By DORIS RUBENSTEIN
How and why would Jay Owen Eisenberg, a native New Yorker, a theater major graduate of the famed NYU Tisch School of the Arts, decide to make his personal and professional life here in the Twin Cities? How else but through the effort and influence of one of the local Jewish community’s most storied impresarios, Jack Reuler, founder of Mixed Blood Theatre Company in Minneapolis.
Eisenberg was invited to perform at Mixed Blood in 2015 at the age of 26. He was supposed to stay for two months, but the actors he met at Mixed Blood persuaded him to move here.
“I was moved by the generous, generative and collaborative spirit of the Twin Cities theater community, where surviving and thriving as a working artist felt like a real possibility. Plus, my lease was up in New York,” he recalled.
Eisenberg has been making a fine living in the Twin Cities theater world ever since. He has performed at renowned regional gems like the Guthrie Theater, Penumbra Theatre, Mixed Blood, Jungle Theater and Theater Latté Da.
He’s been in demand back in New York, too, at off-Broadway favorites like Ars Nova, The Public Theater, Atlantic Theater Company and The Gym at Judson. In 2016, he was one of the first openly transgender actors to join Actors’ Equity Association. Eisenberg is known for his strong ensemble work, dynamic physical comedy and vocal versatility, and his favorite roles are multicharacter chameleons.
Other roles on his résumé include dramaturg, producer and cultural consultant, which brings us to his job on the upcoming production of Cabaret at the Guthrie, for which he was hired as the gender consultant. For this work, Eisenberg explained, he focuses his “eye towards considering the power of gender roles, expectations and subversions in every element of the production, from casting to costuming to dramaturgy. I’ll be paying attention to gender expression as a means of storytelling and how playing with gender expansiveness offers an invitation to find freedom amidst fear.”
Eisenberg is also a playwright. “I write work that aims to celebrate and empower the unique voices of young people,” he said.
Eisenberg has been a team member for the Children’s Theatre Company’s Theatre Arts Training program, and recently Hamline University’s Department of Performance, Production and Community asked him to direct a new play that he also wrote, FAB-U-LAND.
While Eisenberg has been involved with many Twin Cities theaters, he hasn’t yet gotten involved with the Jewish theater scene here. Eisenberg is the product of a mixed marriage, and it wasn’t until his Catholic mother’s untimely death that his father stepped in to fill the gap with a good, healthy dose of Yiddishkeit (Jewishness). In addition to participating in holiday events with his dad, the use of Yiddishisms is a special bond between the two.
“My dad and I always end our phone calls with ‘zei gezunt! [be healthy],’” Eisenberg said. “As an adult, I started exploring my own Jewish pathways. I found a lot of joy in connecting with the Jewish arts community in New York and Minneapolis. Theodore Bikel was a great influence on me at a young age, both as an artist-activist and an advocate for actors.”
The History Theatre’s recent production of Whoa, Nellie! (which closes June 8) is Eisenberg’s latest local performance and hits his sweet spot as a “chameleon,” since he plays over a dozen characters. His main persona is Julian Eltinge, who, as Eisenberg described him, “was a famous female impersonator of that era; a pioneer of drag performance in vaudeville.”
He said, “Multitrack roles are my favorite combination of artistry and athleticism; I love the challenge and thrill of switching between characters within a single production.”
Jay Owen Eisenberg has been local for 10 years now but has been flying below the Jewish radar screen; he deserves a yasher koach (good job) for his acting and more.
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Whoa, Nellie! The Outlaw King of the Wild Middle West runs through June 8 at History Theatre, 30 E. 10th St., St. Paul. For tickets, go to historytheatre.com or call 651-292-4323.
Cabaret will play at the Guthrie Theater, 818 S. 2nd St., Minneapolis, June 21-Aug. 24. For tickets, go to guthrietheater.org or call 612-377-2224.
(American Jewish World, June 2025)
