Jess K Smith is a freelance director, the Founder and Co-Artistic Director of ARTBARN, an intimacy director, and Chair and Associate Professor of Theatre Arts at the University of Puget Sound. She loves creating work with imaginative interplay between heightened physicality and naturalistic scene work, whether in the context of generative work, adaptations, interdisciplinary collaborations, or classic texts. Favorite directing credits include Indecent by Paula Vogel, A Streetcar Named Desire by Tennessee Williams, Machinal by Sophie Treadwell, The Archive, We Remain Prepared, The Circle, This is a Ghost House and Home Stretch by Melissa D. Brown (ARTBARN), Lungs by Duncan Macmillan, Iphigenia 2.0 by Charles Mee, The Visit by Friedrich Durrenmatt, The Spectacular Demise of Platonov (an original adaptation of Chekhov’s first play), 800 Words: The Transmigration of Philip K Dick by Victoria Stewart, The Hardly Wonder by Jason Platt, and Harlowe and I Am The Girl With The Spun Gold Hair by Jennifer Lane. She is currently directing Kaytlin McIntyre’s House Fire Project for Strawberry Theatre Workshop.
Jess has developed a number of original ensemble-generated pieces including deCOMPOSITION which premiered in New York before touring to Seattle, EDIT (based on Kafka’s writings), Oz: Re-imagined, Biff’s Dream, Requiem, Lady Liberty Blues with Wes K. Andrews, Amplified, and The Nomadic Dream Project presented at the Prague Quadrennial. Perhaps the largest generative piece to date has been The Pandora’s Box Project (a new work created to diversify and deepen the conversation on reproductive justice) which was created in collaboration with a team of over 60 artists and selected for the 2015 Women Playwrights International Conference in Cape Town, South Africa. Her interdisciplinary performance work includes collaborations with composers, sculptors, dancers, and audience. Her work has been presented at Playwrights Horizons, Seattle Repertory Theatre, On the Boards, Byrdcliffe Arts Colony, 3LD, The Riverside Theatre, Dixon Place, Miller Theatre, on the streets of Prague, and elsewhere.
She is a founding member of Pacific Northwest Theatrical Intimacy, has served on the board of Northwest Playwrights Alliance, as a member of Strawberry Theatre Workshop’s Think Tank, on the Advisory Committee for Macha Monkey Productions, and was the co-founder of LAB, an interdisciplinary training program for Seattle artists. She has trained with Kristin Linklater at her Voice Centre, at the Jacques Lecoq School in Paris, and with the SITI Company. She has interned with Punchdrunk and the Italian dance-theatre company Deja Donne, and completed the internship program with Seattle Repertory Theatre. Her essay, “The Hero in the Human” was published in the book Deja Donne: Dance in Action (Editoria & Spettacolo), and her essay “Women Directors: Language Worth Repeating” was featured on Howlround and published as part of HowlRound Anthology: Essays and Conversations form the First Ten Years. Her talk, “The Seeing Place”, was featured as part of TEDx McMinnville. She is an alumna of the University of Puget Sound where she earned a double major in Theatre (Honors) and Psychology. She received her MFA in Directing at Columbia University under the guidance of Anne Bogart and Brian Kulick.
Contact info:
jessksmith AT gmail DOT com