JESSICA JACKSON is a director, composer, actor, writer, and rampant improviser. During her time as Artistic Director of Creede Repertory Theatre, this award-winning theatre produced 6 world premiere productions, 7 new play festivals, & 12 world-premiere commissions for young audiences. She founded Boomtown Improv Comedy and helmed the devised Pants on Fire: a totally made-up musical for kids. Some of her favorite projects: Socially distanced golf-cart odyssey The Rough (writer/director) & satirical musical Small Ball (director) with The Catamounts, Roe (director) and The Laramie Project (director) at Oklahoma City University, Colorado premieres of Miss Holmes (director) and William Shakespeare’s Land of the Dead (director), the world premiere of Sight Hound (director) by Pam Houston, Billy Hell (composer-Denver Post Ovation Award Best Original Music), and sundry original shows created with Jeff Carey (composer/director). She’s working on a new full-length musical, Singletrack, with Steven Cole Hughes and goofing around with her 12-year-old daughter, Penny, and brilliant husband, Matt.

JACOB OFFEN has played many roles at OpenStage Theatre & Company – actor, staff member, board member, and now director and Producing Artistic Director. Misery marks his directorial debut at OpenStage. Jacob taught Acting at the University of Houston during his tenure as an MFA candidate, and recently at the University of Northern Colorado. He designed a comprehensive curriculum rooted in Stanislavsky, Hagen, Meisner, Roy Heart and Cecily Berry, and coached actors in scene work/audition preparation. Further, Jacob has created acting, voice, and Shakespearean text workshops at the Texas Shakespeare Festival, Houston Shakespeare Festival, and for acting students of all ages. While he served as the Company Development Administrator (2011 – 2015), he produced and directed entertainment for OST&C’s spring fundraisers (Casino Royal: The Sting, Viva Las Vegas, Oceans 11, le Cirque Rouge!). He is thrilled to put his years of experience as a performer and teaching artist to work for Misery and for many future productions to come!