Jenkins: An All-American Outing by Courtney Taylor
Two unspecified and unserious agents assemble the mostly-true story of White House aide Walter Jenkins, who was arrested just before the 1964 election for indecent gestures with another man in a Y.M.C.A. bathroom. This offbeat and off-the-rails journey explores, imagines, and interrogates the bonds between Walter, his little-known wife Marjorie, and Lyndon and Lady Bird Johnson. The play twists inside-out...
Two unspecified and unserious agents assemble the mostly-true story of White House aide Walter Jenkins, who was arrested just before the 1964 election for indecent gestures with another man in a Y.M.C.A. bathroom. This offbeat and off-the-rails journey explores, imagines, and interrogates the bonds between Walter, his little-known wife Marjorie, and Lyndon and Lady Bird Johnson. The play twists inside-out around the stakes and problems that come from including Walter’s story in the larger history of LGBTQIA Americans.
With singing, dancing, and experimental reveries, Jenkins: An All-American Outing cross-examines the tropes of queer biographical plays, creating something different – and messier – in its place.
This script was developed in part through a 2019 Edward Guiliano Global Travel Fellowship from Stony Brook University.