Jeff Kaplan, PhD, MFA

Interdisciplinary Artist-Scholar

Jeff Kaplan is a multi-genre creator across the performing arts. He holds a PhD in Theater and Performance Studies from the University of Maryland, College Park, in addition to an MFA in Dance from Texas Woman’s University. In over twenty years in higher eduction, he has taught forty different course numbers at The Tarrant County College District, Collin County College District, University of Texas at Dallas, University of North Texas, University of Maryland, and Manhattanville College, where he served as Assistant Professor in Dance&Theater and head of the theater program. His performance practice includes a broad range of activities, including solo “text and movement” solos in which he dances and speaks simultaneously, such as a solo rendition of Beowulf in the epic’s original West Anglo-Saxon language. His scholarship focuses on embodiment. His book, Involuntary Motion: The Somatics of Refugee Performance (London&NY: Routledge, 2021) reads the world’s 108 million displaced persons as bodies in motion, akin to unwilling dancers. Jeff directs plays, writes novels, teaches acting, and bakes a killer loaf of bread. He lives in the New York City area.