https://www.markjackson-theatermaker.com/projects daily 1.0 2023-12-15 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1425333015812-M3BHGZBZ7I9WW56IZO14/THA_8322.JPG Projects “In The Shotgun Players' top-notch production of Woyzeck, director Mark Jackson injects a hipster grunge aesthetic into this desolate, hope-dashing farce… In Jackson's smart and dynamic production, looking into the abyss was never so enjoyable.” EAST BAY EXPRESS https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1425944438378-P7HZ5CASUPE73LXWW6SS/THA_8329.JPG Projects “Tom Waits and Kathleen Brennan's sensuous melodies and sardonic lyrics envelop the fractured shards of Georg Büchner's unfinished script to create riveting theater in the Woyzeck that opened Friday at Shotgun Players' Ashby Stage. Director Mark Jackson blends their talents with those of his company to deliver one of the most exciting productions of the year. This is a Woyzeck that's as emotionally compelling as it is intellectually stimulating and mordantly comic, which is a major achievement. …The show's impact also derives from how well the director builds on the genius of his predecessors. …As seductive as it is potently immediate.” Named one of the Top Ten Bay Area theater productions of 2012 SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1425944502953-1LLS6CAEM5QP08PY7U0F/DSC_0191.jpg Projects “Jackson has always had a way with the avant-garde impulse. He brings electrifying intensity to this groundbreaking drama, a play seminal enough to shape everyone from Brecht to Beckett… Jackson also gilds the piece with wit, which helps make the play's grim themes tartly comic as well as disturbing… From start to finish, Jackson nails the jarring tone of the piece, its unsettling theatricality punctuated by the lure of circus music… We may never know how Büchner intended to fit all the shards of this haunting narrative together. But it's hard to imagine a Woyzeck more darkly hypnotic than this one.” SAN JOSE MERCURY NEWS https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1425333049810-WEF03B8G0DO4RK18V0CH/IMG_0257.jpg Projects “Director Mark Jackson has done a bang up job.” KQED.ORG https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1425944590093-3QOQR2T3ZSFTQ9JMIMRV/IMG_0301.jpg Projects “Jackson takes a sure and playful approach to the staging, which pays off dramatically… Broodingly brilliant.” SAN FRANCISCO BAY GUARDIAN https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1425945433950-ZV6MO2SZ51NP1ACA7ETM/IMG_0337.jpg Projects “A stunner… Beautifully performed… The first-rate cast and excellent direction of Mark Jackson serve the play well and tell the story with perfect clarity. …An emotional roller coaster that proves enormously satisfying… There is not a single moment, musical or dramatic, that fails to hit its mark.” EXAMINER.COM https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1425944800237-DP6063HU3FRJNVHWFLVA/DSC_0339.jpg Projects https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1425945349048-V361A9XEUZFSFUOVZT7C/IMG_0445.jpg Projects https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1425945533772-YTCU99HCEYJUZ1TKQVDP/DSC_0305.jpg Projects https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1425333067173-6N81HTLJ6THUE13RY8RW/THA_8431.JPG Projects https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1425944909697-Y1EXGDQ4UD93A9OZ2PBG/IMG_0489.jpg Projects https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1425333078351-326JPUFRU7LHC0X2AA0Q/IMG_0504.jpg Projects https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1425333102674-4G4JIZ317A2PEQM2TOB4/IMG_0547.jpg Projects https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1425333107888-19XYN0EDVXMNPUPF6ZL6/DSC_0445.jpg Projects https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1425945012445-B717E8FN9E86AG1GCILH/IMG_0625.jpg Projects https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1425944963230-VEBAZ639JXZI95BKUI0F/IMG_0637.jpg Projects https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1425402281421-28PVP6PVFJ7QNJKPPRP2/5J2A4624-Foto+by+Pak+Han.jpg Projects “Director Mark Jackson and actors Megan Trout and Joe Estlack rank among the top Bay Area theater artists by any critical metric, high or low, for their talent, vision, and commitment.” SF WEEKLY https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1425402313938-MV47WLKYFUVEE3HWME0A/5J2A8379-Foto+by+Pak+Han.jpg Projects “The talents of director Mark Jackson and actors Joe Estlack and Megan Trout keep the audience mesmerized as Adam Peck's unique take on the story unfolds… A riveting production… A poetic retelling of the myth… Jackson uses sound, video and dance to create a strong mood to the piece. The result is a rewarding show.” SAN JOSE MERCURY NEWS https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1425402371529-0KAYS74TMMLWH83M9LOV/5J2A4747-Foto+by+Pak+Han.jpg Projects “What’s so interesting about this piece, especially in the hands of a gifted director like Mark Jackson, is that the text almost becomes secondary to the tone of the piece, which is more performance art than play, incorporating dance, soundscape and video projections. It’s a Bonnie and Clyde story by way of art installation, and it’s gorgeous… One ravishing stage picture after another… The traditional play in which Bonnie and Clyde fret and fight is interrupted by compelling moments of fantasy and dance and foreboding.” THEATERDOGS.NET https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1425402407595-GCTJ8EWHDNC2KP9TQWCZ/5J2A6989-Foto+by+Pak+Han.jpg Projects “Compelling and tragic… The lovers' more fraught moments are bracketed by poetic and charged movements… At turns frantic, poppy, and sensuous… Riveting throughout… The whole atmosphere is pervaded by a sense of both exhilaration and doom… The play brings a devastating energy to the task of making Bonnie and Clyde's legend mortal once more.” EAST BAY EXPRESS https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1425943055121-Q4V9HWJXYO4K8VIFFZLL/5J2A5830-Foto+by+Pak+Han.jpg Projects “Shotgun’s Bonnie and Clyde is a thrilling production in every respect… 80 minutes of breathless excitement… A wonderful show.” THEATRESTORM.COM https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1426265023464-BM8JNEL4C7VIYGRYSVNK/5J2A7549-Foto+by+Pak+Han.jpg Projects “It's the quieter, frailer, more delicate moments in Mark Jackson's robust, at times transcendent staging that prove most memorable in this Shotgun Players production. It's a sign of Jackson's sure intelligence as a director that he can let a moment happen here wordlessly, without recourse to cut-and-dry cues of one sort or another… Enthralling… Embodying the play's only characters, Trout and Estlack are outstanding, dynamic and utterly persuasive. They'd be worth seeing even if the play and production were half as good as they are.” SAN FRANCISCO BAY GUARDIAN https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1425942721897-05IO9ZGCGJTVPLMSI1PJ/5J2A7989-Foto+by+Pak+Han.jpg Projects “Two actors weave a mesmerizing spell on an almost bare stage in the Shotgun Players' Bonnie & Clyde… Tight and compelling…” SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1425402563925-GV0O7N2DSG7B8IODVK2E/5G1A0983-Foto+by+Pak+Han.jpg Projects “The word ‘gorgeous’ doesn’t even begin to brush the surface when it comes to describing the production as a whole. Just as the story of Bonnie and Clyde holds the elements of a great and lasting American myth, Shotgun Players’ Bonnie & Clyde contains all the vital ingredients of good theater. This work, directed by Mark Jackson, is a hybrid form of theater-meets-performance-art. Alluring in almost every way, the production boasts a script equally delicate and dramatic, with dreamlike interludes of internal monologues and poetry reading, coalesced with gorgeous visual projections and modern dance.” THE DAILY CALIFORNIAN https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1522954883977-HM0NYNOWXBF63K1B8NC4/5G1A0661-Foto+by+Pak+Han.jpg Projects https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1425406914857-C864ZZI4W9KCQZ0DLJFG/little+extremes+shooting+range+copy.jpg Projects - Little Extremes (1995) Produced by Art Street Theatre. Written & Directed by Mark Jackson. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1425406886253-J3NY322OXMN2ENXY8FD3/Preparations+for+the+dance.jpg Projects - Salome (1996) Produced by Art Street Theatre. Directed by Mark Jackson. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1425406613652-RCLR4ZVOYJLZ7EJH26BV/First+%26+last+night+togeth.jpg Projects - R&J (1996 & 1997) Produced Art Street Theatre. Created and performed by Gillian Brecker, Mark Jackson, Bricine Mitchell, Jake Rodriguez, and Beth Wilmurt. Written & Directed by Mark Jackson. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1425406630104-8FUYKYSBFLAMRSATENJF/Overlap.jpg Projects - Brave (1998) Produced by Art Street Theatre. Conceived by Jordon Flato & Mark Jackson. Written & Directed by Mark Jackson. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1425406654379-3BH25XTJLM9PAIO50P67/Yell+strike+w%3A+the+actors.jpg Projects - BANG! (1999) Produced by Art Street Theatre. Written & Directed by Mark Jackson. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1425406677555-0CPNG12OQLWCJ9OKR41C/Iphigenia.jpg Projects - Messenger #1 (2000) Produced by Art Street Theatre. Written & Directed by Mark Jackson. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1463968117572-Q2T3JB7QS68VDMEWVY55/Take+your+seats.jpg Projects - The Lost Plays of Jacques du Bon Temps (2000) Commissioned & Produced by EXIT Theatre. Created & Performed by the cast. Directed by Mark Jackson. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1425406688509-09VWTCFQMYNPKRJ7QOMG/reprise.jpg Projects - Io Princess of Argos! (2001 & 2002) Produced by Art Street Theatre (2001) and Encore Theatre Company (2002). Music & Lyrics by Marci Karr. Book, Lyrics, and Directed by Mark Jackson. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1425406724747-8TYMPZ7DS79T42QNBBGR/Ophelia.jpg Projects - I Am Hamlet (2002) Produced by Art Street Theatre. Directed by Kevin Clarke. Written & Performed by Mark Jackson. With Temple Crocker as Ophelia. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1425406750252-9BMQ3TVPA15Y1LXKYCFY/Episode+14p.jpg Projects - The Death of Meyerhold (2003) Produced by The Shotgun Players. Written & Directed by Mark Jackson. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1458238919713-RRD3VFEM8VAQUK20MUTM/5J2A6249-Foto+by+Pak+Han.jpg Projects "The joy of this piece is reveling in its surprises, its patterns, its emotional and intellectual intelligence... Challenging, occasionally uncomfortable, very funny and quite moving... There’s intention and intelligence behind everything. Jackson and Trout are disarming to the degree that they make the show seem, if not easy, then very much of the moment and filled with the sparks of creation and discovery. Individually, Jackson and Trout are extraordinary. Together they are—wow." THEATERDOGS.NET https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1458239126246-4KDH5LOM2V3N3JZRF2CQ/5J2A6527-Foto+by+Pak+Han.jpg Projects "Intimate and as funny as it is penetrating... Delights the senses and tickles the brain as much as it leaves your head spinning... The building tensions converge in a shattering, expressive climax." SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1506972096035-PQN1LG4JSCRSMW90IH88/5J2A1805-Foto+by+Pak+Han.jpg Projects "Now for Now is peppered with intensely uncomfortable moments... The onlooker’s impulse is to wince or look away... The theater is often eerily quiet. It’s as if the audience is holding its breath, relieved by the occasional burst of laughter... Beautifully melancholy and often funny..." KQED.ORG https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1436459243124-G3RIA70XGFA3OW6IF3OQ/IMG_7217.jpg Projects - NOW FOR NOW at Z Space Mark Jackson (L) and Megan Trout (R). Photo by Tracy Martin. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1436458696704-Q51APLB4IA5A915I1IU9/ITM_3801.jpg Projects - NOW FOR NOW at Z Space Mark Jackson (L) and Megan Trout (R). Photo by Tracy Martin. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1436458932441-10SQ3OFHIX4TIQ8N7KBI/ITM_3788.jpg Projects - NOW FOR NOW at Z Space Mark Jackson (L) and Megan Trout (R). Photo by Tracy Martin. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1429317420911-3EJ85ML8HSTWP78W93P3/Carrying1.jpg Projects - January 2015 Workshop Screen shot of work in development recorded during our January 2015 workshop. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1425498120729-DXTSHGP7BVWBE7V8M7GE/Mark_Jackson_NOWFORNOW.jpg Projects - January 2015 Workshop Screen shot of work in development recorded during our January 2015 workshop. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1425497923747-3ELZVPF5UIKDY8178IW9/NFN_FDM_1_2.jpg Projects - August 2014 Workshop Rehearsal footage caught on iDevice cam! https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1432408070117-VIM1K7GXSA5PNOQ9QI7R/NFN_PP_3.jpg Projects - August 2014 Workshop Screen composite of a sequence in which the audience views the performance simultaneously live and via an iDevice camera. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1425409026104-BONT5U7C4C3CS8N9QHGU/NFN_RRM_1+copy+-+Version+2.jpg Projects - August 2014 workshop A screen shot from rehearsal footage taken during our August 2014 workshop. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1427396272395-W95XHU1LA5ML7EDCB9N4/DSC02634.JPG Projects “Shotgun Players’ incendiary production of Antigonick is an intensely felt, richly inventive and resonant show… One of the most impressive productions of the year… Jackson, an inventive director with a penchant for expressive physical interpretations of texts, and Hope Mohr, best known as a choreographer, fill the stage with endlessly intriguing, propulsive and slowly evolving movement patterns… Vital and immediate…” SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1427396551023-P2GK1L98ZYF9CALTU4GE/D71_0158xa.jpg Projects “This enigmatic 75-minute production revels in Anne Carson's lean and muscular poetry. Codirected by stage auteur Mark Jackson and choreographer Hope Mohr, this postmodern stab at the ancient Greek tragedy is framed by almost trancelike movement that builds to eerie tableaux… Uncompromising physicality… Alternately hypnotic and impenetrable... Gutsy... Unsettling and memorable…” SAN JOSE MERCURY NEWS https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1427396780779-3WVVU50N5S8S0IE4UJME/DSC06519.JPG Projects “It’s a museum piece come to life, a poem that dances, a classic that feels ultra-modern. Shotgun Players’ Antigonick is all that and more... This is rigorous, grueling theater… Bold, kinetic performances that electrify the fragmented storytelling… As grand art, Antigonick succeeds mightily. It feels bold, fresh, challenging and incisively crafted.” THEATERDOGS.NET https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1427396939149-XHNQ4KTWKXVHFB5E4SUQ/DSC06568.jpg Projects “As rendered by Shotgun veteran Mark Jackson and choreographer Hope Mohr, the play uses tense, minimal strokes that erupt into a grand ferocity… a ritual that becomes astonishing through precision, repetition, and speed.” SF WEEKLY https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1427397506595-VOI3WP2ERBZLOFCTGWZB/D71_0329.JPG Projects “There’s almost nothing that isn’t interesting, at times fascinating, about Shotgun Players’ dance-infused production of Antigonick… Carefully detailed direction by Mark Jackson and choreographer Hope Mohr physicalize the story in equally compelling, wonderfully theatrical ways… Suspenseful and intriguing…” SAN FRANCISCO EXAMINER https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1427131766379-DLFTHJH3Q751SSWOG8JE/5J2A6437-Foto+by+Pak+Han.jpg Projects “Extremely confrontational... A fascinating look at an ancient tale whose treatise on justice as opposed to law still rings true today.” CONTRA COSTA TIMES https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1427131841113-DCK1OJRMVNPSZZ8491RZ/5J2A6645-Foto+by+Pak+Han.jpg Projects “Shotgun Players’ stylized Antigonick makes a triumph of tragedy… A spellbinding piece of dance theater… Jackson and Mohr’s production is full of magical moments… Much of it may be puzzling on a literal level, but what’s remarkable is how well it all works on a visceral one. If we learn nothing else from Antigone, it’s that sometimes you have to break all the rules to do what feels right, and this Antigonick does that magnificently.” KQED.ORG https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1427398600465-BAU83HKIPY9ZKTNSE0A6/D71_0537.JPG Projects “The language and the movement and the thought are allowed to sweep over the audience like an ocean wave. The experience is one of being overwhelmed and carried by a flood of emotion and intellectual stimulation… This all makes for unusual, exceptional and quite challenging theatre… This highly stylized, challenging, virtuosic piece of ensemble theatre and dance is hard to describe but easy to assess: it is quite excellent. Highly recommended.” THEATRESTORM.COM https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1427131921020-9Y13YYXNQB0Q0J7N5DXM/5J2A6817-Foto+by+Pak+Han.jpg Projects "What's amazing is how co-directors Mark Jackson and Hope Mohr managed to faithfully transform Carson's very visual book into a compelling play." EAST BAY EXPRESS https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1428432118832-W79UT2AEZNJ9X2DUCMSV/5J2A7214-Foto+by+Pak+Han.jpg Projects "This is cutting edge drama at its best, skillfully spare and energetically compact." -TALKINBROADWAY.COM https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1427133443083-Q8B65KBVXNU8LCQAKSOS/5J2A9528-Foto+by+Pak+Han.jpg Projects https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1428869964569-E39GVM3SUNZI1XRX429I/5J2A7350-Foto+by+Pak+Han.jpg Projects https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1427400493900-EP2AUBYKTFBVO5Q2EPGP/5J2A7550-Foto+by+Pak+Han.jpg Projects https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1427134022354-CHDDV0TT765NSGWBHC1G/5J2A7696-Foto+by+Pak+Han.jpg Projects https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1427398543469-TXE30KT7FETNQK10W3SF/DSC07282.jpg Projects https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1427398782672-JIEAFC2POT3KXH8NM8JQ/DSC07401.JPG