Jacob Zimmer
I’m honoured and excited to be in the Yukon, contributing to a flourishing territory through theatre.
Some values I work with include: Generosity, humour, the belief that singing together helps, mischievous glints in the eyes, commitment to social justice and systems change, interest in big ideas, arts’ capacity to make the familiar strange and the strange familiar, the importance of a good night out that doesn’t require checking your brain or ethics at the door.
More formal biography:
Jacob Zimmer is a theatre maker, process designer, facilitator and dramaturge. Born in Cape Breton and growing up in Halifax, Jacob has a couple decades of experience creating theatre and facilitating conferences across the country.
Jacob studied at Simon Fraser University’s School for the Contemporary Arts and in 2004 was a technical intern with The Wooster Group and studied Viewpoints, Suzuki and Composition with Anne Bogart and the SITI Company in New York. Jacob received the 2008 Ken McDougall Award for emerging directors.
Jacob founded Small Wooden Shoe to create theatre that engages with the world around us and its history in a curiously critical manner while maintaining the need to perform – to step up and to entertain. Small Wooden Shoe creates spaces to reduce alienation while admitting difference.
Jacob was a process designer and faculty member in Leadership at Banff Centre for the Arts and Creativity. He organized the UnConference on the Future(s) of Toronto Performance and has facilitated unconference events for PACT, Harbourfront Centre and LMDA as well as Small Wooden Shoe and Dancemakers.
Jacob worked extensively as a dramaturge with Dancemakers and the Centre for Creation in Toronto and in an on-going dramaturgical collaboration with Public Recordings as well as having been a co-director of HUB 14, a rehearsal and performance studio in Toronto.
Jacob leds performance workshops for theatre makers, dancers and choreographers, young people and non-arts professionals. As a featured speaker he gave the keynote address at Performance Creation Canada in Halifax (2008); spoke at the Glenbow Museum in Calgary (2010); Performance Creation Canada in Armstrong BC (2010); and has been an invited panelist for the Literary Managers and Dramaturges of the Americas, Canadian Stage, Canadian Dance Association, Society for Dance History Scholars and the Toronto Fringe Festival among others.