Background image: A tarot-card style image of a skeleton dancing in front of a "wheel of fortune" that represents destiny/fate.

A 2018 Pulitzer Prize Finalist for Drama:

EVERYBODY

By Branden Jacobs-Jenkins
Directed by Susannah Martin

November 7–10, 2024
Zellerbach Playhouse

This contemporary, comedic reimagining of a medieval morality play follows the character "Everybody" (chosen at random from the cast for each performance) on a journey to meet "God" and make an accounting of their life. 

As "Everybody" searches for someone or something to accompany them (A friend? A family member? Their stuff?), they ponder the age-old question: 

What’s the meaning of life?

Critical Acclaim for Everybody

“This is theatre rather unlike anything you might have seen… unusual, unconventional and eye-opening… It is not only provocative and involving, it is also funny. Wildly funny, in fact.” — Huffington Post

"With Everybody, Jacobs-Jenkins has written a play about love—or, rather, a play that shows how impossible it is to write about love—and it fills the heart in a new and unexpected way." — New Yorker

"Throughout his meteoric career, Jacobs-Jenkins has made a virtue of his anxieties about identity—social, racial, creative—in meta-theatrical plays that turn traditional forms inside out." — New York Times

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Image Gallery
A portrait of Branden Jacobs-Jenkins. He smiles while wearing black glasses and a gray t-shirt.

About the Playwright

Branden Jacobs-Jenkins is a Brooklyn-based playwright, producer and two-time Pulitzer Prize finalist. His plays include Girls, Everybody (Signature Theatre), War (Yale Rep; Lincoln Center/LCT3), Gloria (Vineyard Theatre), Appropriate (Obie Award; Signature Theatre), An Octoroon (Obie Award; Soho Rep, Theatre for a New Audience), and Neighbors (The Public Theater). Most recently he was the showrunner, executive producer, and writer for Hulu/FX's drama series, Kindred, based on Octavia E. Butler's groundbreaking novel. A Premiere Resident playwright at Signature Theatre, his honors include USA Artists, Guggenheim, and MacArthur fellowships, the Windham-Campbell Prize for Drama, and the inaugural Tennessee Williams Award and he currently serves as Vice President of the Dramatists Guild council. He teaches at Yale University.

Susannah Martin, Lecturer

About the Director

Susannah Martin is a director, teacher, performer, and theatre maker of Tunisian heritage, and a Sephardic/Mizrahi Jewish feminist- activist-artist. She has taught, directed, and performed for organizations throughout the Bay Area including: Shotgun Players (Company Member), A.C.T., California Shakespeare Theater, Cutting Ball Theater, Golden Thread Productions, Magic Theatre, Marin Theatre Company, Mugwumpin (Company Member), Oakland Theater Project, the Playwright's Foundation, San Francisco Playhouse, TheatreFirst, and West Edge Opera. Susannah received her B.F.A. in Theatre from NYU and her M.F.A. in Directing from UC Davis. She believes strongly in fostering new voices and developing young storytellers to build and transform our communities.