Projects https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1427134313224-0TBEIRUZUXCMLZNGD7AH/5J2A7880-Foto+by+Pak+Han.jpg Projects https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1427400561785-YCMLWCNOT6AQTCNSISQI/DSC07495.JPG Projects https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1427134141815-1KGXCWXAYP5STPHEUB5Q/5J2A8256-Foto+by+Pak+Han.jpg Projects https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1427139544869-BOJB08ZJC5Z10WR39EVJ/5G1A0125-Foto+by+Pak+Han.jpg Projects https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1427400142053-3LSLFP7HCT73QYDSUCW6/5J2A8464-Foto+by+Pak+Han.jpg Projects https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1427399148620-QS17CO729POI3RN2YXMO/D71_1201.JPG Projects https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1427399386375-C5W8XEWO551BGNVAGNFO/DSC08128.jpg Projects https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1427405077252-YVRLKE0U093F1YYRYV55/DSC08190.jpg Projects https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1427401933916-BVTOLE3931P8A1ROEQ3A/DSC08266.jpg Projects https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1427399666735-3HG0VS01RAI9RMD8YME1/D71_1220.JPG Projects https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1427134392809-33ZQNUQ9HVSCLQHWK90M/5J2A9301-Foto+by+Pak+Han.jpg Projects https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1425420172377-G2K2N84LBPJPG16FGHR1/_DAP0129.JPG Projects “Maud Allan has long deserved a play of her own, and she gets a brilliant one in Mark Jackson’s Salomania. Directed by the playwright in its world premiere by Aurora Theatre Company, it’s an incisive courtroom drama… An intriguing biography of an exceptional woman, and an instructive look at an era not unlike our own… Deftly staged… The trial scenes are riveting, but some of the finest moments in Salomania happen outside the courtroom. An encounter between a bitter soldier and a war widow is haunting... Salomania is sensational.” SAN FRANCISCO EXAMINER https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1425420306665-ZO59PMOMFTLHECIH9CLE/_DAP0197.JPG Projects “Like all of Jackson's plays, Salomania brims with big ideas, almost to the point of overreaching. Somehow, it's still masterful… A wildly ambitious play… Jackson pulls it all together by placing high demands on everyone, including the audience. It's a fabulous conceit that risks falling apart in the execution. That it coheres in the end — and even resonates with contemporary politics — is a triumph.” EAST BAY EXPRESS https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1425420458180-P2TVFTUC5I6NQUOYW7VT/_DAP0354.JPG Projects “This is all a gold mine for drama, and Jackson takes it on with relish in Salomania, an often stunning patchwork of scenes around the libel trial and the Great War that resonate deeply… Jackson’s script is often very funny and just as often tremendously poignant.” THEIDIOLECT.COM https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1521581249096-CLYTDPHA0E2EMV7A4Q7O/_DAP0426.jpg Projects “Wildly imaginative… Jackson lives up to his reputation for bracing ideas and balletic stage pictures here. He cleverly juxtaposes Allan's ludicrous trial with the carnage of life in the trenches during World War I.” SAN JOSE MERCURY NEWS https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1425420745954-S2USYZ4HYE2KSSYECA1V/_DAP0551.jpg Projects “Fascinating and at moments electrifying… This is prime material for a drama, and Jackson is just the writer/director to bring it to interesting and finely detailed life… Jackson is such an astute craftsman that he’s able to create a near-epic feel in the intimate Aurora. His cast of seven makes a powerful impression… Through it all, Jackson orchestrates the proceedings with lyrical moments of dance and humor and horror… This is rich, rewarding material… Its observations about the third estate, wartime hysteria and the distraction of a good scandal are as alarming as they are entertaining.” THEATERDOGS.NET https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1425588685464-6B61AYGNN7QOAYNVNKVS/_DAP0584.JPG Projects “Alternately exciting and frustrating, Jackson's newest play is chock-full of current gay-rights resonance… Courtroom and combat scenes, as well as backstage strategy sessions and San Francisco flashbacks, play off each other to keep broadening an exploration of changing social ideas in wartime. …It's a credit to prolific playwright and director Jackson that he not only pulls together all these elements but also makes their juxtapositions easily comprehensible… Jackson mines terrific material from the trial transcripts, including hilariously disturbing ignorance about the meaning of the words ‘orgasm’ and ‘clitoris.’ …And Jackson strikes gold with his most counterintuitive stroke. In Liam Vincent's finely textured portrayal, the problematic Bosie becomes the most sympathetic person we meet.” SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1425420816105-BIQCQG9FFXBY1F3V98HL/_DAP0606.JPG Projects “Salomania, written and directed by Mark Jackson, is a spectacular play in all senses of the word. Reeling between the trenches of World War I and an uproarious courtroom drama as funny as it is disturbing, it spins out a staggering constellation of questions relating theater and war, art and politics, beauty and brutality. In each character's personal tragedy, it offers something in the way of answer… Fantastically entertaining throughout and studded with scenes of profound relevance and philosophical weight, Salomania is a brilliant play as substantial as it is well composed.” SFAPPEAL.COM https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1521581296507-FZLYA85QBAZQ4RTT63XY/_DAP0794.jpg Projects “Maud Allan's name won't be found in any list of the casualties of World War I, but she surely must be ranked among its victims… Her story is being told with force and compassion by Mark Jackson's Salomania… Jackson carries the tale from the trenches of France to the Old Bailey to taverns, bedrooms and other venues with remarkable fluidity and force.” HUFFINGTON POST https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1521581617840-FD6ERRA9VQPNWM90Q3HV/_DAP0867.jpg Projects “Jackson's sharp, sprawling, ensemble-driven exploration brings up plenty of tantalizing suggestions, while reveling in the complexly intermingling themes of sex, nationalism, militarism, women's rights, and the webs spun by media and politics… In its cracked-mirror portraiture of an era, the play echoes a social and political turmoil that has never really subsided.” SAN FRANCISCO BAY GUARDIAN https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1425421089165-XT0IHGLH88KLDFMQ5ITO/_DAP0926.JPG Projects “With the spectacular theatricality of playwright Mark Jackson’s delicate, humorous and beautifully expressive direction, the scandal-drenched story of Maud Allan culminates into a fascinating treat… Salomania is also one of those rare instances when a playwright directs his own material and manages to plumb extra layers from the crisp dialogue with the use of beautiful symbolism and glorious stage pictures, most notably a pearl-clad Maud Allan mournfully pacing the trenches, and soldiers who are frozen by birdsong. Jackson’s creative direction does not disappoint because he crystallizes moments and characters, leaving no doubt of both motivation from his actors and sense of place from his entire team, from the trenches to a courtroom to a cafe.” STAGEANDCINEMA.COM https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1425421266157-QRQWN5BCD809GL7GMPEU/_DAP0970.JPG Projects “Mark Jackson has shown his genius again in Salomania at Aurora Theater Company… The star of the show is Jacksonʼs superior directing and stagecraft. His ability to stage epic drama in Auroraʼs contained theatre space, and to keep our attention rapt during long periods of immobile conversation is worth the price of admission… Jackson’s depiction of soldiers in the trenches is realistic and wrenching… The staging is inventive and extraordinary… In another masterful turn, a scene of execution by hanging is done simply with lights and sound and more effectively than any trapdoor or other contrivance could have been." BERKELEY DAILY PLANET https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1425421333532-7Z4OU0A16F49IH99ZLYP/_DAP0978.JPG Projects “The intelligence and wit of the play’s script is met by the skill of the Aurora Theater’s production. Mark Jackson, the playwright and director, deftly weaves together several time periods, from the 1890s to 1918, and locations between San Francisco, London and France… It takes a particularly limber cast to make scenes like the imagined conversation between Wilde and Allen work when sandwiched between a courtroom drama and a high-octane battle, but the cast of Salomania don and shed characters effortlessly… Art doesn’t just imitate life. Salomania is too nuanced to suggest that. Yes, the Shakespearian connections between the theater of the courtroom, of the battlefield and the theatricality of life itself are here, but Salomania shows rather how life reacts to art…” THE DAILY CALIFORNIAN https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1425589064797-W2V1DY1JEJAE3XIO2WO4/_DAP0984.jpg Projects “Writer-director Mark Jackson has done more than simply rely on court records with Salomania, having its world premiere at Aurora Theatre. He provides multi-layers of context for the proceedings, including Wilde's own ruinous trial 13 years before, Allan's family tragedy in San Francisco that always haunted her, and the frontline trenches of WWI… Both funny and horrifying through contemporary eyes, there are magical moments that Jackson creates…” BAY AREA REPORTER https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1425581662127-F4697XX062L5FD8LGIX6/IMG_6221-Foto+by+Pak+Han.jpg Projects “Anyone familiar with the work of playwright and director Mark Jackson can attest that he’s an unparalleled talent in the Bay Area theater scene, and possibly in the nation at large… God’s Plot is a rousing success… The dialogue mixes archaic and modern language to great comic effect… Well crafted, comprehensible, and wildly entertaining, it’s a fabulous addition to Jackson’s oeuvre.” EAST BAY EXPRESS https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1425582763268-G0IKQQPZHIJYTZ0EYA3P/IMG_2390-Foto+by+Pak+Han.jpg Projects “Each of Jackson's ten characters, played by a compelling cast, is complex, full of foibles and desires… It's a bold and effective choice by Jackson to frame the play through the perspective of Tryal Pore, precisely the kind of person history tends to leave out. When she calls out her parents for pretending to be religious in public, or castigates her lover for failing to treat her in accordance with his lofty ideals, she does so with all the righteous force of an underdog giving history's fat cats their long-due comeuppance.” SF WEEKLY https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1425582723196-QBKTZO2S0AXGV63AJMMQ/IMG_6549-Foto+by+Pak+Han.jpg Projects “Playwright/director Mark Jackson has made his name as a first-class theatrical provocateur. Gutsy showmanship, brainy literary instincts and laser-sharp satire mark his canon... God's Plot, in its world premiere at Shotgun Players, is no exception… Jackson's portrait of life in the colony is gripping… This provocative piece grapples with a tangle of issues, from the love of spectacle that dominates both theater and religion and narcissism of the artist to the price paid for heroism in a cowardly time. But perhaps the most potent theme is the long and storied history of protest in this country… The palpable sense of patriotism generated in the play's closing moments leaves a lump in your throat.” SAN JOSE MERCURY NEWS https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1425582515077-0H0G8IDGL5RL30O0HS3P/IMG_7907-Foto+by+Pak+Han.jpg Projects “Insanely enjoyable… Jackson pokes fun at everyone and everything, which would be a cheap trick, except that he does it with sentences so gorgeous you want to scribble them along the edge of your program… There’s a sense of honor in the very people and institutions Jackson satirizes. His affection for theater and truly, for America, is obvious and uplifting. It’s rare to find a production that offers so much substance and Shotgun Players, which closes the 2011 season with God’s Plot, can march into the new year triumphant.” BERKELEYSIDE.COM https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1425582674665-2JSIEQ5UBP7ZS8LFL68L/IMG_6794-Foto+by+Pak+Han.jpg Projects “A good part of the achievement of director Jackson and his generally muscular cast is making a complex play of enduring ideas and conflicts look so effortless and fun.” SAN FRANCISCO BAY GUARDIAN https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1425582875168-B38TQRPM0LT73CZ7NWG8/IMG_6841-Foto+by+Pak+Han.jpg Projects “God's Plot is a complex yet seemingly effortless hybrid. Nods to Shakespeare, pokes at theatrical process (and vanity) comfortably mingle with critiques of Puritan society and allusions to today's moral conundrums. It's a largely comic evening of serious ideas… This crisply staged Plot is an adventuresome delight.” VARIETY https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1425582631375-132PQHRZSHFW8HRZ90PR/IMG_7347-Foto+by+Pak+Han.jpg Projects “Colonial American history has gotten a lot more personal, tuneful and much more entertaining with the opening of Mark Jackson's God's Plot at Ashby Stage… His tangy blend of early American theater, religious sectarianism, rebellion, hypocrisy and exploitation is almost irresistibly enlightening.” SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1425582319428-H2YEUF3X43HX6YHP3EMT/IMG_8115-Foto+by+Pak+Han.jpg Projects https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1425582268470-P50AGPJR0AVJV5R3M6QX/IMG_8140-Foto+by+Pak+Han.jpg Projects https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1494785898789-RKKV2IMHKF3AFFYX9QKA/_MG_1179_web.jpg Projects 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https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1461188330418-MQCY0RDJWMLT9MLLDFZW/_MG_6659.jpg Projects https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1461188313104-WYKJKLGLLSUEG5VRO1YG/_MG_6593.jpg Projects https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1461188029994-K9BF51WD572BSAMSIZ95/_MG_6379.jpg Projects https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1425863679959-7A3C33X98MNKUVUFG1PY/DSC_0019.JPG Projects “Jackson’s 2008 productions of Don Juan and Sophie Treadwell’s Machinal remain among the highlights of my theatergoing career.” NEW YORK TIMES (March 2009, feature article) https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1425863766106-F9T8CCLYRYET0YB1WBOZ/Don+Juan+Claire+Rice+3008x2000-7.jpg Projects https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1425863805085-23LRIDO379SGTX5XESH6/DSC_0058.JPG Projects 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https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1425790820813-MBXRIDWEDBF2QNTOUFVS/mfa_sai_0770.jpg Projects https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1426790826768-EHSN07L5T5SKNKDVGA7D/mfa_sai_0881.jpg Projects https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1425791052350-33YJCCLP09KK1EU3M61K/mfa_sai_0939.jpg Projects https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1425791031402-CZET2BK264Z9OM13FTU0/mfa_sai_0935.jpg Projects https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1425791484053-1W3PA820Z9K3FOYVD5SF/mfa_sai_1078.jpg Projects https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1425791163419-UQJFZOO1DXG2RAR9PKIV/mfa_sai_1113.jpg Projects https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1425786933291-RYAJ457YFRWCOVRBIOH8/DSC_0035.JPG Projects “JULIET is raw and intense, romantic and funny, tense and tragic, youthful and vigorous, sensual and beautiful… Acclaimed director and San Francisco State alum Mark Jackson comes back to his roots to guide this creative team of students on a journey to success…. There’s so much to see, hear, and experience. So much to love. JULIET is a show to be seen.” PLAYSHAKESPEARE.COM https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1425786973701-8BMPPDNDI03UP2RQKS5H/DSC_0133.JPG Projects “This devised work, directed by Mark Jackson and beautifully brought to life by an exceptional student cast from SF State's theater department, conveys not just the poetry but the sheer energy, surprise, and shock of living — at the very heart of the work — better than any straight-ahead production in recent memory. This vibrant, movement-based, and repeatedly stunning postmodern JULIET retains the dramatic arc of Shakespeare's tragedy, yet runs another parallel arc of its own, exploring the perspective of Juliet as an extremely intelligent, vital and growing young woman… The results are not to be missed, providing something truly unique as well as one of the most compelling ways into a text that refuses to die despite a million bad productions.” SAN FRANCISCO BAY GUARDIAN https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1502496750360-20K5EOT9C02A95ZETMEZ/DSC_0077.JPG Projects “Funny and sweet and glowing… Captures the giddiness of infatuation better than most productions of Romeo and Juliet I’ve seen… Jackson and the cast’s deconstruction of the well-worn Shakespeare classic evokes the raw emotion of the story in a way that only exceptional productions of the original manage to do.” THEIDIOLECT.COM https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1425787118914-G3AYDMAHX0XUE3XP5MLW/DSC_0508.JPG Projects Named one of the best Bay Area theater productions of 2010 by both San Francisco Bay Guardian and theidiolect.com https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1425787188845-3RJDDOVP8E3ZWT6V333E/DSC_0638.JPG Projects https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1425793033053-CT1M1AYK21JJNSVA1JHG/DSC_0010.JPG Projects https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1502496790181-KGOFQV28GIS372B8IR6A/DSC_0160.JPG Projects https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1425787607311-0JTCJDMCHW5CNKP2RGGW/DSC_0385.JPG Projects https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1425787665363-0T4MSRZBAAYKOFCOW2FS/DSC_0219.JPG Projects https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1425793082042-98WQVX17CLIC8VWMKRVP/DSC_0185.JPG Projects