Jennifer L. Nelson former Producing Artistic Director of the African Continuum Theatre. Twenty years with Living Stage Theatre Company at Arena Stage. Two term President of the League of Washington Theatres; current board member of Theatre Communications Group (TCG). African Continuum – produced twenty-six plays, including several world premieres. Other DC Director credits: Ford’s, Round House, Woolly Mammoth, Everyman (Baltimore), Rep Stage, Theatre of the First Amendment, Source, Imagination Stage, Young Playwrights.  NYC: Manhattan Class Company, Women’s Interart ; LA: the Mark Taper Forum, LATC; Minnesota: Penumbra; Pennsylvania: Fulton. She has also directed at Virginia Commonwealth University, University of Maryland College Park, University of Maryland Baltimore County and University of South Carolina.

Awards: Early Career Director Fellowship (TCG/NEA), 1997 Helen Hayes Award for Most Outstanding New Play, Larry Neal Writers Award, Mayor’s Arts Award for Excellence in an Artistic Discipline. 2009 recipient of the first Paul d’Andrea Award for Theatre Excellence from Theatre of the First Amendment/GMU.

Ms. Nelson is an adjunct professor at Georgetown University.  She has previously taught at George Washington University, American University, George Mason University and UCLA.  She is a graduate of the University of California at Davis where she also did graduate studies in theatre.