Morgan Jenness, 72, Dies; Her Artistic Vision Influenced American Theater

Morgan Jenness, a dramaturg, teacher and theatrical agent who nurtured the work of countless playwrights — including Taylor Mac, David Adjmi, David Henry Hwang, Larry Kramer and Maria Irene Fornés — died on Nov. 12 in Manhattan. Ms. Jenness, who in recent years began using the pronouns they/them and she interchangeably, was 72.

Mx. Mac confirmed the death. “In Act 3 of her life, she was exploring her gender identity,” said Mx. Mac, who went to Ms. Jenness’s apartment in the East Village with two friends after she had failed to show up for a class she taught at Columbia University and discovered her body. The cause of death had not yet been determined.

Ms. Jenness was a revered and beloved figure in the theater community — particularly in Lower Manhattan, where in many ways she was its embodiment. She had a deep moral seriousness, colleagues said, as well as a fierce artistic integrity and a passion for subversive work that had depth charges in all the right places.

She also had “a complete indifference to material success,” said Oskar Eustis, the artistic director of the Public Theater, where Ms. Jenness began her career. “She was frankly repelled by it.”

The play was the thing.

“She would ask writers, ‘What do you want to inject into the bloodstream of the American theater?’” recalled Beth Blickers, a theatrical agent.

“If you said, ‘I just want to tell good stories,’ she would turn to me and say, ‘That was a terrible answer,’” Ms. Blickers continued. “She wanted someone to say, ‘I have a passion for this community or this idea.’ To tell good stories wasn’t enough.”