HELLO! I am a person and a theater maker. Regarding the former, we’d need to meet in person. Regarding the latter: I make, direct, write, perform, attend, and teach theater.

After undergrad, being a D.I.Y. animal, I founded a small company, Art Street Theatre, in San Francisco. We made a lot of work and earned a good reputation. Other people started hiring me to make things. I eventually set Art Street aside to focus on freelancing. My range of work in theater, dance, and performance has since been seen at venues on both US coasts and in between, as well as internationally in Japan, the UK and Germany. My plays have been developed at organizations throughout the San Francisco Bay Area, in Germany, and in New York.

I’ve taught theater courses at Bay Area and international schools and organizations. And I’ve occasionally written about theater for a variety of print and online publications.

FOR MORE: tap on or hover your cursor over that photo Pak Han took of me. (It’s not bad considering I was sick as a dog that day!) Or scroll down for more detailed credits and information.

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)

Some awards and honors include:

Honorary MFA in Theatre-Performance Making from California Institute of Integral Studies.

The Edgerton Foundation New American Plays Award

Resident playwright of English Theatre Berlin, Germany.

Resident playwright of the Djerassi Resident Artists Program, California, where I was awarded the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation Honorary Fellowship.

German Chancellor Fellow of the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, which has provided three extended artist residencies in Berlin, for projects undertaken at Mime Centrum, Deutsches Theater, and English Theatre Berlin.

A Magic Theater / Z Space New Works Initiative commission

A Bridging the Gap grant

The San Francisco Bay Guardian Goldie Award

Two Theatre Bay Area CA$H Grants

Three Bay Area Theater Critics Circle Awards

Three San Francisco Bay Guardian Upstage/Downstage Awards

Twice named “Best Director” by the East Bay Express, “Best Theatrical Auteur” by the SF Weekly, and one of the “Top 100 Bay Area Artists” by San Francisco Magazine.

My work has also received generous support from the Kenneth Rainin Foundation, the Tournesol Project, the Wallace Alexander Gerbode Foundation, the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, and the Zellerbach Family Foundation.

I graduated magna cum laude from San Francisco State University, where I received the Theatre Arts Department Award for Outstanding Achievement in Directing. I have studied extensively with the SITI Company, as well as Master Biomechanics instructor Gennadi Bogdanov. I have led workshops for actors at theaters and schools, and served on the faculties of universities, in both California and Berlin, Germany, and was a founding core faculty member of the CIIS / University of Chichester MFA in Theatre-Performance Making from 2014 to 2017.

I continue to teach theater courses on a freelance basis at various theaters, schools, and organizations, including the American Conservatory Theater, where I serve as Director of Studio A.C.T. in addition to teaching in the San Francisco Semester and Summer Training Congress programs.

LIST OF CREDITS:

DIRECTING + MAKING

2021 - Routine, a short film inspired by Scene 3 of Caryl Churchill’s Here We Go. Created with Evangeline Edwards and Gracie Fojtik. American Conservatory Theater MFA Program, San Francisco.

2019 - KILL THE DEBBIE DOWNERS! KILL THEM! KILL THEM! KILL THEM OFF!, a new music/theater/dance piece from Chekhov’s Three Sisters. Co-directed with Beth Wilmurt. The Shotgun Players, Berkeley.

2017 - The Black Rider by William S. Burroughs & Tom Waits. The Shotgun Players.

2016 - Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? by Edward Albee. The Shotgun Players.

2016 - Hamlet by William Shakespeare. The Shotgun Players.

2016 - Little Erik by Mark Jackson. Adapted from Ibsen. Aurora Theatre Company, Berkeley.

2015 + 16 - Now For Now devised + performed w/ Megan Trout. Z Space, San Francisco, 2015. BLAST Theatre Festival, Berkeley, 2016.

2015 - Antigonick by Anne Carson. Co-directed w/ Hope Mohr. The Shotgun Players.

