Jared Mezzocchi is a two-time Obie Award-winning director, designer, and writer whose work fuses live performance with multimedia storytelling. Since 2012, when he became the first projection designer to receive a Princess Grace Award, his work has helped define what multimedia theater can be — recognized twice by the New York Times, most notably for the digital production of Russian Troll Farm, a Critic's Pick and one of the first digitally-native successes of the pandemic era, which won him his second Obie in 2023.

 

DIRECTING
Recent directing credits include Circus Fire by Jacques Lamarre (TheaterWorks Hartford), The Moderate by Ken Urban (Central Square Theater), A Christmas Carol, adapted by Harrison David Rivers (Center REP), Nothing Can Take You from the Hand of God by Jen Tullock and Frank Winters (Playwrights Horizons), AZAD (the rabbit and the wolf), co-created with Sona Tatoyan (Golden Thread Productions/Hakawati), The Wind and the Rain: A Story about Sunny's Bar by Sarah Gancher (En Garde Arts/Vineyard Theater), and Sandra by David Cale (TheaterWorks Hartford). He is a Company Member at Woolly Mammoth Theatre, where he will direct Bobby Robotowitz by Matt Schatz in 2027, a co-production with City Theatre of Pittsburgh.

 

DESIGN
As a multimedia and projection designer, Mezzocchi's most recent credits include ANON at MCC Theater (2026), King Lear (Hudson Valley Shakespeare), Froggy by Jennifer Haley (Center REP), and Poor Yella Rednecks (Manhattan Theatre Club). His earlier design work includes Vietgone (Manhattan Theatre Club — Obie, Lucille Lortel, and Henry Hewes Awards), We Declare You a Terrorist (Round House Theatre — Helen Hayes Award), and The Elaborate Entrance of Chad Deity and The Nether (Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company).

 

LIVE DIGITAL WORK
During the pandemic, Mezzocchi became a leading voice in live digital theater. The digital production of Russian Troll Farm, written by Sarah Gancher and co-directed with Elizabeth Williamson (TheaterWorks Hartford, TheatreSquared, The Civilians), was a New York Times Critic's Pick. He also created Someone Else's House, a writer/performer solo work for Geffen Playhouse; On the Beauty of Loss, a mini-commission for Vineyard Theatre; and Section 230, created for HERE Arts Center's URHERE digital platform. This body of work led the New York Times to spotlight Mezzocchi in 2020 alongside Andrew Lloyd Webber and Paula Vogel as a theater artist redefining performance during the shutdown.

 

WRITING & PERFORMING
Mezzocchi is the writer and performer of 73 Seconds, an autobiographical solo work directed by Aya Ogawa that premiered with En Garde Arts and transfers to TheaterWorks Hartford in August 2027. He is currently developing a new multimedia work about the Hudson Valley through Hudson Valley Shakespeare's Tent Pole Commission.

 

BACKGROUND
A two-time MacDowell Artist Fellow, Mezzocchi is now retired from the University of Maryland, where he built the MFA program's projection and multimedia design track. He founded Virtual Design Collective (VIDCO) during the pandemic and served as Artistic Director of Andy's Summer Playhouse for ten seasons, stepping away in 2024. He holds a BA in theater and film from Fairfield University and an MFA in performance and interactive media from Brooklyn College.