Photograph of Jeffrey Puukka by Ary Finch, for New Wave Opera

ARTIST STATEMENT

As a director
I want to make theatre that is fearless, and palpable. I hope that when you leave your seat, you won’t be the same as when you arrived.  

If that’s what I want to make, I need actors who not only want to make it with me, but actors who possess the skills and mindset to do so.

So, I teach classes and coach actors 1:1, and I do this as a way of planting seeds. I am grateful that, as a director, I have been able to collaborate professionally with actors who began their journey in my class.

As a coach
I am curious about actors. I’m drawn to helping actors develop the audacity, skills, and awareness to work collaboratively, with generous bravery, and well-fitted technique.

The perspective I bring is not that of an actor. I am not here to tell you how I did or would do something if I were in your place…  I am here to communicate what I see in your work.

It has been said before that a director is kind of a well trained ‘audience of one’…  If I am your audience, the feedback, questions, or exercises I give you when we work together draw on more than twenty years of on-the-ground research and observation; meeting and collaborating with hundreds of actors in auditions, rehearsals, and classes.  

That said, this is a new moment, and it’s with you.  

In Collaboration
I believe creativity suffers without trust. Trust is only possible in feelings of safety.
Because of that, I am radically committed to fostering kindness as the bedrock of the working environment.

Some Photographs

Meow and Forever—Music: Jodi Goble, Libretto: Basil Considine.  
New Wave Opera, Photographed by Ary Finch.

Women of Troy, in a version by Jeffrey Puukka.
Play On Words, photographed by Julie Marks.

This Random World, by Steven Dietz.
Metropolitan Performing Arts, photographed by Natasha Hass-Hauskins.

A Streetcar Named Desire, by Tennessee Williams.
Sandy Actors Theatre, photographed by Michael Henley.

A Streetcar Named Desire, by Tennessee Williams.
Sandy Actors Theatre, photographed by Michael Henley.

A Streetcar Named Desire, by Tennessee Williams.
Sandy Actors Theatre, photographed by Michael Henley.

Marie Curie Learns to Swim—Music: Jessica Rudman, Libretto: Kendra Preston Leonard.
New Wave Opera, photographed by Ary Finch.

The Cardinal, by D.C. Cathro.
Gather Repertory Theatre, photographed by Scott Gaede / SGA Media.

Bio notes

Jeffrey Puukka is a coffee-loving fellow of Finnish and Irish roots. 

Theatre
Some favorite projects from more than twenty years of directing include Bumblers by Brad Bolchunos (for Northwest Theatre Workshop), Niels Truman’s The Third Place and William Thomas Berk’s Ditched (for Chapel Theater), Steven Dietz’ This Random World and Polly Teale’s Mermaid (for Metropolitan Performing Arts), Bardo (in collaboration with dance artist and actor Lyra Butler-Denman), Tennessee Williams’ A Streetcar Named Desire, (for SAT), David Adjmi’s Elective Affinities (starring Helena de Crespo, for SAVE WORLD ART / Worcester Productions / Infallible Productions), his own adaptation of Bram Stoker’s Dracula, and his own version of Women of Troy, based on Euripides’ plays The Trojan Women and Hecuba.

Jeffrey is a Resident Director with Northwest Theatre Workshop.

Opera
For New Wave Opera, Jeffrey has staged productions of:
Marie Curie Learns to Swim—Music: Jessica Rudman, Libretto: Kendra Preston Leonard.
Pepito—Music: Nicolás Lell Benavides, Libretto: Marella Martin Koch.
Meow and Forever—Music: Jodi Goble, Libretto: Basil Considine.  

Other writing and adaptation
Jeffrey has written and directed adaptations of Oedipus, as well as two adaptations of Antigone by Sophocles, and Phaedra based on plays by Euripides and Racine. Jeffrey conceived the text for and directed a production of The Readiness Is All, an intermingling of iconic moments from six Shakespeare plays. Similarly, Jeffrey conceived the text for and directed a production of A Midnight Dreary, which dramatized selections of writing from Edgar Allen Poe. Jeffrey’s play The Tower Maiden’s Daughter wove dynamics from Beauty and the Beast, Rapunzel, and Snow White and The Seven Dwarves into a single narrative.

Teaching
In addition to his independent coaching and classes, Jeffrey has taught acting, facilitated workshops, guest lectured, or collaborated as a coach for a number of organizations, including:

Mt. Hood Community College
Washington State University
Metropolitan Performing Arts
The American Association of Community Theatres
The City of Gresham
Sam Barlow High School

Respects

LAND ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

Jeffrey Puukka gratefully resides on the traditional lands of the Cowlitz and Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde.

ANTI-RACISM COMMITMENT / COLLABORATION PHILOSOPHY

Jeffrey Puukka welcomes people of all races, ages, religions, political affiliations, genders, countries of origin, sexual orientations, sizes, and abilities into collaboration with him, and the projects he facilitates as an independent theatre practitioner. Jeffrey is committed to anti-racism as a core thread of his own ongoing education, and a core value in his ongoing independent practice.