Jennifer Farmer

Jennifer Farmer is a queer African-American writer for performance, participatory theatre-maker and facilitator who centres systematically excluded narratives and collaborates extensively with communities made vulnerable and marginalised, such as young people at risk of social exclusion (THE FALL OF LUCIFER, 2008; TRUTH OR DARE, 2012 and 2017, both for Belgrade Theatre,) women in prison (COMPACT FAILURE, Clean Break/Arcola Theatre/national tour, 2004), young people with dyslexia, and with autism (Turtle Key Arts), refugees and displaced communities (HEAR MY VOICE, Theatre Royal Stratford East), users of the mental healthcare system (V&A Museum) and intergenerational community groups (URBAN DREAMS, London Bubble, 2008 and City Final, site-specific/Belgrade Theatre, 2018). Other work includes: LOOKING AT THE SUN (BAC Opera Season, 2001), CLEAN (BBC Radio 3, 2003), WORDS, WORDS, WORDS (Tricycle Theatre, 2006), BULLETPROOF SOUL (Birmingham Rep, 2007), WALTZING TOMATOES (Ithaca Gallery, USA, 2013 and international festivals) and BETWEEN CONSELLATIONS (Pittsburgh Festival Opera, USA; Grimeborn Festival, Arcola Theatre, 2018). LINK IN MY BIO, a new, interactive opera on the impact of the global rise of the Alt-Right, is co-produced by Britten Pears Arts and Les Théâtres de la Ville de Luxembourg and premieres in Luxembourg in December 2024.

With a dedication to creating work that is socially engaged and urgent, two of Jennifer’s current projects include: BELLY/BACK a new communal opera co-created with composer Ella Jarman-Pinto and supported by Second Movement, 101 Outdoor Arts and Mahogany Opera, which evokes what it means to not only retain, but to centre your softness when existing in a Black, neurodivergent femme/politically feminised body; and HOW FAR APART, a new play for Utopia Theatre which examines the effect medical racism has on Black women's experience of childbirth. Jennifer’s plays are published by Bloomsbury (Oberon Books collection), Samuel French and Josef Weinberger Plays.

Currently an Associate Lecturer at Goldsmiths and Central School of Speech and Drama, Jennifer has lectured at Kingston University, the University of Greenwich, Guildhall School of Music & Drama, and London South Bank University, and has facilitated workshops for many of the UK’s theatre and arts organisations such as the National Theatre, Frantic Assembly, Donmar Warehouse, Almeida Theatre, Soho Theatre and the Royal Court.