https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1425787290381-W327PM644E95TVUYZCMI/DSC_0389.JPG Projects https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1425787360675-E9LK03TDVN3R25T1OSLR/DSC_0232.JPG Projects https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1425787732630-PZLMO4NAKC3BA4STJMJL/DSC_0274.JPG Projects https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1425787826427-6P7NUHINRLV7JCVU69JH/DSC_0363.JPG Projects https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1502496830057-9E8E1S27W364TGJ6QXEB/DSC_0440.JPG Projects https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1425788022798-83R75MUVNC5Z8R4S9YDK/DSC_0578.JPG Projects https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1502495407779-0K7GI8X0BOO1PV3WBHVG/DSC_0564.JPG Projects https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1502496888650-1B8DI93KXXL0JG4NF2IM/DSC_0581.JPG Projects https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1425788064142-GZ48SYW3IUFB60OGHKWT/DSC_0741.JPG Projects https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1425846678578-J9BGDN9VV4BGCHDARO9Q/DSC_0056.JPG Projects “Even if you haven't haunted a college production in a while, here's a show well-worth beating an unbeaten path for. Mark Jackson directs a seriously talented cast of students at SF State's College of Creative Arts in this absorbing production… Its series of distinct, shrewdly constructed scenes — showcasing sardonic, devilishly staged caricatures of everyday automatonia, delicately modulated tension, deft humor, and understated horror — offers a penetrating portrait of modernity...” SAN FRANCISCO BAY GUARDIAN https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1425846817531-JLEL5N8ZLUWTE5QUZ0VC/DSC_0071.JPG Projects “Treadwell's brutal-satirical view of a life lived according to the rules of 'the machine' and the destructive effects of that life on a young woman, assault the theatre-goer with a primordial snarl in Mark Jackson's stomach-clenching, gob-smacking, eye-opening production… Scary, intimate and irresistible… Jackson's cast of physically bold, textually astute undergraduate performers belie their relative inexperience. I came away with my head spinning, wondering why ‘professional’ companies rarely produce work as intelligent, emotionally disturbing and fresh.” CHLOEVELTMAN.COM https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1425847194675-VH9QC1W8SCVQ8E6XYXWY/DSC_0140.JPG Projects "Jackson's 2008 productions of Don Juan and Sophie Treadwell's Machinal remain among the highlights of my theatergoing career." NEW YORK TIMES (March 2009, feature article) https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1425847357813-FNYUWNBKHMUJAGXDNIV3/DSC_0176.JPG Projects https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1425847340063-7FMQPX5UDSNJLXUPOYRN/DSC_0218.JPG Projects https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1425847439146-QN1IYRD2CY717RMOYUL1/DSC_0235.JPG Projects https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1425847587674-1VT86BGCFNJVNS8Z4NO8/DSC_0316.JPG Projects https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1425847627378-4S4UQXBRPSAJV21N2Z1Y/DSC_0356.JPG Projects https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1428174261310-WXEENP8USR8IBLNIEMVA/DSC_0361.JPG Projects https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1425847651566-1T5L6RL79FGFNP8TGXMT/DSC_0371.JPG Projects https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1425847906359-U92BEXAZ8CMASHVB6AU0/DSC_0399.JPG Projects https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1425848004036-IUCAJUHT80BXK53JWLHK/DSC_0435.JPG Projects https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1425848166374-1BDFX734787YSBWV5CBU/DSC_0455.JPG Projects https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1425848228689-G3LKZGI1QXC9OROSC3PC/DSC_0474.JPG Projects https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1425863025280-5SJA3F6P2Q8UM7LXV773/DSC_0482.JPG Projects https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1425863052105-AJW48ZH9ISSEEGVN14OY/DSC_0488.JPG Projects https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1425863085823-7UZX80MCWHQGZCXUHDNN/DSC_0496.JPG Projects https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1425865196129-BLDC3FXIADYTRZNAAIS8/DSCF0070.jpg Projects "The seemingly simple, fecund theatricality of Bertolt Brecht's great parable comes richly to life in Mark Jackson's inventively staged 2 1/4-hour production for the American Conservatory Theater's Master of Fine Arts Program… It's a good match of playwright and director. Jackson, the founder of Art Street Theatre, knows his 20th century radical theater well, as he proved by writing and directing the brilliant The Death of Meyerhold with Shotgun Players in '03… Jackson blends most of the performances well and does a beautiful job developing the two stories that converge in Brecht's plot. And he's staged the action fluidly and humorously, with evocative visual and aural beauty and simplicity. A desperate venture across a broken suspension bridge is stunningly staged." SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1425865078889-CBSWH4Q2NZXCI4NM60OY/P9280066.jpg Projects "The 16-member cast shines under director Mark Jackson's precise and creative hand.” SAN FRANCISCO BAY GUARDIAN https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1425865488563-V0LVQQSBH3EFMVBHITI8/DSCF0105.jpg Projects   https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1425865324421-L6Y7A7LK9LQCPOH5WDRP/DSCF0022.jpg Projects https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1425865095535-K2YFQ1RMYT23VFCTCFDA/P9280091.jpg Projects https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1521410147117-0TS3FJ00219401C2A06M/DSCF0051.jpg Projects https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1425865254940-RSZPTMYN6O709A42HYL4/DSCF0054_1.jpg Projects https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1425865146017-4NWMN2OV19RCSZ96JVSK/DSCF0017_1.jpg Projects https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1425865187807-0AYZWF8F7K3XJZO4OU92/P9280005.jpg Projects https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1425865413162-9HPC2BBYMJOYCG9QHLJJ/DSCF0061_1.jpg Projects https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1425865420442-QEX7WNUTZPG5JGRXV7W0/DSCF0049.jpg Projects https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1425865439514-TQ8MH4JQCYOVYGGA55XK/DSCF0028.jpg Projects https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1425865592141-9I4CMNTT1EGKV3AKDB42/DSCF0068_1+-+Version+2.jpg Projects https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1425584083593-96TE9HZYX86S6B6WG98G/DSC_0052.JPG Projects “A brilliantly devised choreography of hesitation, alienation, attraction, and repulsion – the push and pull of fear and desire epitomized by adolescence in all its desperate and beautiful vulnerability… At turns hilarious, raucous, wrenching, and sweetly, smolderingly sensual, Wallflower is another must-see collaboration between Bay Area director Mark Jackson and a remarkably adept cast and crew from San Francisco State’s theater department – collaborations that have blazed a regular path for discriminating theatergoers… Enchanting and revelatory…” SAN FRANCISCO BAY GUARDIAN https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1425584147898-ANLPIFAHBC4J0G1J66RH/DSC_0073.JPG Projects https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1425584238705-LMB8UUJNNS0QM9E9V3SP/DSC_0152.JPG Projects https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1534111641331-VXHY8E8Z3YCUHXK98G8A/DSC_0289.jpg Projects 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https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1425866928562-3GJW7XZTZ3CM5XRFA8I1/Muses_3988.jpg Projects https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1425866972418-WYRTZM2O4XEPCFNDOVSV/Muses_4018.jpg Projects https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1425866991272-073GQZYN19Y5N6LHY5V4/Muses_4060.jpg Projects https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1425867050099-M76V5234JCL9WM8Z0XE5/Muses_4083.jpg Projects https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1425867029094-HB0F5GLXWLS8HNG8FT9T/Muses_4089.jpg Projects https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1521230736374-PY6W66WWQB7BRORM76YZ/_DAP0072.jpg Projects “Humor and horror mix freely in the Aurora Theatre's fascinating production of Metamorphosis. The Mark Jackson-directed show provides plenty of thrills as well as laughter… Metamorphosis is a beautifully realized production.” CONTRA COSTA TIMES https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1425586697264-IT6J3Z0S581TA4R7H1DK/_DAP0095.JPG Projects “Director Mark Jackson is something of a name brand in the Bay Area. You know his shows are going to be original, compelling and rigorously produced. He’s a writer/director (occasionally actor) whose work you simply do not miss. The world of Kafka would seem to be a playground for Jackson’s mighty theatrical imagination, and it’s true. Jackson’s Metamorphosis is as unsettling as it is poignant, as beautifully performed as it is fun to watch… Jackson’s cast is so sharp, so precise and so electrifying… This is ultimately quite a sad tale, but Jackson and his crew deliver it with such energy and such discipline that it’s also suffused with the joy of performing something so bold and juicy.” THEATERDOGS.NET https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1425587951465-DATJDVBUL1UO9OG0GPOB/_DAP0148.JPG Projects “Wildly innovative director Mark Jackson, best known for The Death of Meyerhold and Faust Pt1, transports the bizarre tale of Gregor Samsa, the traveling salesman who wakes at home one fine morning to find himself transformed into a gigantic insect, into the age of beehives and sock hops… Steeped in the oppressively chipper '50s motif, this Metamorphosis mingles absurdity and horror with extremely eerie results… Jackson has an exquisite eye for tableaus and here he mesmerizes with constant jarring juxtapositions… Beguiles the eye with one unsettling stage picture after another.” SAN JOSE MERCURY NEWS https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1472171526735-00CXSO4T9QJWNO8ECBW1/_DAP0171_2.jpg Projects “Mark Jackson directs the play in the true spirit of [Kafka] — which is to say, no deeper meaning is spelled out for the audience. Instead, the play’s meaning is left open to interpretation… The acting in Metamorphosis is top-notch. The director succeeds in presenting a powerful drama that is magically simple, yet profound… Metamorphosis is exceptional. The direction is brilliant…” THE BENICIA HERALD https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1521230588986-U32QDNK2GXB5AY3G3SUG/_DAP0324.jpg Projects “Jackson uses a highly physicalized approach… a tightly choreographed homage to everything from vaudeville and cartoons to Lucille Ball. The contrast works beautifully… Yes, it’s ominous. It’s very funny, horrific, poignant and provocative as well – often at the same time. It’s Kafka.” SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1521230642246-LZ695T6WJDDHFEN35NXU/_DAP0353.jpg Projects The Aurora Theater Company is now presenting an apt stage adaptation of Metamorphosis done by David Farr and Gísli Örn Gardarsson and skillfully directed by Mark Jackson. It’s worth seeking out… The whole ensemble performs with technical finesse, in a stylized manner as to resemble terrifying human marionettes, askew and broken.” BERKELEYSIDE.COM https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1425587997744-36JSZC5F9HKS744P1UNT/_DAP0455.jpg Projects “The direction by award-winning Bay Area director, performer and playwright Mark Jackson maintains and heightens the nightmarish sense of alienation and helplessness of Kafka’s original 1915 novella… In this Absurdist melodrama, Jackson has skillfully let the audience feel Gregor’s disaffection while not belaboring sympathy… This production of an Existential classic gives new artistic insights to the dark night of the soul…” SF BAY TIMES https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1425587292663-5KYTVDAVTUZFEKM4R8YO/_DAP0518.JPG Projects “In less capable hands, a stage version of Franz Kafka's Metamorphosis could easily have been a disaster… But no premise is too fraught for local theater director Mark Jackson, who dazzled audiences with his 2009 adaptation of Goethe's Faust Pt1, and went on to do a contemporized version of Mary Stuart, focused as much on national security as on the infamous Queen of Scotts… Never one to underestimate the intelligence of his audience, Jackson refuses to bludgeon us with political or social subtexts. Nor does he allow the grave sadness of Kafka to completely saturate the play. Rather, there's a winking humor to each dialogue, and a kind of elasticity to the characters' movements that makes the whole thing seem light and buoyant — almost like a ballet. It's perhaps the best way to aestheticize [the 1950s,] one of the fluffiest periods in American history, when the veneer of social mobility helped mask an environment of anxiety and paranoia.” EAST BAY EXPRESS https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1425587308935-KFW4WVOUB91F8HUAXU2N/_DAP0526_2.jpg Projects “Mark Jackson takes the universal theme of alienation to a new level with his latest production, Metamorphosis. Adapted for the stage from Franz Kafka’s notable short story, Aurora Theatre Company’s representation of one man’s troubled transformation is both delightful yet twisted. The jokes are aplenty and the cruelties run amok, delivering a performance that sheds new light on a timeless fable… Part-charming and part-horrifying but ultimately thought-provoking.” THE DAILY CALIFORNIAN https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1425590610756-6YOG148FAUQ4S50QSJD7/IMG_1698-Foto_by_Pak_Han.jpg Projects “Stuffed with charm and surprising insight, The Companion Piece is the vaudevillian brainchild of director Mark Jackson and actor Beth Wilmurt… The Companion Piece blends the fantasies and creative quandaries of the actor, the collaborative process, and the choices actors (and, as you soon realize, people) make to follow their hearts, tying them together in a way that seems random and nonlinear until the curtain goes down and your brain begins to click through the whacked-out whimsy to find the channels of meaning.” 7X7 MAGAZINE (7X7.COM) https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1425590661300-CDUVMU9PWBEVX0CAQ9ZB/DSC_0038.jpg Projects “Comical and existential, The Companion Piece is a charmingly inventive new work of devised theater conceived by actor Beth Wilmurt and directed by Mark Jackson… Clever, frequently hilarious, and gently moving… It produces one captivating scene after another, often with the simplest of means.” SAN FRANCISCO BAY GUARDIAN https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1425591346882-1XZ3SP4S28XX6KI1J3Q4/IMG_1765-Foto_by_Pak_Han.jpg Projects “What is thrilling about watching The Companion Piece is how this 80-minute show has been developed through constantly taking dramatic risks. Many moments are intriguing – some even inspiring.” THE HUFFINGTON POST https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1425590434909-KSUQD19P39E058PTP93P/IMG_3020-Foto_by_Pak_Han.jpg Projects “You could throw a lot of adjectives at The Companion Piece, a world-premiere creation by director Mark Jackson, actor Beth Wilmurt and their crew: wily, zany, exciting, perplexing, silly and utterly beautiful. But they don’t quite create the picture of just what the Companion experience is. …The Companion Piece, directed with Jackson’s signature precision and inventiveness, is a disarmingly delightful show to watch, but it’s even more interesting to think about afterward. Now how often can you say that about something this entertaining?” THEATERDOGS.NET https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1425589894932-DO9P2Q6LJ2BU1UTADXKG/IMG_1455-Foto_by_Pak_Han-1.jpg Projects “One of the most intriguing productions of 2011. …In its quirky rhythms, audacious inventiveness, and masterful stagecraft, there are flashes of true brilliance. …It’s difficult to convey the amount of beauty, humor, and skill in these routines, with their misleading sense of haphazardness. It’s clear how much care has been lavished on what we’re seeing. While on one level the narrative seems disjointed and scattered, as mercurial as a person’s moods, on another we see how finely wrought it is, how much work and intelligence went into making it that way. Even in moments of stillness, there’s no awkwardness in the staging, no wavering of the audience’s focus… What Jackson and his colleagues accomplish with The Companion Piece is so rich, so daring…” SCENE 2 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1425590725367-9CN80F9XA4GG7RDO5D3I/DSC_0091.jpg Projects “Beth Wilmurt and Mark Jackson have produced The Companion Piece with a frantic, madcap glory that gives striking insights to the creative process… The Companion Piece thrives in metaphor, where the subtext of their competition to devise the winning idea is a poignant story of identity and success.” SF BAY TIMES https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1425591325216-OEBQPAN3GLT49YH518RR/IMG_1429-BW-Foto_by_Pak_Han.jpg Projects “The Companion Piece is a charming piece full of bliss… Mark Jackson has once again proved that he is one of the best directors in the Bay Area by creating this vaudeville dreamscape.” TALKINGBROADWAY.COM https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1425591087003-WF24RAPO4LQDBQSUI0FR/DSC_0099.jpg Projects “Director Mark Jackson, and performers Beth Wilmurt, Chris Kuckenbaker and Jake Rodriguez are among the most captivating theatre artists in the Bay Area. This world premiere devised theatre production is hilarious, physically exhilarating and in places deeply moving. …Vital and inspiring and totally worth seeing.” LIES LIKE TRUTH (artsjournal.com) https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1425590751377-83H2NPVKD0SEQHEM2KTZ/DSC_0111.jpg Projects “We’re in the hands of experts. It shows in this smart, engaging creation… I loved The Companion Piece, not least because of the glittering sheen of Jake Rodriguez’s vaudevillian and the ease and charm of Wilmurt and Kuckenbaker as the struggling couple. I also loved the casual, go-for-broke inventiveness of the enterprise, in scenes that range from a madcap intensity to touching quietude… Graceful, astonishing and mysteriously moving… A funny, touching meditation on getting along and working it out…” PIEDMONT POST https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1425590787683-P9UIZ3NLGJ8FM6AZROPQ/DSC_0134.jpg Projects “It's hard to know what to expect next at The Companion Piece… It's a show full of pleasures… But if the sequence of acts seems random, Companion leaves a playful lingering sensation of pieces falling into place with a purpose… Jackson uses the whole, deep Artaud stage, pacing the bits, bickerings and missteps with sharp synchronicity.” SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1425590466187-MJ2E1QFQNN2NR5JJ0362/IMG_3316-Foto_by_Pak_Han.jpg Projects https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1425590496284-9KHLD2C69PZIVZC3QMTQ/IMG_3323-BW-Foto_by_Pak_Han.jpg Projects https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1425590865820-FAO4S0YJYC3M1GOECU39/DSC_0115_2.jpg Projects https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1425591445420-T9XJBCAEGGNS5QVEC9J1/DSC_0231.jpg Projects https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1425590905901-WHSA6JMVDIW3R255895J/BethWilmurt_CPRehearsal_ZSpace.jpg Projects https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1425591861932-5AVQJGKITP2U28S8A9M2/DSC_0256.jpg Projects https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1425591885523-255VS7WRSGGDZ80EXW5V/DSC_0311.jpg Projects https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1425590513338-NTR9M4OGB2T873CIGD0L/IMG_3571-Foto_by_Pak_Han.jpg Projects https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1425591016227-8KDX2BUBJS5NOCG1NCGA/DSC_0335.jpg Projects https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1425590579233-VA7ZQK7B2BDL8Q9G66PQ/IMG_3678-Foto_by_Pak_Han.jpg Projects https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1425591371007-8KMXCS34M1ZSVZMOEY29/DSC_0072.jpg Projects https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1425590633392-G9NKUNRVB5DW5EQRFIEW/DSC_0033.jpg Projects https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1425590545171-0WAFAQ3ELIBI96354FST/IMG_3758-Foto_by_Pak_Han.jpg Projects https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1428785207331-6NB4MCX98R02OSAT23F6/3SisReh1.jpg Projects At Mime Centrum with Beth Wilmurt and Sommer Ulrickson in February 2005, working on what would eventually become Yes Yes To Moscow in 2007. