Baker Artist Portfolios

Jacob Budenz is a theater artist, actor, writer, director, performance artist, and musician with a BA in Writing Seminars from Johns Hopkins University and an MFA from University of New Orleans. Among other things, their work focuses heavily on the intersection of the queer "other" and the otherworldly, incorporating myth, magic, and dark humor to provide catharsis or escape. 

Various reviews have referred to Jake's performances as "a high voltage thrill" (City Paper), "the one to keep your eye on" (DC Metro Theater Arts), "particularly engaging" (Baltimore Sun), "tragically moving" (Aisle Pass), and "stunning and dynamic" (Theatre Bloom). Despite an academic background in creative writing and literature, performance is the throughline that pervades all Jake's work—even pure prose and poetry, which is created with an eye toward live performance and performed in ways that push the boundaries of literary presentation, as well as Jake's musical composition and vocal performance that serve as a springboard for performance art, live storytelling, and theatricallity.