JESSICA KUBZANSKY is the Co-Artistic Director of The Theatre @ Boston Court in Pasadena and an award-winning director working around the country at a wide variety of venues which include South Coast Rep, The Geffen Playhouse, the Pasadena Playhouse, Portland Center Stage, The Aurora, American Stage Co., The Boston Publick, and many more.
Kubzansky directs a great deal of new work. Recent world premieres include Michael Elyanow’s The Children, Jordan Harrison’s Futura, Laura Schellhardt’s Courting Vampires, Salamone/McIntyre’s Gulls (a musical adaptation of The Seagull), Mickey Birnbaum’s Bleed Rail, Carlos Murillo’s Unfinished American Highwayscape #9 & 32, Jean-Claude van Itallie’s Light, Cody Henderson’s Cold/Tender (all at The Theatre @ Boston Court), Jen Haley’s Breadcrumbs (Theater 150), Julie Hébert’s Tree ([EST/Inside the Ford]), Bob Clyman’s Tranced (Laguna Playhouse), Bryan Davidson’s War Music (Geffen Playhouse and prior to that, The Echo/Playwrights Arena at LATC), Tom Jacobson’s The Orange Grove, an adaptation of The Cherry Orchard (Playwrights’ Arena), Salamone/McIntyre’s Moscow (Chekhov Now, NYC, Los Angeles, Edinburgh, etc.), Carol Wolf’s The Thousandth Night with Ron Campbell (around the country and internationally), also, Sheila Callaghan’s Kate Crackernuts (24th St. Theatre). Kubzansky has also had the privilege of developing new work with Bill Cain, Luis Alfaro, Sheila Callaghan, Julia Cho, Frances Ya-Chu Cowhig, Diana Son, Zayd Dohrn, Peter Sinn Nachtrieb, David Wiener, Ken Urban, Christina Anderson, and many other astonishing playwrights in many new play development settings, including Ojai Playwrights Conference, Portland Center Stage JAW/WEST, South Coast Rep’s Pacific Playwrights Festival and NewSCRipts, the Playwrights Center of Minneapolis, the Taper Labs, and many others.
Kubzansky is passionate about an eclectic variety of styles of theatre. Other recent work includes: Macbeth (Antaeus Company), The 39 Steps ((La Mirada Theatre for the Performing Arts), Julia Cho’s The Language Archive (East/West Players), Theresa Rebeck’s Mauritius (Pasadena Playhouse), Tennessee Williams’ Camino Real and Hare/Brecht’s Mother Courage with Camille Saviola (T@BC), She is a Shakespeare freak; favorite productions of the bard include Hamlet with Leo Marks in the title role, The Winter’s Tale (Theater 150), The Two Gentlemen of Verona (Illinois Shakespeare Festival), Measure for Measure (A Noise Within), a mixed Scottish and American site-specific production of Macbeth for the Edinburgh Fringe, Twelfth Night (Grand Canyon Shakespeare Festival) etc. In addition, The Glass Menagerie, Toys in the Attic, Heartbreak House (The Colony Theatre), Amy’s View, The Servant to Two Masters, Loot (International City Theatre), Dancing at Lughnasa (La Mirada Theatre for the Performing Arts), A Moon for the Misbegotten, Joined at the Head (The Laguna Playhouse), Pirates of Penzance (The Boston Publick), Vaclav Havel’s The Memorandum, Burn This (Odyssey Theatre) Lulu (Pacific Resident Theatre), The House of Blue Leaves, The Mandrake (West Coast Ensemble) among many many others.
Kubzansky teaches graduate playwrights and directors at UCLA, has her MFA from the California Institute of the Arts, and her undergraduate degree from Johns Hopkins and Harvard Universities. She has received many awards and honors, among them the Los Angeles’ Drama Critics’ Circle’s Margaret Harford Award for Sustained Excellence in Theatre.
Kubzansky is a member of SDC.