ABOUT JON
Jon Reimer 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 is a freelance artist and educator. He is also currently Treasurer and an Executive Board member of Performance Studies international.
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).
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). Prior to moving to San Diego, he lived abroad in Japan for over seven years, during which time he worked primarily with Tokyo International Players (TIP) as a director, performer, and member of their Board of Governors. With TIP, he partnered with Shochiku Corporation and playwright Gary Perlman to create an original English-language kabuki adaptation of Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol. Jon’s 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.
Most recently, 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 a 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.
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 for over seven years, marrying his wonderful husband Andy, and traveling the globe to research cultures and customs.
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