Jessica Bird Bio

Jessica Bird Beza (she/hers) is a Bay Area based director, producer, and coach. Since October 2019, she has served as Executive Artistic Director at Playwrights Foundation in San Francisco, CA on the traditional lands of the Ramaytush Ohlone people. 
She has a wide range of experience in the professional theatre working as a casting director, stage manager, producer, general manager, nonprofit consultant, and a director for youth and professional companies, working on over 100 projects, as an administrator or director, collaborating with hundreds of different people. Through every leadership position, she strives to develop community by embodying authenticity and radical collaboration that empowers all involved to rise to our best selves believing that the whole is only as strong as its collective individuals. In 2022, she formally started her journey as a coach, after informally practicing for many years. Her greatest joy is found in supporting and championing others to be their best most authentic selves.

Throughout her theatre career, she has had a special focus on developing new work, producing multiple new play festivals, and had the opportunity to work, as a director or producer, with living playwrights such as Kait Kerrigan, JC Lee, BD Wong, PigPen Theatre Co., Laurel Ollstein, Lindsay Joelle, Thomas Gibbons, Herbert Siguenza, Inda Craig Galvan, Tom Salamon, and many more. She also served as Associate Director on the current Tony award winning Broadway musical COME FROM AWAY from its world premiere at La Jolla Playhouse in 2015 to Broadway in 2017. 

She’s had the privilege to work with directors: Christopher Ashley, Barry Edelstein, Sheryl Kaller, B.D. Wong, Brian Kulick, Cary Perloff, Liz Lerman, Molly Smith, Sam Woodhouse and others. She served in the following positions: Interim Associate Artistic Director at The Old Globe, Interim Associate Producer at La Jolla Playhouse, NNPN Producer in Residence and Casting Director at San Diego REP, and Interim General Manager at Mo`olelo Performing Arts Company.

As a director, she is committed to stories and casting that promote inclusive diversity representing a wide range of voices in terms of race, gender identification, ability, religion, age, culture, and thought. She’s drawn to stories that can activate a community and often pulls source material for a specific community or person who is telling their story. She supports and facilitates deeper dialogue surrounding the work to facilitate healing for individuals and communities at large. Broadway’s Come From Away is a powerful testament to the healing power of theatre. The company performed for Pentagon survivors, 9/11 first responders, as well as Americans and Canadians across North America who had suppressed their feelings and were able to find healing through the specificity of the individual stores of human kindness in the midst of tragedy.

She has developed new work at Theatreworks Silicon Valley, American Conservatory Theatre, The Old Globe, La Jolla Playhouse, San Diego REP, Diversionary Theatre, Seattle Repertory Theatre, Ford’s Theatre, NYU Musical Theatre Graduate Program, and Playwrights Foundation. Select directing projects include: a San Francisco based Urinetown: the musical in ACT’s conservatory program, NNPN rolling world premiere of Uncanny Valley at San Diego REP, a surrealist interpretation of God of Carnage at New Village Arts, Car Plays (literally in a car) during La Jolla Playhouse’s Without Walls Festival as well as co-writing and directing the BRAVO award winning one-woman show Woman in the Mirror: A Dancer’s Journey starring Michael Jackson impersonator Devra Gregory.

Jessica holds a B.A. in Music & Theatre from Point Loma Nazarene University and a Master of Arts in Nonprofit Leadership and Management from the University of San Diego. In addition, she is receiving training as a coach through the acclaimed Co-Active Training Institute, one of the most rigorous coaching training programs.