About Jon Kretzu…

Allen Nause created the position of Associate Artistic Director immediately after Kretzu directed his first show with Artists Rep, The Artificial Jungle by Charles Ludlum in 1993.  Kretzu will direct this season's remounted holiday production of Sherlock Holmes and the Case of the Christmas Carol by John Longenbaugh.  Kretzu recently directed Romeo and Juliet with Shakespeare in the Park in Bend and has many engagements over the next year and a half.  Currently, Kretzu is working as Bill Alexander’s Assistant Director for Northwest Classical Theatre’s Fall production of Othello. Also in Portland, Kretzu will be directing Herstory/History: The Children’s Hour and The Boys In the Band in rotating rep for defunkt theatre as well as an opera for Portland State University’s acclaimed Opera program. In Seattle, Kretzu will direct Love’s, Labour’s, Lost at Seattle Shakespeare Company this March and is in talks to direct at Seattle Public Theatre Company in 2013/14. Outside of the Northwest, Kretzu will make his Canadian directing debut helming a production of A Steady Rain in Edmonton, Alberta and has plans to direct productions in the Midwest and East Coast. Kretzu also is in the planning stages to direct two short films this Fall, locally, before working on future film/tv projects in Los Angeles next year.

Jon Kretzu has directed 50 productions in almost 20 years at Artists Rep including the world premieres of Tracy Letts’ Three Sisters, Marc Acito and C.S Whitcomb’s Holidazed, Joseph Fisher’s The Seagull, The New House and (I Am Still) The Duchess of Malfi, and Richard Kramer’s adaptation of Chekhov’s The Cherry Orchard. He has also directed Next to Normal, Sherlock Holmes and the Case of the Christmas Carol, The Lieutenant of Inishmore, A Streetcar Named Desire, The History Boys, Othello, Design For Living, All My Sons, Speech and Debate, Orson’s Shadow, The Retreat from Moscow, Mr. Marmalade, Assassins, Humble Boy, Death of a Salesman, Mrs. Bob Cratchit’s Wild Christmas Binge, The Goat, or Who is Sylvia?, The Laramie Project, Dinner with Friends, Master Class, Present Laughter, A Question of Mercy, Indiscretions, Keely and Du, Love! Valour! Compassion!, Breaking the Code, Chaps!, The Sea, The Normal Heart, The Destiny of Me, Buried Child, The Artificial Jungle, Three Tall Women (USIA InternationalTour) and co-directed House and Garden with Allen Nause. Other Portland directingcredits include Cloud 9 at Theatre Vertigo, Dracula for Northwest Classical TheatreCompany, The Carpetbagger’s Children for Profile Theatre, Guys and Dolls for TheMusical Theatre Company, Romeo and Juliet, A Winter’s Tale, Much Ado About, Nothing and As You Like It for Tygres Heart Shakespeare Company, Waiting for Vern, Jeffrey, Bent and The Sum of Us for triangle productions!, Broadway Bound and Hay Fever for Portland Repertory Theatre, The Importance of Being Earnest for New Rose Theatre, The Mystery of Irma Vep for Storefront Theatre and Down the Road for the Oregon One-Act Festival. Jon has also directed numerous productions in Seattle, Milwaukee, San Francisco, Chicago and Los Angeles. Jon recently directed the final workshop production of It Shoulda Been You at the Village Theatre before it heads to Broadway in the Spring.