About

Jacob Sexton is a New York–based theatre director, playwright, dramaturg, and aspiring artistic leader originally from central Kentucky.

He is committed to developing new and experimental work, with a focus on interdisciplinary collaboration and a passion for queering both theatrical form and the inherited “canon.” His work frequently explores questions of identity, intimacy, and representation—particularly across the spectrum of human sexuality— and reimagines how we depict romance and desire onstage. His directing practice often incorporates multimedia aesthetics, including “live cinema”, which he has led workshops on at Oberlin College and Directors Lab North.

Jacob is a founding member and resident director of Strange Face, a queer ensemble company he co-leads with playwright Evie Mason and actor Max Singer. Together, they create absurd, non-naturalistic theater that pushes boundaries of what is (im)possible to stage.

A longtime champion of new plays, Jacob has collaborated on original works with Kari Barclay, Tré Calhoun, Rick Ehrstin, Emily Elyse Everett, Cory Finley, Gracie Gardner, Fiona Gorry-Hines, Keiko Green, David Jackson, Arika Larson, Zoë Lasden-Lyman, Evie Mason, Kate Mickere, Edward Precht, Zoë Rhulen, Will Snider, Jay Stull, and Blake Sugarman. He has also directed classic and contemporary plays by Caryl Churchill, Anton Chekhov, Samuel Beckett, William Shakespeare, Young Jean Lee, Will Eno, Martin McDonagh, Alan Bennett, Burt V. Royal, and his mfa thesis production was Gregory S. Moss’ Indian Summer.

His directing and assistant work includes productions and festivals at Actors Theatre of Louisville (and their Humana Festival of New American Plays), Berkeley Repertory Theatre, Brooklyn Academy of Music’s Next Wave Festival, Beth Morrison Projects, Clubbed Thumb, est/Youngblood, LA Opera, Primary Stages, SITI Company, The Brick, The Tank, Arts on Site, and TheatreSquared’s Arkansas New Play Festival. He has assisted Anne Bogart, Les Waters, Leigh Silverman, Jon Jory, Lila Neugebauer, Gia Forakis, and most recently Michael Mayer on Swept Away by John Logan and the Avett Brothers.

Jacob holds an MFA in Theatre Directing from Columbia University, where he studied under Anne Bogart, Brian Kulick, Katie Mitchell, and David Henry Hwang. He is an alum of Fordham University and the Professional Training Program at Actors Theatre of Louisville, and has held artistic development roles at Page 73 Productions and Clubbed Thumb. He was an invited participant at the International Directors Symposium at La MaMa Umbria (Italy), Directors Lab North (Toronto, Canada), and the Emerging Directors Roundtable with Peter Brook at the Brooklyn Academy of Music.