Plan-B Theatre, and Pygmalion Theatre.

Jensen has written more than 30 plays, all of which have been professionally produced. Among them are the following:

Winter premiered at Salt Lake Acting Company. It was named a rolling world premiere by National New Play Network, with productions at Rivendell Theatre in Chicago and Central Works Ensemble in Berkerley, CA.

Mockingbird was commissioned by the Kennedy Center, adapted from Kathryn Erskine’s novel of the same name, and premiered at the Kennedy Center. It won the David Mark Cohen National Playwriting Award and was nominated for two Helen Hayes Awards. It has since been produced widely throughout the country (Dramatic Publishing).

Two-Headed has been widely produced in this country and abroad, including the Women’s Project in New York, Anson Ford Theatre in Los Angeles, Rose Theatre in London, Pygmalion Theatre, Salt Lake City, UT, and Berkshire Theatre Festival in Massachusetts. It won the L.A. Weekly Award for Best New Play, the Mill Mountain Theatre Playwriting Competition, and named one of the best productions of the year by The Washington Post. (Dramatic Publishing and Smith and Kraus)

Last Lists of My Mad Mother has also been produced often in this the U.S. and Europe, including TheatreWorks in Hartford, CT, Salt Lake Acting Company, Studio Theatre in Washington, DC, Fringe Festival in Edinburgh, Scotland. It won the Mill Mountain Playwriting Prize, and was nominated for the Steinburg Award by the American Theatre Critics Association for the best play produced outside New York. (Dramatic Publishing)

WAIT! was commissioned by and premiered at Salt Lake Acting Company, and later produced at Perseverance Theatre, Juneau, AK, TitleWave Theatre, Cleveland, OH, and Catalyst Theatre in Philadelphia, PA. It received the McKnight National Playwriting Fellowship, and NEA/TCG Residency Grant, and was named one of the year’s ten best by The Cleveland Plain Dealer. (Dramatic Publishing)

The Lost Vegas Series was developed by Mark Taper Forum in LA and produced by Zebra Crossing in Chicago, Nomad Theatre in London, England, Asylum Theatre in Las Vegas, Minneapolis Fringe Festival. It won the Joseph Jefferson Award for Best New Work.

Julie Jensen is a frequent speaker and workshop coordinator, has conducted master classes for American College Theatre Festival and Kennedy Center’s Summer Playwriting Intensive. Her playwriting book, Playwriting: Brief and Brilliant, is published by Smith and Kraus.