Jeffery Kennedy

British Library Eccles Centre Scholar Award, The British Library - Theatre Studies

I'm an Associate Professor at Arizona State University in the New College of Interdisciplinary Arts and Sciences, where I teach courses in Interdisciplinary Arts and Performance. Because of my study and skills in multiple genres of artmaking, this program has been the perfect fit for me. With a continued professional career as a director, music director, composer, arranger, producer, and actor, and I'm also a scholar in American theatre history. My first book was about the history of the Provincetown Players, the theatre group that ushered America into the modern era at the beginning of the 20th century. My next project, a survey of American theatre history from colonial to contemporary times, was launched from this project. I’m excited and honoured to be chosen as a Fulbright Scholar, and will be using the resources of the British Library to look at the plays that the early British companies presented in the American colonies, as well as the resources identified by the Eccles Centre of American Studies to look at other areas of American theatre available in the Library.  One of the fantastic benefits of being in London from January-July this next year will be to take advantage of the wealth of British theatre on stage.