About Jesse

About Jesse

Praised for his “appealingly light touch” by lead New York Times critic Charles Isherwood, Jesse is a director, writer and teacher and Co-Artistic Director of Brooklyn-based theatre collective A Collection of Shiny Objects, which focuses on the development and production of new work with a multidisciplinary and pop cultural bent.

Most recently, he directed the premiere of QUEERSPAWN by Mallery Avidon for Shiny Objects at HERE featuring five time Obie winner David Greenspan. Prior to that, he was the 2011 Directing Fellow at Rochester’s Geva Theatre Center, where he directed THE SERVANT OF TWO MASTERS for SUNY Brockport. While at the Geva, he also directed for and helped coordinate the Geva’s Hornets’ Nest series, a program that presents readings of plays with a clear two sided moral, ethical or social issue for public debate. For the Nest, Jesse directed a reading of FREUD’S LAST SESSION.

Selected New York credits include SEAFARWELL by Mona Mansour, INTRODUCING MOLLY POPE with cabaret artist Molly Pope and arrangements by Tony nominee Kenny Mellman for Ars Nova (also the Adelaide Cabaret Festival in Australia), FAN BOY (finalist, 2010 Samuel French Off-Off Broadway Festival), THE MISANTHROPE for L.I.U., as well as CURSE OF THE STARVING CLASS, and ONE FLEW OVER THE CUCKOO’S NEST for Dramatics NYC.

Jesse has developed work with the Public Theater’s Emerging Writers Group, the A.R.T. Institute/Brown Bake-off, Theatre for The New City, and SPACE on Ryder Farm. He is currently developing two projects with his company, A Collection of Shiny Objects: GOODS AND SERVICES, with playwright Greg Moss and Puppeteer Stefano Brancato as well as DARLING, a rock musical adaptation of Peter Pan which he is writing with composer/lyricist Nathan Leigh, which received a workshop presentation as part of ANT Fest 2011 at Ars Nova.

His regional credits include NEW KID for Chicago Theatre for Young Audiences (selected for the Chicago Children’s Humanities Festival), AS YOU LIKE IT for the Delaware Shakespeare Festival and co-directing the world premiere of FUNERAL WEDDING: THE ALVIN PLAY for The Strange Tree Group (Chicago Tribune best of On the Fringe).

As an educator, Jesse taught acting as an Adjunct Lecturer at Marymount Manhattan College and has directed for Fordham University, SUNY Brockport, Long Island University and The LaSalle Academy of Providence, Rhode Island. He has served as a directing project mentor for the Fordham Directing program and has taught workshops, classes or guest lectured for University of Chicago, LIU, and the Hangar Theatre Lab Company. He coaches with MFA Actor, a preparatory program for actors and directors who are applying to graduate school.

Jesse received his MFA in Directing at the Brown University/Trinity Rep Consortium. Favorite credits at Brown include: FULL CIRCLE and ANGELS IN AMERICA: PERESTROIKA as well as premieres of Joe Waechters's THE STRANGLER, Dipika Guha’s GRANDMOTHERLAND and Ann Marie Healy’s THE GENTLEMAN CALLER. At Brown, he studied with Kevin Moriarty, Beth Milles, Curt Columbus, Paula Vogel, Bonnie Metzgar and Chay Yew, among others. He got a BS in Theatre as well a certificate in Musical Theatre Performance from Northwestern University.

In the summer of 2009, he completed a residency as an artistic director and producer for the Hangar Theatre’s Lab Company, where he lead a company of 40 emerging artists and directed THE BACCHAE and a musical adaptation of BUSYTOWN. From 2003-2006, Jesse was the associate artistic director of the Chicago Theatre for Young Audiences (CTYA), where he ran their New Play Workshop. As an actor, he has performed with such companies as Steppenwolf Theatre and Redmoon. As an assistant director, he has worked with The Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Steppenwolf, and Trinity Repertory Company and with such directors as Moises Kaufman, David Cromer and Libby Appel. In the summer of 2007, he attended the 8th Annual LaMaMa International Symposium for Directors in Umbria, Italy.

Jesse was a 2009 Drama League Directing Fellow, a finalist for the 2010 SDC Sir John Gielgud Fellowship, and the recipient of a 2010 Drama League New Directors New Works Seed Grant.