JENN THOMPSON is a Drama Desk-nominated freelance director whose work has been acclaimed in New York City and at theaters across the country. With collaboration, communication and clear vision as her hallmarks, she has shepherded classics and modern classics, musicals and plays, comedies and dramas, solo shows and world premieres. Bringing to the table her experience as

a former actor, producer and artistic director, she leads with taste, intelligence, perspective and sensitivity. 

 

New York theatre credits include: work for Off-Broadway's celebrated Mint Theatre Company including the critically-acclaimed productions of Chains, Conflict and Women Without Men, which garnered 2016 Lortel and Off-Broadway Alliance Award nominations for Outstanding Revival as well as 5 Drama Desk Award nominations including Outstanding Director and Revival. Jenn served as Co-Artistic Director of Off-Broadway's acclaimed TACT/The Actors Company Theatre from 2011 to 2015. Directing credits for the company include productions of the 2017 world-premiere The Gravedigger's Lullaby by Laurents/Hatcher award-winning playwright, Jeff Talbott, Beth Henley's wild west epic Abundance (in its first NYC staging in

25 years- and garnering the Off-Broadway Alliance's award for Best Revival); William Inge’s gritty urban drama Natural Affection (in its first staging in 50 years); Neil Simon’s Pulitzer Prize-winning Lost in Yonkers (2012 Drama Desk Nomination

for Best Revival of a Play, with revisions approved by Mr. Simon); Vaclav Havel’s Kafkaesque satire The Memorandum; 

Sidney Howard’s depression- era comedy The Late Christopher Bean; Alan Ayckbourn’s bittersweet comic romp Bedroom Farce; Tennessee Williams’ poetic romance The Eccentricities of a Nightingale (The New York Times - Year in Theater: Top 10 of 2008); as well as Ladies in Retirement; My 3 Angels; Rain and Kind Lady. Other NYC directing credits include the NYC premiere of Holly Webber’s play Pratfalls  (Abingdon); the world-premiere musical Seeing Stars (NYMF); Badge by Matthew Schneck (Rattlestick Playwrights Theatre); The Brilliance Of Bernstein (American Musicals Project) and Big Doolie (FringeNYC). She has also developed work with NAMT, MCC, Primary Stages, The Mint Theatre Company, Hartford Stage, Hartford Theatreworks, York Theatre Company, Barrow Group, Abingdon Theatre Company, The Bridge Theatre,

and Rattlestick, among others.

 

National Tour credits include: Annie - currently touring North America, through 2025. Regional credits include: Schiller's Mary Stuart (Chicago Shakespeare Theatre); The Secret Garden and Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike (Denver Center Theatre); Gypsy, Anne of Green Gables - The Musical, The Music Man, Oklahoma! and Bye Bye Birdie (Goodspeed Musicals - Multiple Connecticut Critics Circle Awards and nominations including, Outstanding Director and Outstanding Musical); 

Diary of a Wimpy Kid - The Musical (Children's Theatre Company in association with Kevin McCollum and Buena Vista Theatrical Group); Doubt (Theatre Aspen), Into The Woods (Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival); The world premiere musical Anne of Green Gables - The Musical (Finger Lakes Musical Theatre Festival); The Call and Doll's House Pt. 2 (TheaterWorks Hartford), Miss Bennet; Christmas at Pemberley and Angel Street  (Repertory Theatre of St. Louis); Tribes and Lost in Yonkers (Barrington Stage Company); Grounded (City Theatre); Abundance (Hartford Stage – multiple Connecticut Critics Circle nominations including Outstanding Director and Play); Peter and the Starcatcher and The Philadelphia Story (Pioneer Theatre Company), The Syringa Tree (Portland Stage Company); All in the Timing,  Noises Off, Barefoot in the Park and Boeing Boeing (Dorset Theatre Festival – where she is a Resident Director), as well as 19 seasons with Connecticut’s award-winning River Rep at the Ivoryton Playhouse where she served as Producing Director working on over 50 productions including directing Damn Yankees, The Heiress, Dinner with Friends and The Foreigner.

 

A 2012 finalist for the SDC’s Joe A. Callaway Award, for excellence in New York City directing, Jenn is married to actor Stephen Kunken. They live in Brooklyn with their daughter, Naomi.