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1428784991449-Y7LDX8QK5OU2HCGJQDPR/3SisReh3.jpg Projects At Mime Centrum with Beth Wilmurt and Sommer Ulrickson, February 2005. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1428785163990-XSPLBVQGHHJMYTZ7V520/MCB+VP.jpg Projects Students in a Viewpoints workshop I taught at Mime Centrum in March 2005. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1428785130374-5AOBL935WUBQIH4V4N0C/Gennadi.jpg Projects At Mime Centrum in July 2005, chatting with Gennadi Bogdanov, with whom I studied Meyerhold's Biomechanics annually from 2000 to 2005. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1428786201298-J9SK5WU4BJSHACMRNAIH/IMG_1898.jpg Projects Students in the Viewpoints class I taught for the Theaterpädagogik program at Universtät der Künste Berlin, November 2005. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1428785322076-U31LGNITVCLDTDRATI58/IMG_2591.jpg Projects First day of tech for Yes Yes To Moscow at Deutsches Theater Berlin, October 2007. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1428785392435-6GQ2GJ2S3NPQKAF3N446/IMG_2596.jpg Projects Me outside Deutsches Theater Berlin during the run of Yes Yes To Moscow, October 2007. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1428785365966-JF7252EFES9Q4M8EDVVV/IMG_2602.jpg Projects Poster for Yes Yes to Moscow at Deutsches Theater Berlin, October 2007. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1428785487774-3ZDTUBT40OX2T2H5LKQS/IMG_0549.jpg Projects The lovely flat in Berlin's Neukölln district where I got a lot of writing done during my Fall 2013 residency with English Theatre Berlin. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1428785521387-P2JSXXMVY1WBEBZWPRQO/IMG_0658.jpg Projects At the Theater Unterm Dach's bar in 2013, visiting with German actor Tilla Kratochwill with whom I'd worked on Yes Yes to Moscow in 2007 and 2008. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1425931155734-53KTBSD230P23Q34UV1M/DRAMA2007861-3791.JPG Projects “Touching and ever so subtle… A glowing performance… This was global art small in scale, big in impact… A dance theater piece of striking originality…” DANCE VIEW TIMES https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1425929985868-QK0SHLS8SKH2N62PUD6B/Yes_yes_to_Moscow17.JPG Projects “Masterfully performed… A funny, tragic and touching performance. Unlike most theatre done in English in North America, this was actually theatre, not just live television, and the performers themselves created the various spaces, times and atmospheres of the play using their bodies, voices and three chairs. In a year where I think I only saw one other interesting and well made theatre piece this was absolutely a highlight.” THE DANCING WORD https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1425931269666-G3PV14ZDP8N4P0SONTQ1/DRAMA2007861-3804.jpg Projects “Yes Yes to Moscow – one of the best things to happen on any Bay Area stage in 2008 – managed to capture the essence of Chekhov's Three Sisters to a degree most big-budget, straight-ahead productions could only envy... Wonderfully deft, insouciant, and absolutely telling…” SAN FRANCISCO BAY GUARDIAN https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1425931749830-9W9TBS0VWWNGKVD9L74S/DRAMA2007861-0037.jpg Projects “In their wry, allusive, funny and surprisingly touching Yes Yes to Moscow, Mark Jackson and his international collaborators use dance, reiterated passages from Three Sisters, song, clinical inquiry and sharply focused acting to probe the sisters' futures within their eternal present… It's a strangely absorbing piece that leaves an afterglow.” SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1425931370124-49QPJ3SRSE7RQMKO57OU/DRAMA2007861-3805.JPG Projects https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1425930502219-K18LJO3BT7BHSUJRY7U4/Yes_yes_to_Moscow36.JPG Projects https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1425931796429-DND6J62B61I0BF2UGC9S/DRAMA2007861-3817.jpg Projects https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1425930665158-I41JO9TCBP7OST9UA45I/Yes_yes_to_Moscow48.JPG Projects https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1425931490977-0WCM46GUIPGDCW5WXDJY/DRAMA2007861-3824.jpg Projects https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1425931620579-L1YM00SR89XWLD4UI4CU/DRAMA2007861-3830.jpg Projects https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1425931717234-B1EI2CUL4LT5NTSKGMNR/DRAMA2007861-3837.JPG Projects https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1425930904653-1F41QXD0EIBWYHPKIP43/Yes_yes_to_Moscow69.JPG Projects https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1425940910093-EW98EFW7FZMC9216FXPY/BethSalome.jpg Projects “The richness of Wilde's dialogue is well served in Aurora Theatre's production, directed by Mark Jackson, the acclaimed writer and director of Shotgun Players' 2003 hit The Death of Meyerhold. …The use of Aurora's theater in the round is striking.” EAST BAY EXPRESS https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1425940932100-A3S9EE3L75P7JKZBNGWH/DAP_0028.jpg Projects “Stunning! Powerful! …The direction by Mark Jackson made this play emotionally rigorous!” BEYONDCHRON.ORG https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1425940952648-UKDUEJ4PEF0RCRMS23BT/DAP_0054.jpg Projects “Alternately beguiling and terrifying… While Mark Jackson’s Aurora Theatre directorial debut is not one of his accomplished self-penned offerings, it nonetheless enhances his reputation for physically stylized theater with a penchant for seducing the cerebral cortex.” SAN FRANCISCO BAY GUARDIAN https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1425940963242-A1F449FF8XHGV4M4I7RK/IMG_2124.JPG Projects "Elegantly depraved, tastefully decadent, wickedly funny… Aurora Theatre's production of Salome can be enjoyed as a rollicking piece of all-out theatricality, or – for those with a more psychological bent – an autobiographical examination of Wilde's social sexuality… Aurora's Salome is the delightful sort of theater that allows you to engage both your imagination and intellect on many different levels… Although the story remains quite shocking, it is almost incidental to the production, which focuses more on Wilde's incredible word-wrangling, a stylized sort of presentation by director Mark Jackson, and a cast of actors who create characters so captivating that simply watching them venture through the tale makes the journey at least as satisfying as the destination.” CONTRA COSTA TIMES https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1425941004240-J9A43VTBF374UHXZQJN4/DAP_0125.jpg Projects “The Aurora Theatre has evolved into one of the hot venues in the Bay Area. Its current Salome by Oscar Wilde will add to its fame… The play is cleverly adapted and directed by Mark Jackson with significant and intelligent changes… [It] becomes a kind of Greek tragedy where the suspense builds up, despite our knowing the outcome… We are on the edge of our seats during the entire play… This is a play to see this season.” ARTSSF.COM https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1425941046000-TMGPW1RDGP722086PMZF/DAP_0166.jpg Projects “It’s hard to stage Salome today. …Director Mark Jackson’s production goes all out. …The effect of not quite knowing how seriously to take this play is disconcerting. Watching Salome, I found myself unable to distinguish between what I was feeling and an uneasy sensation that I ought to be feeling something else. …My confusion could be a sign of artistic brilliance on the part of both the playwright and the production.” SF WEEKLY https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1425941074029-SZBCV9WYE6SIQ69IVH3I/DAP_0297.jpg Projects “The 90-minute, one-act play is still rarely performed, perhaps because of its stilted language… Luckily for Aurora Theatre Company audiences, the play is in good hands, thanks to Mark Jackson's adaptation and direction… It's a fascinating, absorbing production with carefully crafted performances that rivet one's attention.” AISLESAY.COM https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1425941104958-NJ94CHF2A372IFCHETQH/DAP_0355.jpg Projects “A wild visual and emotional ride, rampant with poetic excess… Director Mark Jackson skillfully utilizes visual opposites in bold statements and in the small details.” SAN FRANCISCO BAY TIMES https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1425941160701-PHQADI5X667APEHJ3V3P/DAP_0368.jpg Projects “Mark Jackson's sleek, intensely stylized Art Deco staging matched Oscar Wilde's ornate, artificial language to bring out the sensual and religious intensity as well as the fear and loathing in King Herod's court, with a terrific cast headed by Ron Campbell's salacious king.” SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE “Best of 2006” article https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1425941241026-9NQ9ZSVZOQIS2YY6X40B/DAP_0393.jpg Projects “Berkeley's Aurora Theatre Company opens its 15th season with a sure-footed lunge into some wonderfully wild theatrical territory. …Wilde wanted to shock his Victorian audience with a biblical story juiced up with florid prose and rampant perversity. We're a lot harder to shock, so director Mark Jackson doesn't even try. With its three gory deaths, near pedophilia and actual necrophilia, Salome could be dripping with blood and creepy images. But Jackson is more interested in theatricality and language than realism, and that's a good thing for this 90-minute, one-act play.” OAKLAND TRIBUNE https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1425941278429-0BNW6JDDE2H0AQDQNJ2M/DAP_0474.jpg Projects “I can't compare Aurora Theatre Company's production of Salome, directed by the wonderfully inventive Mark Jackson, to any other. But given Wilde's flowery, simile-laden, faux-biblical language and elongated, weirdly repetitive scenes, I can't imagine a better production. Difficult as it is, Jackson makes it somehow work. …Jackson, who specializes in movement-based performance, knows how to heighten the theatricality with acting that's broad, physical, and precisely stylized to good effect.” BACK STAGE https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1425941366916-BOU8E8JBA712IDAQNZR5/DAP_0501.jpg Projects “Many directors are scared off by this play's dense layers of overwrought poetry, heavy symbolism and highly stylized shifts in tone. But not Mark Jackson, who made his name with The Death of Meyerhold for Berkeley's Shotgun Players some years back. At the Aurora, he has subverted our expectations by setting the action in a dreamlike Jazz Age environment, casting actors who are up to the rigors of the text and finding the flecks of burlesque that shine brightly amid the tragedy. It's an intense production that sheds new light on the play's dark secrets… One moment overpowers the next throughout this 90-minute tour-de-fierce.” SAN JOSE MERCURY NEWS https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1425941418807-V4KA04ZL1D39TID89SQV/DAP_0542.jpg Projects “Mark Jackson's staging of Wilde's fairly rarely seen Salome, the Aurora Theatre's season opener, is a riveting experiment in creative tension between artistic, emotional and spiritual/fleshly extremes. Fierce and funny, as broadly caricatured as it is densely poetic, the show that opened Thursday inverts and subverts expectations to infuse uncommon life into a difficult text… The highly artificial dialogue, thick with overwrought metaphors, and the highly stylized characters have scuttled many a well-intentioned effort. Jackson confronts the artificiality head-on, with a terrific cast creating dynamic tension between broad caricatures and rigidly stylized, strikingly focused performances punctuated by riveting tableaux.” SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1425933842285-80V10MQ2QNWBXVOGNDT6/IMG_7777p.JPG Projects “A wickedly funny, wonderfully warped mish-mash of human desperation, celebrity lust and good old American zeal… American $uicide, in all its grandly theatrical glory, [is] a comedy to die for.” OAKLAND TRIBUNE https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1425932478039-YE7W9NYOEZYNBKDEMVG4/IMG_7742.JPG Projects “As director and writer, Jackson handles this rich comic material with great skill.” MARIN INDEPENDENT JOURNAL https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1425932674904-MSYSRXMZYTLNZ03HGCH3/IMG_7793.JPG Projects “Fast, funny and densely satiric, it's also strikingly designed, brilliantly performed, and directed by the author with the sharp, eclectic inventiveness that marked his stagings of Oscar Wilde's Salome at Aurora, his own extended The Forest War for Shotgun and his breakthrough The Death of Meyerhold in 2003.” SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1425932736823-X4EWTOJIC3ROSCC8DCUW/IMG_7856p.JPG Projects “Jackson is one of the few true rising stars of the Bay Area theater scene… American $uicide strongly affirms Jackson's position as one of our most ambitious playwrights and directors. The play is at once a savage diatribe against the debilitating impact on the individual of this country's throwaway, media-saturated, dumbed-down culture, while at the same time an exercise in careening physical farce…. Jackson succeeds in making us feel like the characters in his play: giddy and hyperventilating and high.” SF WEEKLY https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1425932977795-Y04K1VH7PLLOYQEKP7E0/IMG_7909p.JPG Projects “That the play feels so effortlessly precise makes one appreciate even more the achievement of writer-director Mark Jackson, whose brilliantly staged adaptation of Nikolai Erdman's The Suicide turns the Soviet playwright's banned 1929 tragifarce into a piercingly funny satire on the American way of death.” SAN FRANCISCO BAY GUARDIAN https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1425933203341-FPICRDAF4U57SFOPP2YL/IMG_7930p.JPG Projects “Mark Jackson is one of the hottest playwrights in the Bay Area, and each play he writes is received with great anticipation… Jackson is able to combine brainpower, passion and devilish wit in all of his plays… [American $uicide] is a perceptive commentary on American society's fascination with the media… This sardonic farce is unlike anything you have ever seen.” TALKINBROADWAY.COM https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1425933255926-ALX4EXQI0PZZHH8VDV68/IMG_8001.JPG Projects “A truly transcendent comedy… The laughs begin immediately in the Encore Theatre Company/Z Plays production of American $uicide… But writer/director Mark Jackson has more up his sleeve than easy yuks… America’s obsession with fame and fortune spins absurdly, riotously out of control. Along the way, Jackson pokes fun at every American archetype… Altogether, this show is a delight.” SAN FRANCISCO EXAMINER https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1425933379572-F8FSWAW0YENI0GJU9GD8/IMG_7996.JPG Projects “It's been a few weeks since I saw American $uicide… But I can still see and feel the throbbing pulse of the final scene, when one power-glazed manipulator after another urges the hero on toward a fatal celebrity.” SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE (April 2007 feature article on local theater) https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1425933358806-VUCSR3FW5UGI5U3UUNTW/IMG_8006p.JPG Projects https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1425933524363-5OHSJH4FP5H4JJXZQC8B/IMG_8082.JPG Projects https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1425933576176-QP8K7TXS0FREPU2TO8EE/IMG_8096.JPG Projects https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1425933751958-OBMU0R8JRX4AGMQD82JJ/IMG_8121.JPG Projects https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1425933761598-Z1J333JSE1PDLXPTSS38/IMG_8118p.JPG Projects https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1553368343961-GW3NZQE2BSVME7DX2MJ2/beauty_queen.jpg Projects "Riveting... staged with depth and insight by director Mark Jackson to spellbinding effect... Beth