Jacob is a director & arts leader.

He is focused on the development of new work, and fostering community engagement with the arts.

In 2021, Jacob was named the Artistic Director of Third Avenue PlayWorks in Sturgeon Bay, Wisconsin. Under Jacob’s leadership, TAP has had two back-to-back record setting seasons. In keeping with his commitment to community centered work, TAP launched a new community arts access program in partnership with the Door County Library system that seeks to eliminate the social and financial barriers to participation in the arts. Also under his leadership TAP started a formal new play development program.

In 2022, Jacob directed the world premiere of Jennifer Blackmer’s I Carry Your Heart With Me which was recognized by the American Theater Critics Association as one of the three best new plays produced outside of New York City that year.

Jacob was the Artistic Producer at The COOP, a theatre and film production company founded with Andrus Nichols and Kate Hamill. During the pandemic, Jacob created the new works programs that became the center of The COOP’s theatrical work. The new work initiative has supported the development of plays by sixteen writers.

Jacob has worked at The Shakespeare Theatre, The Goodman Theatre, Writers Theatre, The Old Globe, Baltimore Center Stage, Studio Theatre, Signature Theatre, Merrimack Repertory Theatre, Primary Stages, Folger Theatre, Woolly Mammoth, Mosaic Theater, and others.

Originally from Wisconsin, Jacob holds an MFA in Directing from the Theatre School at DePaul University.