2014 - The Letters by John Lowell. Aurora Theatre Company.

2013 - Bonnie & Clyde by Adam Peck. The Shotgun Players.

2013 - The Beauty Queen of Leenane by Martin McDonagh. Marin Theatre Company, Mill Valley.

2013 - The Arsonists by Max Frisch. Aurora Theatre Company.

2012 - Woyzeck by Georg Büchner / Tom Waits / Robert Wilson. The Shotgun Players.

2012 - Salomania by Mark Jackson. Commissioned + produced by Aurora Theatre Company.

2011 - God’s Plot by Mark Jackson. Commissioned + produced by The Shotgun Players.

2011 - Wallflower. Original dance-theater piece. San Francisco State University.

2011 - Metamorphosis by David Farr & Gísli Örn Gardarsson. Aurora Theatre Company.

2011 - Al Saiyid. Devised piece based on Corneille’s Le Cid. American Conservatory Theater MFA Program.

2011 - The Companion Piece. Collectively devised. Z Space.

2010 - Mary Stuart by Mark Jackson. Adapted from Schiller. Commissioned + produced by The Shotgun Players.

2010 - JULIET. Dance-theater based on Romeo & Juliet. San Francisco State University.

2009 - Faust Pt1 by Mark Jackson. Adapted from Goethe. Co-directed w/ Kevin Clarke. The Shotgun Players.

2009 - Miss Julie by August Strindberg. Aurora Theatre Company.

2008 - Macbeth by William Shakespeare. The Shotgun Players.

2008 - Machinal by Sophie Treadwell. San Francisco State University.

2008 - Don Juan by Mark Jackson. Adapted from Moliere + Pushkin. San Francisco State University

2007 + 08 - Yes Yes to Moscow. Dance-theater based on Chekhov’s Three Sisters. Collectively devised. Co-directed w/ Sommer Ulrickson. Deutsches Theater Berlin, 2007. San Francisco International Arts Festival, 2008.

2007 - The Orphan Muses by Michel Marc Bouchard. American Conservatory Theater MFA.

2007 - American $uicide by Mark Jackson. Adapted from Nikolai Erdman’s The Suicide. Encore Theatre Company, San Francisco.

2006 - The Forest War by Mark Jackson. The Shotgun Players.

2006 - Salome by Oscar Wilde. Aurora Theatre Company.

2005 - The Caucasian Chalk Circle by Bertolt Brecht. American Conservatory Theater MFA.

2003 + 04 - The Ecstasy of Saint Whatshername. Original dance piece created w/ Chris Black. Performed by Chris Black. POTRZEBIE Dance Project in residence at ODC, San Francisco.

2003 - The Death of Meyerhold by Mark Jackson. The Shotgun Players.

2001 + 02 - Io Princess of Argos! By Marci Karr (music, lyrics) + Mark Jackson (lyrics, book). Art Street Theatre, San Francisco, 2001. Encore Theatre Company, 2002.

2001 - Kissing Christine by John Patrick Shanley. Theatre Valentine, Monterey, CA.

2000 - Messenger #1 by Mark Jackson. Adapted from Aeschylus’ Oresteia. Art Street Theatre.

2000 - The Lost Plays of Jacques du Bon Temps. Collectively devised. Commissioned + produced by EXIT Theatre.

1999 - BANG! by Mark Jackson. Art Street Theatre.

1998 - Brave by Mark Jackson. Art Street Theatre.

1997 - A Sixth of Streetcar. Devised piece created w/ Beth Wilmurt. Commissioned + produced by EXIT Theatre.

1996 + 97 - R&J by Mark Jackson. Dance-theater adapted from Shakespeare. Art Street Theatre.

1995 - Salome by Oscar Wilde. Art Street Theatre.

1995 - little extremes by Mark Jackson. Art Street Theatre.

