Jessica Bauman is a director and community-engaged theater maker based in Brooklyn, NY. Together with Mexican director Ramón Verdugo, she co-created and co-directed “The Frontera Project,” an interactive, bilingual theater experience that uses theater, music, movement and play to actively engage the audience in a compassionate, often joyous conversation about life on the US/Mexico Border. Jessica was the US producer for three tours whose venues include: Touchstone Theatre (PA), Swarthmore College, Luna Stage (NJ), The Folger Theatre (DC), Virginia Tech, UNC School of the Arts, La Jolla Playhouse, UC Irvine and The Old Globe, as well as Teatro Las Tablas in Tijuana, Mexico.

Jessica adapted and directed “Arden/Everywhere,” a reimagining of Shakespeare’s “As You Like It” as a refugee story which was produced Off-Broadway with a cast of both professionals and non- professionals from the refugee and immigrant communities in New York City. As she developed that project, she led theater workshops with displaced people and immigrants in New York City through Baruch College, the IRC and Catholic Charities, and taught a two-week workshop at Kakuma Refugee Camp in Kenya. She has spoken about her work at Shakespeare’s Globe in London and in a TEDx talk; she has written about her work in HowlRound and American Theatre Magazine.

Other experience includes developing and directing “Making Up The Truth” by/with journalist Jack Hitt, a solo piece that blended narrative and neuroscience (Spoleto Festival, Joe’s Pub, New Haven Arts + Ideas Festival). Her work has been seen at New Georges, Soho Rep, New York Theater Workshop, Juilliard School and many other venues in NY and regionally.

Website: www.jessicabauman.net