“Take a Risk”

Caleen Sinnette Jennings Playwright & Educator

Caleen Sinnette Jennings is an award-winning playwright and Professor of Theatre Emerita at American University. Theaters across the country have produced her celebrated Queens Girl trilogy, including Theatre J, Mosaic Theatre, Everyman Theatre, Clackamas Repertory Theatre, and Hangar Theatre. Her plays of all lengths have regularly been published and anthologized. She has received commissions from the Kennedy Center, Arena Stage, Round House, and others. A multiple Helen Hayes-nominee, Prof. Jennings was also founding member of the DC playwrights’ collective The Welders.

During her 31-year tenure at AU, she served as the Director of the Theatre/Musical Theatre Program and Chair of the Department of Performing Arts, winning the university’s Scholar/Teacher of the Year in 2003. Prof. Jennings has been a faculty member of the Folger Shakespeare Library's Teaching Shakespeare Institute since 1994.