Various new play workshops + staged readings for: American Conservatory Theater, Crowded Fire Theater Company, Cutting Ball Theater, EXIT Theatre, Magic Theatre, Playground, and Playwrights Foundation, San Francisco. Capital Stage, Sacramento. English Theatre Berlin and Mime Centrum Berlin, Germany. Details upon request.

PLAYWRITING – directed by me unless otherwise noted.

2016 - Little Erik. Adapted from Ibsen. Aurora Theatre Company.

2012 - Salomania. Commissioned + produced by Aurora Theatre Company.

2011 - God’s Plot. Commissioned + produced by The Shotgun Players.

2010 - Mary Stuart. Adapted from Schiller. Commissioned + produced by The Shotgun Players.

2009 - Faust Pt1. Adapted from Goethe. Co-directed w/ Kevin Clarke. The Shotgun Players.

2008 - Don Juan. Adapted from Moliere + Pushkin. San Francisco State University.

2007 - American $uicide. Adapted from Nikolai Erdman’s The Suicide. Encore Theatre Company.

2006 - The Forest War. The Shotgun Players.

2003 - The Death of Meyerhold. Commissioned + produced by The Shotgun Players. Subsequently produced by The Studio Theater, Washington DC, 2005; directed there by Rick Simas.

2002 - I Am Hamlet. Art Street Theatre. Directed by Kevin Clarke.

2001 - Io Princess of Argos! Music (+ lyrics co-written) by Marci Karr. Art Street Theatre. Subsequently produced by Encore Theatre Company, 2002.

2000 - Messenger #1. Adapted from Aeschylus’ Oresteia. Art Street Theatre. Subsequently produced by The Catamounts, Denver, CO, 2012, directed there by Amanda Berg Wilson; Hunger & Thirst, NYC, 2017, directed there by Hondo Weiss-Richmond.

1999 - Megan and the Magic Compass. Commissioned + produced by Il Teatro 450, San Francisco. Directed by Meredith Eldred.

1999 - BANG! Art Street Theatre. Subsequently produced by The Play Café, UK.**

1998 - Brave. Art Street Theatre. Subsequently produced by PCPA, California, 2003.**

1996 - R&J. Art Street at EXIT Theatre’s San Francisco Fringe Festival. Subsequently produced by Art Street Theatre in a full-length run, 1997.

1995 - little extremes. Art Street Theatre at EXIT Theatre’s San Francisco Fringe Festival.

**director unknown

ACTING

2020 - The Goat or Who Is Sylvia? by Edward Albee. Martin. Zoom staged reading, The Shotgun Players.

2015 + 16 - Now For Now. Devised + performed w/ Megan Trout. Z Space, 2015. Shotgun BLAST Theatre Festival, 2016.

2009 - Faust Pt1. Faust. The Shotgun Players.

2007 + 08 - Yes Yes to Moscow, dance-theater based on Chekhov’s Three Sisters. The Man at the Desk. Deutsches Theater Berlin, 2007. S.F. International Arts Festival, 2008.

2002 - I Am Hamlet. Hamlet. Art Street Theatre.

2000 - The Lost Plays of Jacques du Bon Temps, devised piece. Zaah Man. EXIT Theatre.

1998 - Brave. Andrew. Art Street Theatre.

1997 - A Sixth of Streetcar, devised piece. Stanley/Mitch. EXIT Theatre.

1996 + 97 - R&J. Tybalt/Capulet. Art Street Theatre.

1994 - A Little Extreme, solo monologue. Arts International Festival IV, Japan.

BOOKS PUBLISHED

2017 - Playing HAMLET Roulette: Failure, Expectation, Possibility & Democracy. San Francisco: EXIT Press. An account and multi-perspective analysis of the 2016 Shotgun Players production of Hamlet, in which the entire cast learned all the roles and drew from Yorick's skull who they would play each night 5 minutes before curtain.

2017 - Little Erik. San Francisco: EXIT Press. The full script, with a foreword by actor Mariah Castle.

