Tom Jacobson

Biography

Jacobson has had more than 70 productions of his works performed around the country. He studied acting at Northwestern University, and graduated with a Master of Fine Arts in 1985 from the playwriting program at the University of California, Los Angeles' School of Theater, Film and Television.

Jacobson has described himself as a "47 year old male Angeleno from Colorado, Pennsylvania, Florida and Oklahoma of Norwegian/Swedish/German/Polish/Hungarian/Czech/French/English/Irish/Scottish background who went to college in Chicago and graduate school in Los Angeles and works in a natural history museum and lives in a loft in Koreatown with his husband who is a Latino abstract expressionist artist."

Career as Playwright

A prolific writer, Jacobson has penned more than 33 plays, although not all of these works have been produced at the time of writing. Jacobson's historical references, literary allusions, wit and transitional style have garnered comparisons with fellow playwright Tom Stoppard.

Many of Jacobson's plays deal with homosexual characters and gay history. He has written several works with all-male casts, though his plays The Friendly Hour (2008) and Pipestone (unproduced) are all-female ensembles.

Jacobson has called his 2005 play Ouroboros his best work, citing its powerful emotions and innovative structure.

In 2011, two of Jacobson's plays were performed simultaneously in Los Angeles: The Chinese Massacre (Annotated) at Circle X Theatre, and House of the Rising Son at Ensemble Studio Theatre-LA. Both productions have been favorably reviewed.

Publications

all of the following plays have been published by Broadway Play Publishing Inc.

Recognition

In 2009 Jacobson was selected to receive a National Endowment for the Arts production grant, intended to fund the first production of his play The Chinese Massacre (Annotated).

Jacobson has been nominated for a number of awards, including a 2010 Playwright—World Premier Play or Musical Ovation Award for his work The Twentieth-Century Way. That particular play was nominated for a total of five Ovation Awards, as well as four Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle Awards, and a GLAAD Media Award (2010).

Four of Jacobson's plays – Bunbury (2005), Ouroboros (2005), The Orange Grove (2005), and Sperm (2004) – have been designated Los Angeles Times Critics Choices.

Additional Work

Apart from his theatre works, Jacobson has also been a co-literary manager of The Theatre @ Boston Court, artistic director of Ensemble Studio Theatre-LA, and a board member of Cornerstone Theater Company. Jacobson was a founding member of Playwrights Ink, a non-profit association (based at the University of Wisconsin) made up of theater artists dedicated to the development of playwrights and their work.

Jacobson also teaches playwriting and related courses for UCLA Extension. Of his teaching philosophy, Jacobson has said, "Writers learn everywhere – every experience, every person we meet teaches us something about the world, something we can remember, ruminate on, and write down … Perhaps the most important thing I can teach [my students] is how to ask the right questions and really listen to the answers – to find the truth hidden inside the lie."