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 when you leave your seat, you won’t be the same as when you arrived. 

Good theatre can come about in so many ways. The way I most enjoy working begins with text, and goes on to center around actors, putting them forward. The script haunts my imagination, and the production finds much of its form through inquiry and dialogue with the actors in rehearsal.

I’m very interested in actors… what they’re doing, how they’re getting along, and how they’re feeling about their work. 

This interest is why I teach classes and coach actors 1:1. 

I am grateful to have experienced the joy of–down the road–directing actors who began their journey in my class.

As a coach
I want to do what I can to help actors develop and mantain the audacity, skills, and awareness to collaborate with generous bravery. 

I’m interested in helping actors discover tools and technique that fit them well individually, because I deeply believe there are as many pathways to great acting as there are actors.

The questions I keep circling are about what we’re noticing. What are we doing and noticing now, which might help something be a little easier next time?

The perspective I bring as a coach isn’t that of an actor. I am not here to tell you how to do your work, but what I see when you do it, and things you might try if you feel confused or stuck. 

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 offer draw on more than twenty years of research and observation, collaborating with actors in rehearsal rooms, audition rooms, and classrooms…

Rehearsal shot: Directing Caretakers by Rita Pogue and Inez Schmidt. Photographed by Kelly Middleton.

In Collaboration
I believe creativity suffers without trust. Trust is only possible in feelings of safety. What determines safety moves around a lot. If I feel safe, that doesn’t automatically mean you do, and the opposite is just as true. We need to be able to talk to each other about how we’re doing. 

Making theatre can be so fun, but it takes bravery, patience, and flexibility, and these are resources that don’t always come easily. We collaboratively build the spaces we work in…  Choosing kindness as their bedrock is, I think, a good step.

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.

Antigone, in a version by Jeffrey Puukka.
Metropolitan Performing Arts. Photographed by Jocy Walla.

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.

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

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 Caretakers by Rita Pogue and Inez Schmidt (part of the Fertile Ground Festival of New Works), 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 has been a Resident Director with Northwest Theatre Workshop since 2024.

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.