2012 - THREE PLAYS. San Francisco: EXIT Press. Includes the plays God’s Plot, Mary Stuart, and Salomania. Foreword by Patrick Dooley, artistic director of The Shotgun Players.

2010 - TEN PLAYS. San Francisco: EXIT Press. Includes the plays American $uicide, BANG!, Brave, The Death of Meyerhold, Faust Pt1, The Forest War, I Am Hamlet, little extremes, Messenger #1 and R&J. Foreword by Rob Avila, theater critic of the San Francisco Bay Guardian.

2000 - THEATREWORK – Art Street Theatre and the American Fringe. San Francisco: Art Street Theatre. Essays detailing Art Street Theatre’s first five years of work. Includes the plays BANG!, little extremes and R&J.

AWARDS + GRANTS + HONORS

2017 - Honorary MFA in Theatre-Performance Making, California Institute of Integral Studies.

2016 - Bridging the Gap grant from The Shotgun Players.

2015 + 14 - Zellerbach Family Foundation grants supporting the development of Now For Now

2014 - Kenneth Rainin Foundation Visibility Award supporting the development of Now For Now

2013 - Playwright in residence, English Theatre Berlin, Germany.

2012 - God’s Plot named “Best Play” by the East Bay Express in its annual “Best of” issue.

2011 - Edgerton Foundation New American Plays Award for Salomania, commissioned by Aurora Theatre Company.

2011 - Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle Award for Outstanding Direction, Metamorphosis, at Aurora Theatre Company.

2009 - Named “Best Director” of 2009 by East Bay Express.

2009 - Faust Pt1 named “Best Theatrical Production” of 2009 by East Bay Express “Best Of” reader’s poll.

2007 - Theatre Bay Area C.A.$.H. Grant supporting my participation as director and performer of Yes Yes to Moscow, a dance-theater collaboration with choreographer Sommer Ulrickson at Deutches Theater Berlin, Germany.

2007 + 00 + 96 - SF Weekly annual “Best of San Francisco” lists. Best Theatrical Auteur, 2007. Best Experimental Theatre Company, Art Street Theatre, 2000. Best Stage Production, R&J, 1996.

2006 - Magic Theater / Z Space New Works Initiative commission to write American $uicide.

2006 - Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle Award for Outstanding Production, Salome, at Aurora Theatre Company.

2005 - German Chancellor Fellowship from the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, providing a residency in Berlin, Germany, from July 2004 to November 2005, to observe and work w/ Mime Centrum Berlin as well as other theater organizations and artists. Three-month fellowship resumptions were subsequently awarded to me in 2007 and 2013.

2004 - Pen Center USA Literary Award Finalist, Drama category, The Death of Meyerhold.

2004 - Named “Best Director” of 2004 by East Bay Express.

2004 - Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle Award for Outstanding Original Script, The Death of Meyerhold, at The Shotgun Players.

2003 - Playwright in Residence, Djerassi Resident Artists Program, Woodside, CA.

2003 - William and Flora Hewlett Foundation Honorary Fellowship in recognition of my residency at the Djerassi Resident Artist Program.

2003 - Dean Goodman Awards for Outstanding Direction and Writing, The Death of Meyerhold.

2002 - Theatre Bay Area C.A.S.H. Grant supporting my writing The Death of Meyerhold.

2002 - Named one of the “Top 100 Bay Area Artists” by San Francisco Magazine, September.

2002 - Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle Award, Outstanding Original Script, I Am Hamlet, at Art Street Theatre.

2001 - SF Bay Guardian Goldie Award for sustained achievement with Art Street Theatre.

2001 + 00 + 99 - SF Bay Guardian Upstage/Downstage Awards for Outstanding Production. Io Princess of Argos, 2001. The Lost Plays of Jacques du Bon Temps, 2000. BANG!, 1999.

1999 - Theatre Bay Area C.A.S.H. Grant supporting Art Street Theatre’s Messenger #1.

1997 - SF Weekly Black Box Award for Art Street Theatre’s R&J.