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Jeff Zinn has been active in the performing arts as musician, actor, director and producer for over thirty years. A graduate of Franconia College in New Hampshire where he majored in theater and dance, he made his off-Broadway debut as “Danny” in David Mamet’s Sexual Perversity In Chicago; performed as a member of the Boston based improvisational troupe, “The Proposition”; and appeared on Broadway with Derek Jacobi in The Suicide. He earned a Masters in Theater Education from NYU in 1978; and turned to directing full-time in 1983. In the next few years he developed new plays at Ensemble Studio Theatre, The White Barn Theatre, The West Bank Cafe, Theater for the New City, and as a member of the Circle Repertory Company Lab.
In 1988 he joined the directing program at the American Repertory Theatre Institute for Advanced Theatre Training, under the leadership of Robert Brustein. That year he also became Artistic Director of Wellfleet Harbor Actors Theater (WHAT). During the next two years, while taking a wide range of courses at Harvard (including filmmaking) he assisted directors Andrei Șerban and Liviu Ciulei, co-directed Eric Bogosian’s new play, Suburbia, and directed many of his own projects including the premier of a new play by Thomas Babe and an ambitious production of Ionesco’s The Killer.
Under his leadership WHAT has grown to be a nationally recognized professional theater presenting innovative new American plays for a diverse and appreciative regional audience. He has produced more than 150 WHAT productions and directed more than 50. WHAT has been awarded two prestigious Eliot Norton Awards including one in 2001 for “Establishing a Beachhead For Serious Theatre on Cape Cod.” In 2004 Boston Magazine chose WHAT as “Best Theater” in its annual “Best of Boston” issue. Productions he has directed, Beauty Queen of Leenane (starring Julie Harris), Closerby Patrick Marber, and Proof by David Auburn were named, in their respective years, as part of the top ten theater productions by the Boston Globe. His 2010 productions of Daughter of Venus by Howard Zinn and the world premiere of Danny Casolaro Died for You, by Dominic Orlando, (National New Play Network (NNPN) Rolling World Premiere) received critical acclaim as did his 2011 productions of A Behanding In Spokane by Martin McDonagh and Bakersfield Mist by Stephen Sachs.Bakersfield Mist is a NNPN Rolling World Premiere and a co-production with new Repertory Theatre where it will re-mount in February 2012.
In 2007 WHAT concluded a six year, $7 million, Capital Campaign with the opening of the Julie Harris Stage. This state-of-the-art 210 seat proscenium venue becomes the focus for full production as the 25 year-old company continues to produce smaller scale productions at its original home, now suitably called the Harbor Stage.
He has guest directed at the Nora Theatre Company and the New Repertory Theatre, and taught courses in acting, dramaturgy and theater literature at Clark College and Wheaton College. He currently holds the post of Visiting Academic Professional of Drama/Theatre and Adjunct Instructor in the Department of Humanities and Arts at Worcester Polytechnic Institute.
He lives in Orleans with his wife, Crystal, and their children, Georgia and Noah.
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