Mark Jackson is an award-winning playwright, director,
performer and teacher. He was Artistic Director of Art Street
Theatre, San Francisco, from 1995 to 2004, during which time he
wrote, directed and performed in numerous productions for the
company. Mark's work has also been seen at Aurora Theatre
Company, Encore Theatre Company, EXIT Theatre, Potrzebie Dance
Project, San Francisco International Arts Festival, Shotgun
Players, and The Studio Theatre (Washington D.C.), among others; as
well as internationally at Arts International Festival IV (Japan),
Edinburgh Festival Fringe (UK), and Deutsches Theater Berlin
(Germany). His plays have been developed at American Conservatory
Theater, Capital Stage, EXIT Theatre, Playwrights Foundation, Magic
Theatre, and Z Space Studio. Some recent directorial projects
include Shakespeare's Macbeth, Mark's play, The
Forest War, and his adaptation of Goethe's Faust Pt 1, all
at Shotgun Players; Yes, Yes to Moscow at Deutsches Theater Berlin
(Germany) and the San Francisco International Arts Festival;
Strindberg's Miss Julie and Oscar Wilde's Salome
at Aurora Theatre Company; and Mark's play, American
$uicide, for Encore Theatre Company. Mark has also directed a
number of productions as a guest artist of both the American
Conservatory Theater MFA Program and San Francisco State
University. In June 2003, Mark was the resident playwright of the
Djerassi Resident Artists Program, where he was awarded the William
and Flora Hewlett Foundation Honorary Fellowship. He is a 2004
German Chancellor Fellow of the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation,
which took him to Berlin, Germany, for the 04/05 season to work
with Mime Centrum Berlin, a practical research center for physical
theater. Mark was named "Best Director" by the East Bay Express in
2009 and 2004, "Best Theatrical Auteur" by the SF Weekly in 2007,
and one of the "Top 100 Bay Area Artists" by San Francisco Magazine
in 2002. Other awards and honors include two Bay Area Theater
Critics Circle Awards, three SFBG Upstage/Downstage Awards, two
Theater Bay Area CA$H Grants, and a Magic Theater / Z Space New
Works Initiative commission. Mark's writing has benefited
three times from the generosity of the Tournesol Project, a
granting program for the development of new work. Mark graduated
magna cum laude from San Francisco State University, where he was
awarded the Theatre Arts Department Award for Outstanding
Achievement in Directing. He has studied extensively with the
Saratoga International Theater Institute, as well as Master
Biomechanics instructor Gennadi Bogdanov. Mark has led workshops
for actors at theaters and schools, and served on the faculties of
Universities, in both California and Berlin, Germany, and was a
Conservatory Associate at the American Conservatory Theater from
1999 to 2004. In addition to his work as a director and playwright,
he continues to teach theater courses on a freelance basis at San
Francisco State University, the American Conservatory Theater, and
other organizations.
To find out more about Mr. Jackson go to:
www.artstreettheatre.org
