ABOUT JON
Jon Reimer is an international theatre artist and educator. He received his doctorate from the Joint Ph.D. program in Theatre and Drama at the University of California, San Diego and UC Irvine, and his M.F.A. in Directing from UC San Diego. He is based in Tokyo, Japan, where he works as Drama Teacher of Seisen International School and is Vice President of Tokyo International Players.
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Jon’s academic research interests include traditional and modern Japanese performance, western acting techniques focused around active listening, and cross-cultural theatre. He is specifically interested in interculturalized and intraculturalized Japanese theatre and their relevance amongst international perspectives of performance.
His Tokyo credits include Kwaidan: The Lafcadio Hearn Project (Director, TIP 2023-present), Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat (Director, SIS/SMIS/ISSH 2024), Meet Murasaki Shikibu Followed by Book-Signing, and Other Things (Director, SIS/SMIS 2023), I Love You, You're Perfect, Now Change (Director, TIP 2023), Once Upon a Mattress (Choreographer/Asst. Director, SIS/SMIS/ISSH 2023), Into the Woods (Director, TIP 2013), Once Upon a Mattress (Director, TIP 2011), A Kabuki Christmas Carol (Director, TIP 2011), and Pippin (Director & Choreographer, TIP 2010). His UC San Diego credits include Prepared (Director, WNPF 2021), Letters From Cuba (Dramaturg), Orestes 2.0 (Production Consultant), The Skriker (Director), Baby Teeth (Director, WNPF 2017), Scenes from an Execution (Director), Angels in America, Part Two: Perestroika (Director), Boston Marriage (Director), Angels in America, Part One: Millennium Approaches (Co-Director), The Cherry Orchard (AD/Dramaturg), Borealis (AD/Dramaturg, WNPF 2015), and Golden Boy (acting in the roles of Mickey/Frank).
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As an educator, from 2021-2023 Jon was Associate in Theatre for the Department of Theatre and Dance at UC San Diego, and an Adjunct Lecturer in the Japanese Program of the Department of Linguistics and Asian/Middle Eastern Languages at San Diego State University where he taught Japanese Popular Culture. In 2018-2019, he was Guest Lecturer in Theatre at Muhlenberg College in Allentown, Pennsylvania, where he taught Japanese Theatre, Pan-Asian Theatre, Dramaturgy/Play Analysis, and Theatre & Society. He is currently finishing up his time teaching at UC San Diego as Instructor for Introduction to Play Analysis and as a teaching assistant for Introduction to Theatre. He was also Treasurer and an Executive Board member of Performance Studies international from 2020-2023.
Born, raised, and educated in eastern Pennsylvania, U.S.A., Jon is also a graduate of Muhlenberg College in Allentown, Pennsylvania, where he earned a B.A. in Theatre Arts (Directing and Design) with a minor in Religion (Asian Studies). His first time living in Japan was for seven years, from 2006-2013, during which time he worked primarily with Tokyo International Players (TIP) as a director, performer, and member of their Board of Governors. His most significant project for TIP in that time was when he partnered with Shochiku Corporation and playwright Gary Perlman to create an original English-language kabuki adaptation of Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol.
Accomplishments he is most proud of in his life so far: completing his dissertation, converting to Judaism at the age of 16, moving to and living in Japan (both times), traveling the globe to research cultures and customs, and of course marrying his wonderful husband Andy.
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