John Jesurun is a writer, director and

multi-media Multimedia is a form of communication that uses a combination of different content forms such as text, audio, images, animations, or video into a single interactive presentation, in contrast to traditio ...

artist, based in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...

. His work ''Chang in a Void Moon'' is a live serial running since 1983, originally at the Pyramid Club in the East Village and now less frequently at venues worldwide. He was born 1951 in Battle Creek, Michigan.

Education

Jesurun received his B.F.A. from the

Philadelphia College of Art Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Since 1 ...

in 1972 and his M.F.A. in Sculpture from

Yale University Yale University is a Private university, private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the List of Colonial Colleges, third-oldest institution of higher education in the United Sta ...

in 1974.

Career

From 1976 to 1979 Jesurun was a television content analyst for

CBS CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS, the abbreviation of its former legal name Columbia Broadcasting System, is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainm ...

. From 1979 to 1982 he was assistant producer of ''

the Dick Cavett Show ''The Dick Cavett Show'' was the title of several talk shows hosted by Dick Cavett on various television networks, including: * ABC daytime, (March 4, 1968–January 24, 1969) originally titled ''This Morning'' * ABC prime time, Tuesdays, We ...

''. In 1982 he began his theatrical career at the Pyramid Club with his serial play ''Chang in a Void Moon''. Since 1984 he has written, directed and designed over 25 pieces.

Works

Style

Jesurun's presentations integrate elements of language, film, architectural space and media. His exploded narratives cover a wide range of themes and explore the relation of form to content, challenging the experience of verbal, visual and intangible perceptions. His work features integrated creation of the text, direction, set and media design. Describing his process, Jesurun explains, "Usually everything happens at the same time. I write with a typewriter on one side and a sketchbook on the other side. So then the words and images and ideas happen simultaneously."Gholson, Craig
"John Jesurun"
‘’

BOMB Magazine ''Bomb'' (stylized in all caps as ''BOMB'') is an American arts magazine edited by artists and writers, published quarterly in print and daily online. It is composed primarily of interviews between creative people working in a variety of disciplin ...

’’ Winter, 1985. Retrieved on March 6, 2013

Touring

Jesurun's company has toured extensively in Europe and the United States. His work has been produced and presented by numerous venues including

La Mama La MaMa Experimental Theatre Club (La MaMa E.T.C.) is an Off-Off-Broadway theatre founded in 1961 by Ellen Stewart, African-American theatre director, producer, and fashion designer. Located in Manhattan's East Village, the theatre began in the ...

The Kitchen The Kitchen is a non-profit, multi-disciplinary avant-garde performance and experimental art institution located at 512 West 19th Street, between Tenth and Eleventh Avenues in the Chelsea neighborhood of Manhattan, New York City. It was foun ...

Dance Theater Workshop Dance Theater Workshop, colloquially known as DTW, was a New York City performance space and service organization for dance companies that operated from 1965 to 2011. After a merger it became known as New York Live Arts Located as 219 West 19th ...

, the

Walker Arts Center The Walker Art Center is a multidisciplinary contemporary art center in the Lowry Hill neighborhood of Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States. The Walker is one of the most-visited modern and contemporary art museums in the United States and, t ...

On the Boards On the Boards (OtB) is a non-profit contemporary performing arts organization in Seattle, Washington, founded in 1978. Originally located at Washington Hall in the Central District, the organization moved in 1998 to their current location in Up ...

, Brooklyn Academy of Music, the Wexner Center, Kampnagel Theater, Prater Theater,

National Theatre of Mexico The Great National Theatre of Mexico was a large opera house in Mexico City. Milestones in its history The theatre was built between 1840 and 1844 by architect Lorenzo de la Hidalga in Mexico City. It was located at the end of Cinco de Mayo ...

, Mickery Theater, Theater am Turm, Granada Festival, Eurokaz Zagreb, Bogota International Festival,

Vienna Festival __NOTOC__ The Wiener Festwochen (Vienna Festival) is a cultural festival in Vienna that takes place every year for five or six weeks in May and June. The Wiener Festwochen was established in 1951, when Vienna was still occupied by the four Alli ...

, Kyoto Performing Arts Center and Spoleto USA. His short films have been shown at festivals and alternative spaces in Europe and the US.

Teaching

Jesurun has taught theater at

Goethe University Goethe University (german: link=no, Johann Wolfgang Goethe-Universität Frankfurt am Main) is a university located in Frankfurt am Main, Germany. It was founded in 1914 as a citizens' university, which means it was founded and funded by the wealt ...

, Frankfurt; Justus Liebig University, Giessen; DasArts, Amsterdam;

New York University New York University (NYU) is a private research university in New York City. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded by a group of New Yorkers led by then- Secretary of the Treasury Albert Gallatin. In 1832, th ...

;

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;

Tokyo University , abbreviated as or UTokyo, is a public research university located in Bunkyō, Tokyo, Japan. Established in 1877, the university was the first Imperial University and is currently a Top Type university of the Top Global University Project by ...

;

Kyoto University of Art and Design is a private university in Sakyo-ku, Kyoto, Kyoto, Japan. The predecessor of the school was founded in 1934. It was chartered as a junior college in 1977 and became a four-year college in 1991, known as the Kyoto University of Art and Design ...

; and

The New School The New School is a private research university in New York City. It was founded in 1919 as The New School for Social Research with an original mission dedicated to academic freedom and intellectual inquiry and a home for progressive thinkers. ...

References

External links

Article by John Jesurun

''BOMB Magazine'' interview with John Jesurun by Craig Gholson (Winter, 1985)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Jesurun, John American theatre directors Asian Cultural Council grantees MacArthur Fellows Living people University of the Arts (Philadelphia) alumni Year of birth missing (living people)