Professional Actor, Director, Producer, Theatre Professor
Jesse Merz is currently the Head of the BFA in Acting program and Assistant Professor of Theatre at Wayne State University in Detroit, Michigan. He was Interim Assistant Chair in 2011. He also teaches in the MFA program and directs for the Bonstelle Theatre Company and the Hilberry Repertory Theatre. He has performed off-Broadway, in regional theatre, summer stock, feature films, on the radio and in 120 cities in 34 states on national tours. He has directed more than 60 musicals, plays and video projects in NYC, regional and educational theatres, and has produced more than 200 shows. He has been the Artistic Director of the Columbia Gorge School of Theatre and the Columbia Gorge Repertory Theatre since 1996. From 2000 - 2003, he was the Producing Artistic Director of Longview Stageworks, a small Equity theatre. He is a member of Actors Equity (where he was elected to the Central Regional Board and appointed to the national committees on the Production and SPT contracts), AFTRA, The Dramatists Guild of America, VASTA and is an associate member of the Stage Directors and Choreographers Society.
He has also taught acting at UC Davis, David Douglas, Western Oregon University, and Wayne State University, among others. He has taught workshops or presented papers at the American College Theatre Festival, Association of Theatre in Higher Education, Oregon, Michigan and Washington's Thespian Conferences, Mid-American Theatre Conference, SacActors, International School of St. Martin, and the University of Jordan in Amman, Jordan. He is currently at work on a book entitled The Meisner Interviews. He has worked with or studied with such Pulitzer, Oscar, Tony, Bessie, Emmy & Golden Globe winners or nominees as Lauri Peters, David Mamet, William H. Macy, Felicity Huffman, Daisy Eagan, Constantine Maroulis, Joanne Woodward, Alec Baldwin, Tony Kushner, Guillermo Gómez Peña, River Phoenix, Gus Van Sant, Joe Mantegna, Sally Mayes, and several others.
His BFA in Acting is from New York University, Tisch School of the Arts, his MAT with a drama endorsement is from George Fox University and his MFA in Dramatic Arts - Acting is from the University of California, Davis.
He has also taught acting at UC Davis, David Douglas, Western Oregon University, and Wayne State University, among others. He has taught workshops or presented papers at the American College Theatre Festival, Association of Theatre in Higher Education, Oregon, Michigan and Washington's Thespian Conferences, Mid-American Theatre Conference, SacActors, International School of St. Martin, and the University of Jordan in Amman, Jordan. He is currently at work on a book entitled The Meisner Interviews. He has worked with or studied with such Pulitzer, Oscar, Tony, Bessie, Emmy & Golden Globe winners or nominees as Lauri Peters, David Mamet, William H. Macy, Felicity Huffman, Daisy Eagan, Constantine Maroulis, Joanne Woodward, Alec Baldwin, Tony Kushner, Guillermo Gómez Peña, River Phoenix, Gus Van Sant, Joe Mantegna, Sally Mayes, and several others.
His BFA in Acting is from New York University, Tisch School of the Arts, his MAT with a drama endorsement is from George Fox University and his MFA in Dramatic Arts - Acting is from the University of California, Davis.
