Jacob is a director & arts leader

He is focused on the development of new work, and fostering community engagement with the arts. His work centers on inter-community dialogue that engages the complexities of our shared histories and re-contextualized classics.

In 2021, Jacob was named the Artistic Director of Third Avenue PlayWorks in Sturgeon Bay, Wisconsin. Under Jacob’s leadership, TAP has had two back-to-back record setting seasons. In keeping with his commitment to community centered work, TAP launched a new community arts access program in partnership with the Door County Library system that seeks to eliminate the social and financial barriers to participation in the arts. Also under his leadership TAP started a formal new play development program that lead to the organization’s first world premiere play.

Jacob was the Artistic Producer at The COOP, a theatre and film production company founded with Andrus Nichols and Kate Hamill. During the pandemic, Jacob created the new works programs that became the center of The COOP’s theatrical work. The new work initiative has supported the development of plays by sixteen writers.

Jacob has worked at The Shakespeare Theatre, The Goodman Theatre, Writers Theatre, Baltimore Center Stage, Studio Theatre, Signature Theatre, Primary Stages, Folger Theatre, Woolly Mammoth, Mosaic Theater, and others.

Originally from Wisconsin, Jacob holds an MFA in Directing from the Theatre School at DePaul University.