Jacob is in his second season as the artistic director of Third Avenue PlayWorks. Before coming to Door County, Jacob spent three years as the artistic producer for The COOP, a theatre and film production company in New York.
Jacob has over a decade of professional producing experience at theatres such as Studio Theatre, Shakespeare Theatre, and Mosaic Theater Company in Washington, DC. His focus as an artist is on the development of new work and fostering community engagement with the arts. He has led the development of work by established and emerging writers such as Alex Lin, Nina Segal, Julia Izumi, Tearrance Chisholm, Jesse Jae Hoon, Cat Miller, Aeneas Sagar Hemphill, Ankita Raturi, Mallor Jane Weiss, and others.
Originally from Kiel, Wisconsin, Jacob holds a BFA in Acting from UW-Stevens Point and an MFA in Directing from DePaul University. His extended family have lived and worked in Door County for decades; his grandparents owned and operated a restaurant in Egg Harbor. Jacob and his wife Lisa live in Sturgeon Bay with their two children, Leo and August.