Wilmurt gives a tightly coiled performance as Maureen, and Joy Carlin is mesmerizing as the crafty Mag." SAN FRANCISCO EXAMINER https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1553368376324-S9UB772JQDLNSZ6SWUY3/MTC_BQ_Carlin_HiRes11.jpg Projects "One thing that's so striking about Beauty Queen is how slowly and effectively it creeps up on you... It's an often hilarious play that puts you through the emotional wringer before it's through." MARIN INDEPENDENT JOURNAL https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1553368392146-VG5ASW9U6XO8ZFUSSBCL/tn-1000_mtc_bq_salazar_carlin_lores.jpg Projects "Jackson turns the received template for Beauty Queen on its head. Ever since Garry Hines' Druid Theatre premiere, the monstrously selfish shut-in mother Mag has savored her endless battle with her embittered 40-year-old daughter Maureen in broad strokes... Jackson reverses that approach even before the play starts. Nina Ball's striking set is a sparely furnished cottage floor, without walls, floating in a metaphoric inky-blue or grunge-yellow space. The realism is in the props and sound effects, but more so in the performances. The necessary shut-in claustrophobia is provided by Jackson and his actors... The fast pace is one of the show's strengths, heightening the comic tension. As the rich textures of McDonagh's stage Irish mingle with those of the performances, Jackson's Beauty Queen builds to a scarifying but moving finale." SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1553368411173-T1L0PDO4V541I9CRITG1/MTC_BQ_Wilmurt_Gnapp_HiRes11.jpg Projects "Director Mark Jackson’s cast is uniformly excellent... With their talents, Beauty Queen always entertains, but its true payoff comes toward the end." THE SPLIT END https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1553368453555-UQ17Y1OGN3CT6RYEGVJQ/920x920.jpg Projects "Director Mark Jackson’s production for Marin Theatre Company etches [the relationships] with realism and a savory dash of melodrama. ...A finely detailed portrait of a mother and daughter that is so fraught, you flinch and still you can’t turn away... It’s hard to ask for much more from a two-hour evening of theater... Director Jackson and his excellent cast don’t go for sensationalism as much as cringe-inducing shock... The most extraordinary thing about this production is the tension between Wilmurt and Carlin, two ferociously good actors creating a mother-daughter bond that is palpable. And terrifying." THEATREDOGS.NET https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1553368470979-QOSMSAFPFD71PPVP67YL/tn-500_mtc_bq_wilmurt_salazar_lores.jpg Projects "An explosive, funny play... The four actors under the direction of Mark Jackson deliver the language so compellingly... Jackson’s staging allows the characters to develop without overdramatizing... A stunning play in a stunning production." MILL VALLEY PATCH https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1477353221423-WW2G2K69U5A5IHYDMY76/36779_review2.jpg Projects “The cryptic atmosphere, quickly established in director Mark Jackson’s taut 75-minute production, is part of the pleasure of John W. Lowell’s psychological thriller… Jackson’s crisp direction is aided by Maya Linke’s claustrophobic set.” SAN FRANCISCO EXAMINER https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1477353268233-7YKEDENKXHAQLSO4VV6B/37344_review6.jpg Projects “Slyly directed by Mark Jackson… Ambiguity reigns in this dark parable, which certainly resonates in today's landscape, where mindless corporate doublespeak and radical restructuring of the workforce have become the norm. Jackson, always a visually bold director, uses a tight space to evoke the choking claustrophobia of this era. …It's quite chilling, even surprising. Perhaps the most piercing aspect of The Letters is how Jackson subtly turns us all into voyeurs, peeking at a man and a woman through heavy blinds, hanging on every sordid twist and turn.” SAN JOSE MERCURY NEWS https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1477353327828-78IWBX9EDFP364JD7OI3/25915_review8.jpg Projects “Jackson and the cast keep the tension taut through all the twists and turns and just-one-more-things, helping skew the viewer’s understanding of what’s going on while the stakes seem to get higher and higher.” KQED ARTS https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1477353394964-58YGQ85SUU0KQPPF9HN0/50213_review7.jpg Projects “Attention must be paid. And, dear comrades, is it ever in The Letters. The small sea of heads in the rows in front of me at Aurora Theatre's newly unveiled second stage never wavered from pinpoint focus toward the stage… The play is schematic by design, and director Mark Jackson's production confidently hits the beats laid out by the playwright.” BAY AREA REPORTER https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1477353462694-7ZUNOYUB42UCNNSFHR83/55153_review3.jpg Projects “Full-fledged Hitchcockian suspense… The resurgence of Russian homophobia and revelations of our own surveillance state and out-of-control interrogations have made The Letters seem unusually timely. Jackson and his actors capture that immediacy without ever making it needlessly explicit.” SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1425935727246-0NE7COV82FTZA1JS17EC/IMG_2338.JPG Projects “When art speaks truth, it hurts, and it never hurts so much as in Mark Jackson's stylish new play The Forest War… Written and directed with imaginative flair… the imagery is power-packed, and worthy of a story that looks like it will already be the stuff of legend.” KQED.ORG https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1425935780358-BL0G31XG4JMK3UPZUUKV/IMG_2154.JPG Projects “The last time Shotgun Players and writer/director Mark Jackson teamed up, the result was 2003's The Death of Meyerhold, one of the most bracing new works to come out of the Bay Area in some time. As Jackson once again demonstrated in the Aurora Theatre Company's season-opening Salome, his is a distinctively theatrical voice that combines intelligence, emotion and high-minded aesthetics. In The Forest War, Jackson's latest collaboration with Shotgun at Berkeley's Ashby Stage, we get all of the above and a whole lot more. …The Forest War is full of pleasures both visceral and intellectual.” OAKLAND TRIBUNE https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1425935842163-IXX9SWZDW02CC9TEN0DB/IMG_2196.JPG Projects “Beauty, grace, passion, immediacy and moments of dramatic power. …Jackson is a master of intensely stylized, physically based stagings in a variety of styles. …Each of the many deaths [in the play] is a stroke of theatrical genius employing red scarves and stark white parasols – an effect that builds to a stunning climax in the finale.” SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1425936534417-RS97LA1GYHA2R27COSQI/FW-Ep5f.jpg Projects “As a director, Jackson gets an emotional depth charge from the excellent acting ensemble… He is able to frame his vision of war in a timeless theatrical way...” PACIFIC SUN https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1425936329548-70YPH5NHO8P4VEJL59DG/FW-Ep7e.jpg Projects “Mark Jackson's The Forest War weaves a tale that's as old as the trees and still somehow feels like a spring sapling… Jackson drives his epic plot along with prose that's as muscular as it is bewitching. Swaggering political speeches melt into lines of lyrical sweetness… Jackson seems a natural heir to the celebrated French director Ariane Mnouchkine… Jackson creates a physical environment that flawlessly encapsulates his theme: the simultaneous dissonance and harmony between two very different ways of being.” SF WEEKLY https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1425935903596-NHLIB052QW2J7XO96ZSG/IMG_2212.JPG Projects “This is a gutsy show. …It's beautiful and powerful. Jackson has an eye for the show-ending image, and his Forest War is a bold undertaking that uses ancient forms to tell a modern story of love, politics, and needless bloodshed.” EAST BAY EXPRESS https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1425936691785-XYCOQPAGRH3Q2S7GRKNH/FW-Ep10b.jpg Projects “The Forest War marks Jackson’s second collaboration with Shotgun, and its powerful, graceful debut suggests Meyerhold's chemistry was no fluke… A visual banquet with a palpitating dramatic energy behind it, all operating with a precise economy of movement, gesture, and sign… Jackson directs his actors beautifully, extracting performances that breathe individually and expansively inside the productively strict choreography and caricature demanded.” SAN FRANCISCO BAY GUARDIAN https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1425935924561-LVEE7AA0X8T7WNPU57QP/IMG_2240.JPG Projects https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1425937514658-SDHBDEZ4O0IO1B1DU2X8/FW-Ep16c.jpg Projects https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1425937737688-9FNIB7280GRT9G39VPE6/FW-Ep19b.jpg Projects https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1425935995063-HPADCSYDN67Q7NR1JAX4/IMG_2294.JPG Projects https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1425938105435-P3C7JK1BL7FATWQL1SRC/FW-Ep21i.jpg Projects https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1425938169372-30156Q6B1NK27LEKV37J/FW-Ep22b.jpg Projects https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1425936014509-89FF83RWVSODXDFXDXRO/IMG_2307.JPG Projects https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1425938296641-4I049L7J9PCEA2M0J7Y4/FW-Ep22d.jpg Projects https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1425939246878-IG4R5OJ7JRJRPU1N0ILM/FW-Ep22njpg.jpg Projects https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1425938822029-8046Q6M6DUNYZ6SY1439/FW-Ep22t.jpg Projects https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1425938930051-YODXNERMTO9EY28NZV9V/FW-Ep22z4.jpg Projects https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1425866282900-0QY3OELIU6A67RQ6PI7C/DSC_0051.JPG Projects “Adapter and director Mark Jackson has made Friedrich Schiller's vintage play Mary Stuart into a taut religious and political thriller… The show crackles with contemporary sensibilities… It all plays out in bold strokes, flashing lights, masterful video work and incredible direction by Jackson. And the cast is top-notch.” SAN JOSE MERCURY NEWS https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1425868385405-GDNTDP8YGC4IMTGFMBI8/DSC_0535.JPG Projects “Jackson's production is thrilling. I loved the taut-lyrical text which balances a contemporary feel with a timeless lyricism, the simmering rage of the characters, the rigorous and compelling performances from all members of the cast – without exception – and moments of gravelly humor. The push-pull of the relationship between Beth Wilmurt as Queen Elizabeth and Stephanie Gularte as Mary – actresses who match pride with sensitivity – keeps us constantly engaged.” LIES LIKE TRUTH (artsjournal.com) https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1425868437897-V5STJZD55INUG6FAU4TX/DSC_0103.JPG Projects “A claustrophobic immorality play, a paranoid thriller… Jackson sets the play in the present, but his production feels unsettlingly atemporal… Mary Stuart is a chilling piece… Mark Jackson's stark vision looks and feels Orwellian. It works for 1568, 1800 or 2010 but on the Ashby Stage, it feels frighteningly intimate.” THE DAILY CALIFORNIAN https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1425868550848-HZVW0XWPY17P8RT2U0BB/DSC_0185.JPG Projects “Director Mark Jackson has adapted the play into a modern political thriller, with terrorism, national security and sexual tension each playing their part as Mary struggles for her life… Jackson's fast-paced production easily builds tension with his rhythmic use of language punctuated with total silence.” CONTRA COSTA TIMES https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1425868535192-256X13XKFIEAQPJZ2NKX/DSC_0243.JPG Projects “Director Mark Jackson's radical adaptation is as stark, direct and unornamented as the corporate walls of Nina Ball's set, and as cruel as a conspirator's smile. Jackson has stripped more than an hour, maybe a dozen characters and a lot of romanticism from Schiller's overstuffed text. What he's lost in terms of scope he more than makes up for in the heightened immediacy of the psychological conflicts… The essence of the broader stakes remains, with sharper currency, in the riveting verbal duels, plots and jockeying for power… A shocking splatter of gore, the startling appearance of a mirror, a stately transformation of Ball's set – Jackson uses everything, along with surveillance videos and Jacob Petrie's slyly shifting lights, to enhance the focus on the queens… It's a thoroughly gripping modern political thriller.” Named one of the best Bay Area theater productions of 2010. SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1425868645958-YTPX8M8O3J1331H2IQKA/DSC_0312.JPG Projects “Characters enter, they talk, someone leaves. That's it. The few times (you can count them on one hand) they actually touch each other are so shocking it's electric. But the electricity is real: The dialogue, semi-adapted for modern times, shines — and the actors carry a charge… The compelling character conflicts and parallels with our own time make the dramatic tension, in a story whose outcome we already know, nothing short of intense.” SF WEEKLY https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1425868702332-EBJ5UR2PAZ2NH940909B/DSC_0332.JPG Projects “In adapting Schiller’s verse play, Jackson hacks it to under two hours, reduces the cast to eight actors, puts them all in modern dress, and unbelievably, creates a tense, taut, engaging, and yes, modern political thriller. …Jackson is working with the play he’s got. He’s not embellishing and he’s not shoehorning it into some modern parallel: he does nothing obvious or contrived. He allows the show to resonate naturally with contemporary audiences, and surprisingly, it does… Jackson has created a smart and enthralling version of Schiller’s lumbering 'classic.' …It’s actually difficult to tell whether it’s 400 years ago in England or yesterday in America, and that’s a major accomplishment. Mark Jackson and the Shotgun Player’s Mary Stuart is great theater.” SCENE 2 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1425868764363-13PRRKI3RJQSJ25OBZ8J/DSC_0668.jpg Projects “A nail-bitingly tense political drama full of convoluted machinations. It’s The West Wing as Machiavelli might have written it.” THEIDIOLECT.COM https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1425868785524-IOFOTXWBYSN71DZP6I2W/DSC_0681.jpg Projects “Jackson's new two-act adaptation of Mary Stuart crackles with tension, political intrigue, guilt, rage, and deceit.” MYCULTURALLANDSCAPE.COM https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1425868806946-7PY66SV425W8AMH1UUDK/DSC_0677.jpg Projects “A near-perfect play… It’s intimidatingly smart – in a good way.” EAST BAY EXPRESS https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1425868952200-OP84LEM85WUP3JY220B3/DSC_0453.JPG Projects https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1425868873282-4OOV1U8S1BZH8BKJOYU1/marystuart1.jpg Projects https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1425868846912-UDMSL45G7E6NQ6TWMW53/DSC_0482.JPG Projects https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1425868999553-1JQ2FHJGLY2Y6RV48NRQ/DSC_0496.JPG Projects https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1425869551331-FCHYB6R7U4ZU974GJJK2/DSC_0010.JPG Projects “Dazzling… Jackson’s free adaptation of the Goethe play clocks in at just under two hours, and, happily, it’s a challenge. This is a disciplined, intentional piece of theater awash in rigorous direction, a simple but aesthetically astute production and a script that crackles with poetry, comedy and terror… Jackson’s performance is virtuoso.” THEATERDOGS.NET https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1425870818775-ZK9AG63LWQ2NXW48MU69/DSC_0019.JPG Projects “This Shotgun Players world premiere showcases Jackson's breathtaking range of gifts. One of the Bay Area's most consistently inventive stage auteurs, Jackson is often hailed for his highly stylized fusion of expressionist techniques with balletic movement as well as his boundless sense of ambition. Here he co-directs, writes and stars… It’s a two-hour theatrical adventure that's as intellectually rigorous as it is bold and hot-blooded... Jackson is riveting.” SAN JOSE MERCURY NEWS https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1425870886932-X79I7BI7OG8MMMGUVEWG/DSC_0112.JPG Projects “Sure, compact, and invigorating… Although the text has been trimmed and jiggered greatly, Jackson's version — alive and lively in rhyming verse — strikes a confident, highly effective balance between his own visually striking exegesis and a deep-seated fidelity to the poetical and dramatic spirit of Goethe's glorious closet play. Essaying the title role himself with considerable wit and panache, Jackson leads a winning cast in the kind of dynamic, precisely choreographed neoexpressionist production he has made a hallmark of his work.” SAN FRANCISCO BAY GUARDIAN https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1425871023421-AHMOV46I3JOPC8XIRD82/DSC_0123.JPG Projects “Tightly written and beautifully constructed… There are moments of stark beauty and incomparable emotion… Huge praise must go to Jackson… His performance as Faust is breathtaking… He shows a tremendous range in his character development, eliciting both revulsion and empathy throughout... Jackson's adaptation leaves many of the story's conclusions to the audience. And that may be what works best of all in this story – it plays across the mind for quite awhile after the final blackout.” CONTRA COSTA TIMES https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1518036088907-WWRKGZZRMVNMZHXYDG3M/DSC_0067.JPG Projects “An exhilarating experience… This is a funny Faust, but an intellectually stimulating, startlingly bloody and emotionally gripping one as well… Jackson pulls us in with his rigorously stylized focus, using exaggerated gestures and pauses to layer Goethe's satire on philosophy, politics and religion with the comedy of Faust's intellectual arrogance… Stark, funny, sobering and provocative, this is a Faust for our times.” SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1425871000940-1WM5YS18GNNS2Z7EJGSC/DSC_0155.JPG Projects “Arrestingly stripped-down in