Jeremy B. Cohen Named Artistic Director of Playwrights’ Center

Jeremy B. Cohen will become the Minneapolis-based Playwrights’ Center’s second Producing Artistic Director in the history of the organization. Cohen currently serves as the Associate Artistic Director and Director of New Play Development at Hartford Stage, a position he has held for the past six years.

Cohen’s job at the Playwrights’ Center will focus on advocacy for writers and new work, and work to deepen and expand the Center’s artistic programs and funder relations. Interim Director Craig Harris will remain in an executive leadership role for several months to aid in the transition.

At Hartford Stage, Cohen’s directing credits included The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, Mistakes Were Made, The Scene, Mahalia: A Gospel Musical, I Am My Own Wife, Frankie and Johnny in the Clair de Lune, Bad Dates and A Christmas Carol. Prior to his position at Hartford, Cohen founded Chicago’s Naked Eye Theatre Company. Among his regional theater credits are the U.S. premiere of Kwame Kwei-Armah’s Let There Be Love (Centerstage), the world premiere of Smart Cookie (Alliance), and The Trip to Bountiful (Alley Theatre).

Cohen has been a Director and part of the Directing Faculty at the O’Neill Playwright’s Conference/National Theatre Institute, and recipient of both an NEA/TCG Directors Fellowship and a Northwestern University award for his play 12 Volt Heart. This summer he will direct the world premiere of Theresa Rebecks’s new play The Novelist, this fall will direct the East Coast premiere of Snow Falling on Cedars<./i> at Hartford Stage, and is in pre-production on the indie feature film Imagination At Large.