Biography

John Jahnke is a New York based playwright/director whose recent work, The Archery Contest, premiered at Performance Space 122, New York City in fall 2009. The highly stylized work was mounted through his company, Hotel Savant, for which he serves as Artistic Director. The Archery Contest is a glittering and scathing indictment of outmoded rules, regulations and marriage rituals, as pertinent to the issue of romantic codification. It was initially developed as a serialized radio play for Art International Radio and was developed at the 3LD Art and Technology Center.

Another new work, Men Go Down, created through residencies at The Park Avenue Armory and The MacDowell Colony, will premiere at 3LD Art and Technology Center in winter 2010. Written in blank verse, it utilizes the construction of a Greek drama and the sensibility of a classic Fairy Tale to examine the ramifications of antique guilt on the modern conscience.

Other works include Artaud’s The Cenci, which debuted in New York City in 2008 at The Ohio Theatre. The Cenci was performed in its first American translation by Richard Sieburth, created specifically for Hotel Savant. It was created in residence at The Watermill Center and The MacDowell Colony (Henry Hewes Design Awards Nomination: Notable Effects). Jahnke also staged the world premiere of Susan Sontag’s A Parsifal, after he discovered the text in a thrift store. It debuted at Performance Space 122 in 2006 and was developed through Chashama and a workshop at The Public Theater.

Other original works include Funeral Games, The Public Theater (performance workshop), 2004; The Shady Maids of Haiti, Walkerspace, 2002 (published in 2004); Mercurius, HERE, 2001; and Lola Montez in Bavaria..., HERE, 1999. In Los Angeles, under the auspices of Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions, Jahnke and his first company, Deranged Cousins, created The Beasts of Luxury, 1995; Syphilis, 1994; The Monster of Dusseldorf or Paint Me, Paint Me Peter Kurten, 1993; as well as a staging of Oscar Wilde’s unfinished play La Sainte Courtesane, 1996.

Jahnke was a member of Reza Abdoh’s Dar a Luz, appearing in Quotations From a Ruined City and Simon Boccannegra. He has also directed a number of short films, including His Red Snow White Apple Lips and Sex, Death and Rebirth in July, which have screened throughout the U.S., Canada and Europe. He is a former opera and ballet student who received a B.F.A from the California Institute of the Arts’ Fine Arts program.