all aspects save its rich, elegant language, this take on the classic morality play has an intellectual and physical rigor that's at once ironically distancing and quite inviting… It's to the great credit of Jackson, fellow cast members and co-helmer Kevin Clarke that the play's first 40 minutes – in which near-stationary thesps scarcely exhaust even the sliver of stage space they're allotted – nonetheless have viewers hanging on every nuance… There's a stylized economy at work… This magnifying-glass presentation, in which small detail looms extra-large, also serves to focus attention on Jackson's text. His occasionally rhymed and metered language is full to bursting. Within their formalist framework the actors do very striking work, creating figures both archetypal and emotionally immediate.” VARIETY https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1425871132625-WQTL94V47LIX5BODIU64/DSC_0083.JPG Projects https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1425871146371-DZJ4DD00YXTOZQETR6G0/DSC_0141.JPG Projects https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1425871374943-8CEJ1SVE1QLIQWB4GYTN/DSC_0257.JPG Projects https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1517256806931-18TL6LTXPDZA4YA15UWK/DSC_0208.JPG Projects https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1425871332524-6A2H6KZ9A9MZGWYXDZYV/DSC_0274.JPG Projects https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1425871504924-LIOCAHY14YISDVTL8RZA/DSC_0297.JPG Projects https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1535060563876-F0SJ80EGJX1MB8DFWVCV/DSC_0237.JPG.JPG Projects https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1425871644122-7UM37F5EWEF9M27XUDYS/DSC_0245.JPG Projects https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1425871661094-F4XRJ3GIG33PDX7JUOWW/DSC_0339.JPG Projects https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1425871731826-1NF26KV8JPXOBMMI9OLZ/DSC_0352.JPG Projects https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1425871701982-9ZOWEST50NXWOMN029A7/Gretchen.jpg Projects https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1517256894924-WGGCPPOBPQKF5PY46KW4/DSC_0377.JPG Projects https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1535060611486-J0QT5N6JCVDDIINZKKR0/Gretchen2.jpg Projects https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1425871817972-MY8C97BR6V9HQYRLETHF/DSC_0383.JPG Projects https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1425926772216-LWY4EB6K6WT61SJ3PMC8/DSC_0020.JPG Projects “Director Mark Jackson's Macbeth is fast, sexy and bracingly contemporary… It's an inventive approach that focuses attention on the seductive perils of power… Jackson’s smartly tailored modern look turns the bright lights of a fashion show runway on a dark and endlessly evocative tale of how unscrupulous rulers can ruin a nation.” SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE / SFGATE.COM https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1425926917841-KTY2V8C9F7425H2M5L6Y/DSC_0029.JPG Projects “Not your grandmother’s Macbeth… Director Mark Jackson infuses one of Shakespeare’s most beloved tragedies with a modern sensibility, brewing a dark drama with bright lighting, a throbbing club base, and a fervid sexual energy… The thrust-like stage coupled with spot lighting on actors’ faces gives the impression and intensity of cinematic close-ups. The play is carried by strong leads as well as a unique blend of time-tested lines, fist-bumping swords, and a party atmosphere.” WCITIES.NET https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1425926949490-PHJW4V945QB9VU8XS6Z5/DSC_0093.JPG Projects “A sizzling, 21st-Century Macbeth… Director Mark Jackson may have come up with the sexiest production of Macbeth going… Sparkling and scintillating… A wildly effective study of power and bloodlust.” CONTRA COSTA TIMES https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1425927243177-YPKVCGZF8D8UXBWMS9ZK/DSC_0162.JPG Projects “Superlative directing and acting… If you like shockingly great theater, get thee to the Shotgun Players.” ALAMEDA SUN https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1425927459440-B4IZHTEW93ROBBSV14R0/DSC_0166.JPG Projects “Macbeth contrasts the city-slicker banality of the exterior world with a hell-raising internal life. Jackson and his partners in crime wallow in a remarkably convincing bloodbath — no small feat for the stage. The merciless choreography and extremely realistic wounds render the deaths of Banquo and Lady Macduff particularly chilling... The production burns with the same delusional energy of Ellis' thriller [American Psycho], to the point where we're not sure which is sicker: Macbeth and Bateman or the societies in which they live out their agitated fantasies… Haute couture is an effective and oft-used metaphor for a culture intent on suppressing its problems under a lustrous veneer. Jackson's Macbeth scrutinizes this mania with gaudy boldness.” SF WEEKLY https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1425927486319-VMTYOGVGR9TGP7A5RQV2/Macbeth35.jpg Projects “Mark Jackson’s portrayal of the conflict keeps the original tone of a flexible moral structure, but lightens up the stage palette and modernizes the characters. He keeps the upsetting, brutal and cynical aspects of the original, but adds just a hint of dark humor… The staging is lively and Jackson’s interpretation of this classic brings it into our era and presents venal, amoral characters we might even be personally acquainted with. This Shakespeare comes alive in the present moment.” SAN FRANCISCO BAY TIMES https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1425927657288-38J81ZTQ2KN1O13U0PKG/DSC_0241.JPG Projects “A stimulating, modern production… High-speed, sensuous and exciting… Mark Jackson's direction is sleek and rich, and he gives the audience a refreshing, up to date Macbeth.” TALKINBROADWAY.COM https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1425927743013-6B9NZJJCJ55TXPWQK4L7/DSC_0070.JPG Projects https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1425927746743-SKLLE8D78KFD6ENC4YZS/Macbeth06.jpg Projects https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1425927906537-MEK1XH6FRGXUOUTZOU32/DSC_0356.JPG Projects https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1425927937032-DJJMJLYE7RTAT8C7UX04/DSC_0380.JPG Projects https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1425928018220-2ZLEIMBF2HXEMX0ES5X0/Macbeth3.jpg Projects https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1425928142682-HS6TB8MO0EX3R0PTWD53/DSC_0468.JPG Projects https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1425928241234-G637C918WCLHJA519WT5/DSC_0027.JPG Projects https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1425928354715-V2FSCF23VQFKQU7DJ6VB/DSC_0080.JPG Projects https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1425928501637-IMUGOXCLH06LPPG7BEQC/DSC_0123.JPG Projects https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1425928498409-DHIPCI7QTQ25R4RW89DC/DSC_0177.JPG Projects https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1425928698637-OBDKBMBGVRL4S9BA4K7D/DSC_0263.JPG Projects https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1425928909233-XFCRH498V3C8OW9RUDQN/DSC_0312.JPG Projects https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1425928801927-0Q0DXNOQMH7V7YS2U8HF/DSC_0293.JPG.JPG Projects https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1425928918453-T8TPMO13OA8Y7JPLOYV6/DSC_0351_2.JPG Projects https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1455954643905-O8B7TE492Y4BW7XRQXVF/_DAP0020.jpg Projects “A sound of river currents crash in the background as a woman looks chillingly beyond the audience... It is the stillness of moments like these that are filled with a dramatic musical hum that gives the entire play a memorable hypnotic power… The story and the excellent acting captivated the audience for the entire show. The issues that the play deals with are timely and reasons alone to watch the play.” – THE DAILY CALIFORNIAN https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1455954429256-GG3K7EML5VP5E93NJFK8/_DAP0054.jpg Projects “Unsettling yet absorbing… Jackson brings forth the central issues of Ibsen’s original with keen psychological insight. Marriage and mortality, ambition and narcissism, incest, parenthood and social responsibility swirl through this heady, intensely focused production… Little Erik is concerned with cold truths, and Jackson keeps them coming, right up to the play’s seismic coda.” – SAN FRANCISCO EXAMINER https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1455954449835-77DFLUTI6PFQBSWHX0H4/_DAP0156.jpg Projects “A savage and free-wheeling adaption… It’s the best play the Aurora Theatre Company has produced in some time. Ibsen was a master at giving his supposedly respectable audiences a taste of their own trash, and Jackson has the same nasty impulse here to skewer the bourgeoisie on the corpses of their children… Jackson forces us to take account of how we mis-perceive the world. The symbolic elements of Little Erik aren’t there as an aesthetic, but rather as a strategy to a more forceful realism and accounting of the world.” – KQED.ORG https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1455954418301-8JBECMSABXURZBK0XP86/_DAP0365.jpg Projects “Little Erik tackles a slew of weighty themes, from guilt to technological dependence. And Jackson uses his vast experience as a playwright and director to plumb each with the tenacity that has earned him a reputation as one of the Bay Area's most intelligent auteurs… The most inventive strength of Jackson's Little Erik lies not in its commentary about anger or betrayal, of which there is plenty. Rather, it's in the production's ability to convincingly characterize a Bay Area fueled by a dependency on technology.” – EAST BAY EXPRESS https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1500920405700-U29IC5BV8KBB20BE9ZTD/_DAP0422-2.JPG Projects “Taut and at times brutally frank… It plays out in a mix of realism, mysticism and caricature, and of dramatic tension and social satire that varies from engrossing to confounding. …A richly nuanced and uncomfortable study in class prejudice and injustice… Jackson has raised the bar in terms of Freddie and Andi’s mutual attraction, to riveting effect.” – SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1455954408021-42KREBN1H49I2310Q6M2/_DAP0544.jpg Projects “Jackson, always a theatrical adventurer, from The Death of Meyerhold to Now for Now, smacks all the cobwebs out of Ibsen's text with a vividly contemporary take on the fractured family drama… Jackson's adaptation astutely sharpens the edge of the play… There is no denying that you walk away from the theater wrestling with the issues that shape all of our lives.” – SAN JOSE MERCURY NEWS https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1425924451345-5M0DKTNDIJWSF2WYC7RE/_DAP0136.JPG Projects “Director Mark Jackson knows how to make the emotional impact sneak up on you. Masterful! …You’ll be knocked out by this play. Its impact in enormous.” BEYONDCHRON.COM https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1425926399859-TZFLMT6RDV3BB1NG6FWW/_DAP0194.JPG Projects “Mark Jackson’s luminous new production, while never relinquishing Strindberg’s naturalism, lets the play’s heightened emotions rise and radiate throughout the Aurora’s intimate space to create an atmosphere of almost unbearable tension.” ARTSF.COM https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1425924511956-R0SSA52HC6517QQ4UC7Z/_DAP0170.JPG Projects “So many things happen in the pauses within Mark Jackson's staging of August Strindberg's Miss Julie that they almost constitute a parallel text… Without unduly calling attention to itself, Jackson's approach takes Strindberg's long-banned but now oft-produced 1888 tragedy and makes it seem both familiar and remarkably new - even shocking.” SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1425925036140-FH208VFAWH90P4YOS7KQ/_DAP0271.JPG Projects “Mark Jackson has quickly made his name as one of the most provocative stage auteurs in the Bay Area with his balletic approach to movement. In The Death of Meyerhold, he swept us away in an epic flow of theater, politics and history. In Salome, he transformed Oscar Wilde's classic into a highly stylized pageant of poetry and physicality. Now the adventurous director returns to the Aurora Theatre Company in Berkeley to mine the symphonic richness of stillness in August Strindberg… Silences explode like hand grenades in the opening scenes of this visually arresting revival of Miss Julie." SAN JOSE MERCURY NEWS https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1425925154273-7EX38KTYDT74SZD1KS0O/_DAP0318.JPG Projects “Under the astute direction of Mark Jackson, one of the Bay Area’s most original and exciting directors, [the] production is full of potent moments strongly punctuated and expertly staged. The kissing of a shoe becomes an erotic dance. The pushing of a chair or the slamming of a beer bottle become well-placed exclamation points… Miss Julie is a play that wants to fly in the face of convention, and director Jackson delivers a heat-seeking production that is anything but conventional.” THEATERDOGS.NET https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1425925214268-VHFGJPK4EMP36P7AI5YP/_DAP0334.JPG Projects “Miss Julie, directed by Mark Jackson, simply crackles with energy, realism and wit… This is a perfect night of theater.” SF THEATER BLOG https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1425925356909-OQ7YV3XRCFK244UBVZG6/_DAP0384.JPG Projects “August Strindberg's wildly controversial play still has the power to shock, and, in Mark Jackson’s staging, to awe. At a brisk 90 minutes, Miss Julie had me mesmerized from the first moment to the last… The suspense was almost unbearable at times… This is what theater should be – emotional, raw, captivating, immediate. Go, and be transported.” THE CANONICAL GLASS https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1425925530135-8Q8Y6ODX03LOCXKAJU8A/_DAP0542.JPG Projects https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1425925600556-VJPZDELHE5YHYXWJXB78/_DAP0578.JPG Projects https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1425925925878-0JL4NSFE2KUZHXX1YJ7A/_DAP0605.JPG Projects https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1425925805671-IGDWC9EURF4U0DIPGR7M/_DAP0609.JPG Projects https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1425925750984-EI6VVNPIPR3VKYD8ZHBT/_DAP0614.JPG Projects https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1425926062639-W5WPI201GD8OHDR3JYH5/_DAP0629.JPG Projects https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1425873336769-RTZBD5QWYYMUU16I5NM5/_DAP8764.JPG Projects “Mark Jackson stages the new Aurora Theatre production for maximum impact. The result is a gripping, and often searingly funny, 90-minute revival of an overlooked 20th century classic… It’s an absurd situation, but Jackson, one of the Bay Area’s most resourceful directors, makes it visceral, tightening the action until the explosive final coup… The beauty of this production is its timeless feel. As directed by Jackson, The Arsonists might as well be new.” SAN FRANCISCO EXAMINER https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1428173678881-N1MQ5FO8C9GBC9NHVVZX/_DAP8786.jpg Projects “Jackson’s swift, 85-minute production punches the laughs without ever losing Frisch’s sharp edges.” THEATERDOGS.NET https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1425873461011-3N5CMKGVGISE8SFSIOD7/_DAP8899.JPG Projects “Directed by Mark Jackson, The Arsonists burns as brightly as ever as an unsettling cautionary tale about the desire to bury one's head in the sand. Jackson's taut staging revels in the absurd nature of Biedermann's world… And Jackson nimbly mines the wit and whimsy from the piece and invites us to laugh at the comedy of a man courting his own destruction.” SAN JOSE MERCURY NEWS https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1425873484582-FMRURWGN6K57J6ZOOXJI/_DAP8980.JPG Projects “Mark Jackson's vibrant production highlights the satire's timeliness at every turn.” SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1425873524702-CHR39R5BEOJLVSE09NB7/_DAP9054.JPG Projects “If there was ever a time to revive a play best known for its condemnation of the silent complicity of the comfortable classes in times of civil unrest and encroaching disaster, this might well be one of the best… This Mark Jackson-directed farce might play on the surface as a cheerfully absurdist comedy of manners, but the pointed cultural critique that underlies it is deadly serious… While the humor in the script does provoke its share of laughter, much of it is the kind of horrified laughter emitted by an audience that reluctantly recognizes its own complicity in its perhaps inevitable downfall.” SAN FRANCISCO BAY GUARDIAN https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1425873550484-CRCCQG0TRH63USYG8ZDB/_DAP9085.JPG Projects “Director Mark Jackson's staging of the play is stunning, superbly balancing the dark comedy of the events inside the house with the highly stylized element of a full-on Greek chorus…” KQED.ORG https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1425873591354-ZC4M6Z1P0Q7J75FAA0NQ/_DAP9161.JPG Projects “Ever since auteur Mark Jackson exploded on the local scene with his brilliant production of The Death of Meyerhold that he wrote and directed under the auspices of The Shotgun Players in 2003, he is in great demand as a director. His works do not ‘grace’ the local stages, they explode with energy. So it is with Aurora Theatre’s staging of The Arsonist by Max Frisch… It is a theatrical event that should not be missed…” FOR ALL EVENTS https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1425873624280-YEDFD4RGM90W55ZHAY43/_DAP9182.JPG Projects “Snappily directed by Mark Jackson… Consistently convincing and highly engaging performances from the entire cast…” EDGE https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1425873725591-N82R49NIGPWYXZZJ9BX2/_DAP9216.JPG Projects “Award-winning director Mark Jackson and the other members of the production have done outstanding work.” BERKELEYSIDE.COM https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1425873752338-KVF1AV50DN738YOTLVSV/_DAP9328.JPG Projects “The Aurora production, directed by Mark Jackson, is slick and smooth, the actors excellent.” CULTUREVULTURE.NET https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1425873814110-HJAZ21IX5BZQ7TGM372G/_DAP9349.JPG Projects “A sizzling triumph of theatricality, and a wake-up call to any who choose to be awakened… With superb performances by all in the cast of eight, Aurora's production is as gripping as is funny, and in flashes it's positively scary… Mark Jackson's direction draws out the parable's black humor and tension… There's nothing subtle about either the text or the performances: parables unfold with few complications, and this one runs its course in a very brisk 90 minutes. From the outset, catastrophe is inevitable. But sterling performances and intelligent direction turn the obvious into engrossing and stimulating theater.” HUFFINGTONPOST.COM https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1428173855349-98D2I7B8HN7AFDSQV6YU/_DAP9352.jpg Projects “Aurora Theatre Company's outstanding, entertaining new staging of Max Frisch's The Arsonists… Brilliantly directed by Mark Jackson… The Arsonists is crisp, superbly performed and deliciously fun to muse over afterwards, at once challenging, playful, and thought-provoking.” NORTH BAY BOHEMIAN https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1553894888025-VOCQSXPWWRKAFN6Z6P7V/DSC03425.jpg Projects “Burns with aesthetic and political urgency… Each scene, even individual lines take on the quality of brief and vivid moments of actual life. Wrested from having to follow a narrative, our attention heightens… It’s a goofy and glorious abstraction of the idea of a party, and yet all of it comes from The Three Sisters, in its values, beliefs, and logic, and in that way couldn’t be closer to what Chekhov intended. The DEBBIE party is not an idea, but a refraction of one of the most powerful and lasting theatrical aesthetics of the last hundred years — improvisation as a way of life.” FREEAUDIENCE.ORG https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1553894964037-SNGIY4ZLXOJ2DN1VJ3GG/DSC03428.jpg Projects “Fragmented and mysterious and utterly riveting, it’s a lovely and loving homage to the Chekhov classic. It’s bittersweet, as befits the source material, but also playful and funny and as welcoming as it is sometimes mysterious.” THE MERCURY NEWS https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1553895035364-U86GQOPCPAL05Y9J0WA8/DSC03447.jpg Projects “Kill the Debbie Downers! is creatively set and staged; the acting is first-rate; the music, which includes singing accompanied by an accordion, piano, banjo, and even a trombone at one point, is novel and entertaining.” BERKELEYSIDE https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1553895139311-UA8S3C6UYO29S5EY0I1Z/DSC03453.jpg Projects “Squeezes juicy berries of absurdity from Anton Chekhov’s Three Sisters into a heady liqueur of song, dance, play, and an accordion! … Reminds us to seize the moment and grab as much fun as you can before we die. It’s as simple as that, and I bet Chekhov would have loved it.” THEATERANDSUCH.COM https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1553896941693-D2WKN5HNFQ24E3OHL9B1/DSC04218.jpg Projects “KILL THE DEBBIE DOWNERS’ relationship to narrative and philosophy is similar to that of a Cirque du Soleil production. The piece yields plenty of pleasure if taken on a sensory level rather than a sensible one. Mikiko Uesugi's translucent-paneled set, Ray Oppenheimer's shifting veils of color-saturated light, Alice Ruiz' and Devon Labelle's stylized period costumes and props, and Sara Witsch's collage-like sound design are inviting from the moment you enter the theater, and enveloping once the action gets underway. That's action, not plot. Roll with it.” BAY AREA REPORTER https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1553897044867-I2JF0KLM72R35Z7QHOJJ/DSC04284.jpg Projects “The sisters’ paralyzing dissatisfaction with their lives and inabilities to make decisions to better those lives are played out by the fine cast assembled. There is also fine usage by the creators/directors of pauses that speak volumes about the sisters’ boredom with life and their perpetual state of stasis. There are sequences of repeated lines delivered in different manners that illustrate the probable ways that memories play out again and again of better days when the sisters lived in Moscow… And there is an opening sequence of meeting individually the six characters of KILL THE DEBBIE DOWNERS that for me was the highlight of the evening, with each actor capturing in various ways the essence of that particular Chekhovian personality.” THEATRE EDDYS https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1553895252740-LGJUSB3O4JJXS5IGGUSK/DSC03526.jpg Projects “A fertile playground for the six-person cast to showcase virtuoso abilities… A too-rare opportunity to appreciate just how much directors and actors shape a show, how a good script is ultimately a prompt, a jumping-off point to infinite possibilities of interpretation… Jackson and Wilmurt let their cast be delirious, demented, galumphing their way through Irina’s birthday party in a manner that paints Chekhov’s characters as tingling, heaving bundles of impulses. They’re just like us, not the starched linens and ramrod posture of some hermetically sealed drawing room… It pays Chekhov’s characters the kind of honor that says, ‘I want to see who you really are.’ It’s a valentine.” SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1554061154259-5IBQOLMOREQLZD08759U/DSC04155.jpg Projects “A trip down memory lane, surprising questions with humorous, poignant or painful answers and an intriguing elixir of revolution and hope. Count on off-the-charts physicality from Jackson's touch and musical textures revealing Wilmurt's signature hand: crisp, bold, harmonic statements that extend and mirror spoken words. It's human nature with all its warts and wonder onstage, and very much alive.” EAST BAY EXPRESS https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1554323251021-8VRRX2F4Z0R7S0D20QJU/DSC03539.jpg Projects “Illustrates how vulnerable we all are… Co-directors Mark Jackson and Beth Wilmurt explore past Czarist oppression and future liberation in timely, poignant waves. They reach out to us with visceral movement, powerful songs, and images of pain… Kill the Debbie Downers! proves that all theatre is political and made for the present… Expertly combines exciting song, dance, and live music. In the madness of the party, we comprehend that our present political/social system, too, occupies but a moment. How long will we go on in this fantasy?” THEATRIUS.COM https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1553895361211-VD3UO34MVGJJWMVUJMT9/DSC03643.jpg Projects “A sort of thematic diving board that invites the audience into much loftier discussions… Not only does whittling the cast down to six make for a more in-depth character study, but it specifically lets the women in the play dominate the stage while the two men seem to wander in orbit around them. ‘Orbiting’ is an apt word here, as it soon becomes apparent that movement and physical space are some of the most important modes of expression in the play… Each member of the cast has a well of talents to show off, from operatic singing to beat poetry to the variety of instruments that were passed around during the production. This is ultimately one of the unique strengths of devised theater. It allows actors to show their skills in unconventional ways and to interact with an audience as boldly as they dare. And with a cast as talented as this one, that’s an experience worth seeing.” THE DAILY CALIFORNIAN https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1553897131650-JOYNI5G08FNIOZRYPHRH/DSC04412.jpg Projects “The sheer vibrancy of this production by the Shotgun Players (together with its aggressive musical score) gets each character’s blood pumping in ways that demand an audience’s attention. Using video and music as tools to sweep away the usual stuffiness found in Three Sisters and transform it into a challenging (and entertaining) evening of dance/movement theatre is a formidable achievement.” MEDIUM.COM https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1553897306376-8HZI5MSPR4TEYRO67GZN/DSC04434.jpg Projects “Co-Directors Mark Jackson and Beth Wilmurt retain the framework of Chekhov’s original text but condense the action and eliminate all but six characters, yielding a taut story line… Aided by top-notch staging elements, the result provokes and entertains… Amplifying the thematic elements of the play and giving it a modern sensibility and relevance to the current political environment, lengthy video projections augment the live action and gain the audience’s undivided attention with their currency and gravity. They also suggest the prospective collapse of society if ignorance and apathy are allowed to reign… The play changes tone, direction, time, and place frequently, resulting in a sense of mental chaos. But for those who can appreciate leaving a performance with more questions than answers, this is a fulfilling experience.” FOR ALL EVENTS https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1553895468988-YPQQ30SRVYGK6G343F56/DSC03778.jpg Projects “New and strange and entrancing… I really don’t know how to describe this event. But I know enough to give it my highest recommendation!” THEATRESTORM.COM https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1553896002003-QFP8EK0262MP4D1A0NNU/DSC03936.jpg Projects https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1553897499483-JQDOZFRU7I94MZ7U7S9D/DSC03964.jpg Projects https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1553896257929-3510FKGTSE8HPLODQPGK/DSC03983.jpg Projects https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1512781138601-QIPBF90DO8WSOTTHGKA1/5J2A0805-Foto+by+Pak+Han.jpg Projects Read the American Theatre magazine online feature article about The Shotgun Players' HAMLET. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1460051333654-CF3CJZXGLWP8CAYVWFPZ/5J2A1389-Foto+by+Pak+Han.jpg Projects "A mind-bending new production... Refreshing... The actors’ ability to pull off this Hamlet is simply awe-inspiring. And the format makes you examine your preconceptions of both the play and the nature of theater: All lines of gender, age and race will be crossed at some point." SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1460051358568-8XTRIB2JHIM0CY27JV57/5J2A2751-Foto+by+Pak+Han.jpg Projects "Uplifting and weirdly affecting... You immediately notice that there isn’t a conventional Hamlet in the cast. They are a wonderfully eclectic bunch: men and women, a smattering of ages and races, and, if you follow Bay Area performers, even different acting styles... We are plunged into a democracy of infinite possibilities... A unique and rich response to the play... We should be thankful to witness such a circus of daring." KQED.ORG https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1460051381957-RDF5XR8Y3YW2WE278Z32/5J2A3149-Foto+by+Pak+Han.jpg Projects "One of the most exciting ways to present this famous Shakespeare tragedy... An amazing accomplishment..." TALKINBROADWAY.COM https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1460143694667-ZMKW5DB0R2WSXI8PO1QD/5J2A3272-Foto+by+Pak+Han.jpg Projects "An exciting and evocative way to experience a play that most theater-goers are already more than familiar with, not to mention an intriguing look inside the play itself... A master class in both flexibility, and in the lyrical malleability of Shakespeare's words..." SFIST.COM https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1460051408000-6BHMOEWPCL04U8DTLI68/5J2A3375-Foto+by+Pak+Han.jpg Projects "One of the best Hamlet’s I’ve ever seen... Jackson’s vision is to view Hamlet itself as a sort of 'play within a play' in the lives of the actors performing it, and, by extension, in our own lives, and, as such, a kind of improvisation on the vagaries of fate... A cut-to-the-bone carnival Hamlet that packs one hell of a wallop... The invention seems endless... This is some of the smartest theatre I have ever witnessed... A masterpiece in every sense of the word. See it, and get your boasting rights!" THEATRESTORM.COM https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1460051599642-21PZRG9DFIO24CMP1VWW/5J2A7248-Foto+by+Pak+Han.jpg Projects David Sinaiko (L) as Gertrude and Beth Wilmurt (R) as Hamlet. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1460051560286-3TIDQKIFK51QD08C79AT/5J2A7041-Foto+by+Pak+Han.jpg Projects Megan Trout (L) as Gertrude and Kevin Clarke (R) as Hamlet. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1460144033789-8GHWSI2PFRDPVU3IDZSM/5J2A5452-Foto+by+Pak+Han.jpg Projects Kevin Clarke (L) as Gertrude and Cathleen Riddley (R) as Hamlet. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1460051490977-U3YPPG3F3E4ZEJ80IPCA/5J2A4170-Foto+by+Pak+Han.jpg Projects "A Hamlet that surely will become the talk of the town, if not the entire American theatre world – not only because of its innovative, risky casting methodology, but also mainly because of the incredibly powerful, engaging, and heart-pumping result... Incredibly innovative and insightful... Nothing short of brilliance can be used to describe what Mark Jackson has accomplished." THEATRE EDDYS https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1460051465677-C8IHPVNHQWL3YVAEJDKV/5J2A4604-Foto+by+Pak+Han.jpg Projects "Jackson’s staging is clean, and in his signature style, very physical... The work is raw, rough, and unsentimental. [The] audience is called upon both intellectually and imaginatively to extend the performance far beyond what is materially presented in front of them... This is not 'gift shop Shakespeare.' It is not pretty, celebrity studded, or made topical. Jackson and his cast are excavating the essential text from under a lot of accumulated baggage, and what emerges is often highly original and gut wrenching." SHAKESPEARESTRIBE.COM https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1460051957401-CUDCT08PAG5WHY9P1JS1/5J2A4770-Foto+by+Pak+Han.jpg Projects "Absolutely terrific... Director Mark Jackson took a huge risk here, and maybe the tightrope-like conceit added necessary excitement and unfamiliarity (not to mention a little panic, surely, in the actors). But the staging and clarity of this Hamlet transcend any theatrical stunt and polish Shakespeare’s old yet ever-relevant chestnut anew... It is a testament to Jackson’s direction that even the tiniest parts hold weight... I left eager to see the play again." 48HILLS.ORG https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1460143845426-BCWFUXZJZFN05HX4E3BM/5J2A4907-Foto+by+Pak+Han.jpg Projects "It's a daunting premise, but one that the cast of director Mark Jackson's Hamlet pulled off with wild success... By opening up Hamlet to thousands of possible casting combinations, Jackson inevitably defies traditional assumptions about the gender, age, and race of the play's well-known characters. Rather than hampering the performance, this spontaneous diversity seizes upon the universality of Shakespeare's work in a way that many other productions fail to — fully revealing the kernels of common humanity within each character... Shotgun Players' Hamlet is an exhilarating journey, and one that manages to stoke the audience's appreciation for the very mechanics of theater while its powerhouse cast brings new vitality — and vigor — to a well-known play." EAST BAY EXPRESS https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1460143885643-PINZJR0JJ8BY0CLSYUEP/5J2A5088-Foto+by+Pak+Han.jpg Projects "Ingenious... [An] extraordinary version of Hamlet... The production is tightly directed by first-rate Mark Jackson..." BERKELEYSIDE.COM https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1477363071889-7T5RR7QYPXGA02F6ZM1U/048A3361.jpg Projects "Jackson hasn’t come up with a concept so much as an assault; not an interpretation but a demand: that the play, the actors, the direction, the design, and the audience come together and perform a collective act of creation. And that’s what Albee probably wants — for us to see what the imagination really is and how the world around us is a product of its violent desires for happiness and peace... As the play unfurls its way to Albee’s haunting end, the production becomes so simple and alive that it hardly feels as if the brilliant cast is acting at all. They have become everything that we have imagined, and so they just say the lines and we happily and painfully fill in the rest. It’s like a carpet-bombing inside your head. Albee is dead, but Shotgun’s production brings his imagination bracingly back to life." KQED.ORG review https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1477363097254-KJLKL4IBEEP55DZMD382/048A3529.jpg Projects "Amid the familiarity of this well-loved/feared play, the ever-intelligent and adventurous Jackson shakes things up... Thrilling... At more than three hours, this is a lot of play. But Jackson’s inventiveness and his sturdy quartet of actors ensure an evening that never lags." THEATERDOGS.NET https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1477363582470-WXXBVKJSXNWPGSRBVNQW/048A4459.jpg Projects "Tight direction by Mark Jackson... This performance succeeds beyond expectations. I sat on the edge of my seat, totally engrossed during the entire three-act, three-hour performance... Kudos to director Mark Jackson and actors Beth Wilmurt and David Sinaiko for capturing the essence of this complex, still vital drama. This is a great play extremely well done. I highly recommend it." BERKELEYSIDE.COM https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1477363262858-0FMXNL07CWE74NF6I6XQ/048A3780.jpg Projects "Edward Albee’s Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? strips bare the deceptions and bonds that hold together two horrible marriages. Shotgun Players’ current staging of the 1962 classic strips bare the dynamics of those relationships, without distractions. It’s a sizzling approach to a scathing drama, and thoroughly gripping for virtually every minute of its three-hour length... In the Berkeley theater’s very capable hands, Albee’s language and explorations of mystifying bonds that can keep people together are as powerful today as ever." THE HUFFINGTON POST https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1477363317822-33RWXZ4AZUFYAFVIPWAL/048A3946.jpg Projects "Superb direction, an intensely talented cast, and an unusual but creative production... Time and again, Mark Jackson as Director squeezes out every possible drop from Albee’s juicy script..." THEATRE EDDYS https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1477363357911-2835QCB3ZLMKIIIW9B51/048A3982.jpg Projects "Jackson makes terrific use of the bareness of the stage, with standing characters towering over those sitting on the floor, highlighting the shifting power dynamics in the room. The blocking alone throughout the production is terribly dramatic." THE MERCURY NEWS https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1477363430839-BLMQLMG0UZN27HZ4HL2H/048A4056.jpg Projects "Director Mark Jackson’s Woolf is deliciously big and bad indeed... Without so much as a bench or stool, the actors are forced to sit on the floor, lean against the sides of the stage or crowd the stairs. The sheer amount of crouching and drinking that goes on does much to heighten the play’s intense emotional discomfort..." THE DAILY CALIFORNIAN https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1477362929823-76O8QH5HX5WIC44JDR48/048A4180.jpg Projects "Wilmurt glides across the stage, tapping parts of the set as if Martha is feeling the outlines of her soul. The scene is often played as a drunk lashing out at the world, at odds with everything and everyone around her. But Wilmurt’s touch is gentle and precise. Through her superb performance, we realize how fragile Martha is, and how delicate the life and world she’s made truly are. Drunk has never been so exacting and painful." KQED.ORG review https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1477363414515-ZMYSRZY119MG3H2U04YN/048A4261.jpg Projects "The physicality of play shows pure Mark Jackson. Took me back to The Death of Meyerhold. Those moments when everything that need be said was said in a high knee step, the twist of a foot, a dart-thrown tulip..." THEATRIUS.COM https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1477363470187-VO8LN7M4BFG007WRRPNM/048A4318.jpg Projects "I was blown away by this production... Mark Jackson has staged a very impressive revival of Albee's most brilliant and hellish play." TALKINBROADWAY.COM https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1477363560324-EP904L5FP60EUZFSR92G/048A4438.jpg Projects "Frightening... Shotgun Players shows that Albee’s ideas are very much alive — potently, unnervingly so." SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1510867150472-HWIXT03Q49YD1OHGRK0B/blackrider-0059.jpg Projects "Black Rider is a rare stage experience. To see it for the music alone would be reason enough, or the acting, for that matter, or simply for the sheer extravagance and theatricality of the production." BERKELEYSIDE.COM https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1510865373776-N1L7PHO3CEKQ0YGUT5Q7/blackrider-0127.jpg Projects "Shotgun’s daring Black Rider aims for, and pierces, the American heart... Disaster is the governing spirit for Burroughs, Tom Waits, and Robert Wilson in their neo-Brechtian musical, which gets an acid-soaked reworking under Mark Jackson’s inspired direction... To see the cast lined up on the stage is to see America: every race, an array of ages, small and tall, the bald and the hirsute. There’s a joyous democratic spirit present... The production is truly post-traumatic, a show fueled by the shock and desperation of knowing that you have shot a gun, that you have enjoyed hearing the crack of the bullet, and that when the smoke has cleared, you have murdered someone you loved. It’s quite a message for a show and production of such stunning grace and pleasure." KQED.ORG https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1510864760071-GMCGLG9TYXX3YHC14P83/blackrider-0167.jpg Projects "Perhaps the most remarkable aspect of this production is director Mark Jackson’s inspired gender-bending casting along with the chosen actors’ performances... Jackson brings all of the creative elements in sync... Exemplary and well worth seeing." FORALLEVENTS.INFO https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1510865044787-OJJQ167FM1F2KJE7NCN8/blackrider-5066.jpg Projects "...Winter is truly here. And while Jackson's winter feels especially fraught with uneasy tension, for those who enjoy dark productions, the Shotgun Players have got the show for you." EAST BAY EXPRESS https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1510867681569-CCKYIGMDLZ1IK5G7QFWW/blackrider-0348.jpg Projects "Wonderfully dark, creepy, and altogether entertaining... Director Jackson's lively production immediately strikes a mad carnival tone, combining the feel of a sideshow with vaudeville brio and dingy showbiz razzmatazz for a Rider that feels energized by the sheer joy of telling a grim story weighted by moral and metaphor..." THEATERMANIA.COM https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1510864832113-708DXRAOOHWA74COJMJH/blackrider-0415.jpg Projects "Imaginative writing, top caliber performances, and rhythmic storytelling guarantee an intriguing evening. Exquisite grotesque characters inhabit a hilarious, sinister world... Black Rider probes addiction, patriarchy, and violence. The superb cast challenges our human willingness to sacrifice goodness to satisfy desire. Above all, the evocative, unsettling Black Rider offers great art for theater lovers." THEATRIUS.COM https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1510867714188-LI7J2IDKG91R7FFUS7QJ/blackrider-5147.jpg Projects "Dark, weird—and right on target... Director Jackson amps up the weirdness in his production with plenty of stylized physicality. Noelle Viñas’ Kätchen somberly recites poetic litanies while slowly skipping hopscotch or impassively performing a series of amusingly familiar popular dance moves. Grace Ng moves as if being yanked about by an unseen force in a breathtaking, acrobatically frenzied performance as the nerdy clerk Wilhelm... A bewitching and pitch-black fairy tale that’s as riveting as it is cheerfully macabre." THE MERCURY NEWS https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1511121801725-3JZ6RLWS53H7E03YSLCI/blackrider-0492.jpg Projects "The sheer artistic integrity, the thoughtfulness with which Jackson constructs every aspect of a moment musters a sublime sensory power of its own, as when Wilhelm (Grace Ng), deep in his addiction to success, fires his last, deadliest bullet... And in Grace Ng’s devastating performance of Wilhelm’s final song, 'Lucky Day,' the suffering isn’t so much sad as horrific — which is perhaps the ultimate point of Black Rider. Our capacity for bloodshed vastly surpasses our capacity to feel." SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1510867070973-GRLO1EH81B9ZHZNAMAVP/blackrider-0502.jpg Projects "Cartoonish, bizarre, freaky, spooky, intriguing, confusing, disturbing... Mark Jackson directs in a highly stylized, often over-done mode that borders between what one might see in an animated film and what one could expect from a B-rated horror movie... What is clear from both the script of Black Rider and this director’s interpretation in the Shotgun Players production is that the devil we need most to fear is not the one we may meet someday, but the one we carry around inside us all the time." THEATRE EDDYS https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1510864884469-3J8IOCEDRHNHTPF52ECO/blackrider-0532.jpg Projects “A nasty American attack dog of a play. Director Mark Jackson strips William Burroughs and Tom Waits’ fairy tale of magic bullets down to dime store essentials and subjects us to the logic of a brutal equation – if you love to shoot, you're aiming to kill. A beautiful and entrancing nightmare for which, unfortunately, there is no antidote.” THE FREE AUDIENCE - Best of Bay Area Theater 2017 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1510867104183-AEFS0LYLCYIV38CVBDMH/blackrider-5334.jpg Projects https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1510864917763-UEX0CSZHF57ZSM4250ZD/blackrider-0659.jpg Projects https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1510887517545-EQRP1YY71E7YN0QMA11H/blackrider-5387.jpg Projects https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1510867348622-053OL9AAGL0A1VHL5LXS/blackrider-5414.jpg Projects https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1510867392650-VKHDI3UHM5Q08PMWUAE3/blackrider-5431.jpg Projects https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1510865184524-52H6TIWSHLRH9KFGSQF9/blackrider-5447.jpg Projects 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https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1614549417327-UD7O64EVP37GI7CAVC8A/10931107_10103973807414893_9182530912189873403_n.jpeg Press https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1555367040612-CQJ6M3B9Z5QR0DMTYOXJ/DSC04142.jpg Press https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1516060466624-IBV9I3ACUIHDCKJECR0X/blackrider-5044.jpg Press The Black Rider Shotgun Players 2017 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1486070491966-6W2FTRA8Q55AWY5JQOCQ/048A4318.jpg Press https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1464635156546-TLS7F7215Q29V3EITX00/5G1A5598-Foto+by+Pak+Han.jpg Press Hamlet The Shotgun Players 2016 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1459713511217-CF377ZLMJ43PHA0E59TC/_DAP0422.jpg Press Little Erik Aurora Theatre Company 2016 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1486070526034-997JBI8FU9A40T6W0Y0D/IMG_7463.jpg Press Now For Now Z Space 2015 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1487707170844-9EZZDM55G29VEGVR95FC/5J2A6817-Foto+by+Pak+Han.jpg Press Antigonick The Shotgun Players 2015 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1426465063691-FRNKZX538L8VMSTHS2YA/25915_review8.jpg Press The Letters Aurora Theatre Company 2014 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1426464924026-13CNKV6ZKOVJRCJOLEVD/5J2A4603-Foto+by+Pak+Han.jpg Press Bonnie & Clyde The Shotgun Players 2013 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1426464727800-6L23MIRV7F86GBFSWPJ6/beauty_queen.jpg Press The Beauty Queen of Leenane Marin Theatre Company 2013 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1476136538485-8DA4EAU38HMC23S0TVB1/_DAP9568.JPG Press The Arsonists Aurora Theatre Company 2013 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1426464678527-0ZAZMSTNQV7X8YE5S370/DSC_0367.jpg Press Woyzeck The Shotgun Players 2012 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1476136446032-WQRHOBYBH21S6FSJSUD4/_DAP0022.jpg Press Salomania Aurora Theatre Company 2012 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1426463967012-KK7N0WUM1U9BPT5CC8X8/IMG_7359-Foto+by+Pak+Han.jpg Press God's Plot The Shotgun Players 2011 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1535486366759-MLZO4BYE0R8CC1YDESYW/DSC_0144.jpg Press https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1487707049124-XHG14ZH2ZRGNM7DVG4TH/_DAP0142.JPG Press Kafka's Metamorphosis Aurora Theatre Company 2011 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1426791027232-2YFSW3VWBJ322XGAZJ7A/mfa_sai_0710.jpg Press Al Saiyid American Conservatory Theatre MFA 2011 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1426463113494-XPHO3CJDJ9SSJUDV7WCE/IMG_3356-Foto_by_Pak_Han.jpg Press The Companion Piece Z Space 2011 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1426465760796-6N99WTX9DG4SW45QMLR1/marystuart3.jpg Press Mary Stuart The Shotgun Players 2010 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1428103790976-NHWZF98IL8Q4FX3HDR6Q/DSC_0217.JPG Press JULIET San Francisco State University 2010 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1425664261782-DI8YTIXPAVE5Z16XSWX3/DSC_0161.JPG Press JULIET San Francisco State University 2010 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1426534298335-H13HHL1CN6E8LENI9HGW/DSC_0172.JPG Press Faust Pt1 The Shotgun Players 2009 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1426461981942-ZD8F57VH0YMJFN47CDN6/_DAP0576.JPG Press Miss Julie Aurora Theatre Company 2009 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1425580805330-FFSUUUGS0OUZ7ZS7ZCR4/DSC_0490.JPG Press Macbeth The Shotgun Players 2008 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1426454213813-8U2DNOGY6AJ6O4NRU7UA/DSC_0106.JPG Press Machinal San Francisco State University 2008 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1427320500599-I7H62D0NKFACRDXQGMZB/DSC_0406.JPG Press Don Juan San Francisco State University 2008 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1426465881484-Z4BRN9MZVO45OZOM3YKO/Don+Juan+Claire+Rice+2000x3008-37.jpg Press Don Juan San Francisco State University 2008 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1426454010551-Q5VHF8QTIN0LZ1N1GS3G/Yes_yes_to_Moscow29.JPG Press Yes Yes To Moscow Deutsches Theater Berlin 2007. San Francisco International Arts Festival 2008. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1426472517916-48EO8RDXPVPIRMVK9MAM/Muses_3820.jpg Press The Orphan Muses American Conservatory Theatre MFA 2007 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1426453641141-OL9NBGK1AOYWHL9TOCKB/IMG_8115.JPG Press American $uicide Encore Theatre Company 2007 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1427230132038-19HQATTXFM83MC0TC69M/IMG_2254.JPG Press The Forest War The Shotgun Players 2006 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1426453554264-O67A0MBUBZAQ0OEO3O4R/DAP_0328.jpg Press Salome Aurora Theatre Company 2006 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1426453420091-ASWIHU3ZT9PJNM18IXYS/DSCF0026_2.jpg Press The Caucasian Chalk Circle American Conservatory Theater MFA 2005 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1425663819129-Z681W6YN35EESU20IVNK/Episode+6h+Mag+Cuck.jpg Press The Death of Meyerhold The Shotgun Players 2003 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1426453256437-RU9NLAY66PJZJQMJDIGC/Inachus%27+announcement.jpg Press Io Princess of Argos! Art Street Theatre 2001. Encore Theatre Company 2002. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1426453332809-URVJDSEHXVSBS82QLPLM/%2522And+I+thought+Denmark+was+a+prison...%2522.jpg Press I Am Hamlet Art Street Theatre 2002 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1459712730677-CHL8UDRUKWQVTU5ALY48/Ball+girl.jpg Press https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1426453192388-B5QQ2YPHIXCQFLZ4SQII/Elektra.jpg Press Messenger #1 Art Street Theatre 2000 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1426790173554-SQ7OI43B1K656HQK6RQB/Oh+my+god%21.jpg Press Bang! Art Street Theatre 1999 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1426453118650-5VLL0WSDCKONFH5C9LWN/Wrestling+politics.jpg Press Brave Art Street Theatre 1998 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1426462854901-7HXB4STCTCGTIOMDWWAS/Tybalt%27s+death.jpg Press R&J Art Street Theatre 1996 & 1997 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1426452944975-7WEC84ZIO0KK9V7AJYNR/Kill+that+woman.jpg Press Salome Art Street Theatre 1996 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1426452894374-IBP5S1D6NL3YY6GB2D4X/L.E.Jake+%26+Frank.jpg Press Little Extremes Art Street Theatre 1995 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1425417084643-FULXPAUH39JY4JA7S6S0/Yes_yes_to_Moscow17+-+Version+2.JPG Press https://www.markjackson-theatermaker.com/downloads daily 0.75 2025-09-17 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/c0dd934d-0cac-4f06-bf01-1ea9c9337de2/20241109_TMartin_5075.jpg Downloads & Books Hi-Res Color Headshot by Tracy Martin https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1506706919178-KTV4Z4XTVZO0TZ9BNGI3/Hamlet.FrontCover.jpg Downloads & Books https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1425447365458-67F2USBGDBJ93XAHB0BI/image-asset.jpeg Downloads & Books https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1487713155138-8A01361YJJ8ML5ZI13A3/image-asset.jpeg Downloads & Books https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1425782583010-PPNU7OUN49N4A6NCDDWR/TenPlays.Front300.jpg Downloads & Books https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1425782658068-XJ8WGOLTZ21H15OHGIPQ/ThreePlays.Cover.FP.jpg Downloads & Books https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1468557925414-VOMHM8IH715G325A91LJ/Hi-Res+B%26W+rehearsal+shot+by+Pak+Han Downloads & Books Hi-Res B&W rehearsal shot by Pak Han https://www.markjackson-theatermaker.com/about daily 0.75 2024-04-22 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54f4cd6fe4b0351bf91dd8ea/1425353316850-DCORL1EYON6TGHF64QZ3/10985002_863425867033033_151162619296345831_o+-+Version+2.jpg About - Make it stand out With regard to art, I'm drawn to performances that can only happen live, and experiences that are at once truthful and theatrical. I’m an omnivore when it comes to styles and genres, and enjoy them mixed. I believe theater that doesn’t embrace its inherent artificiality is fake, and that Truth isn’t a style but a variable on the journey and made from multiple perspectives. With regard to practical matters, I can navigate spreadsheets, contracts, designer renderings, marketing and PR concerns, and the bottom line. I’m readily responsive by phone and email. I never sit behind a table at auditions. I believe people are more important than set—even met— expectations. I prefer working on my feet. I have a demonstrable track record for getting a job done well, on time, and with panache. I believe in process, by which I don’t only mean rehearsal. A performance is a process. Curiosity is a process. Empathy is a process. And what product there is in theater is found not in the art but in the audience. The art is a rabbit hole for the audience to explore their curiosity, their empathy, their own creativity, who they are and who their neighbor is. If the art is “good,” the audience is compelled to explore without fixed judgments—without final products. Guiding me as both a person and theater maker are an evolving set of key values. Some of these are questions. Some are provocations. All are both. Currently they are: What is your right to make work? Quality and quantity are not opposites. Virtuosity versus Integrity. Practice is research, research is practice. Less consensus! Do all the jobs. Don’t finish the job. The show does not need to go on (as expected). The “product” is not on stage. Don’t think outside the box. Burn the box down, and in the ashen soil grow something beautiful that’s not afraid to die. Thank you for visiting my website and taking a look at my work. Let me know if you have any thoughts or questions, or if you’d like to make something together. Mark J (he/him/his)