Artistic Director • Director • Actor • Writer • Educator
AEA * SAG-AFTRA
Selected Acting Credits
Film/Television
Sheena: Queen of the Jungle Guest Star Columbia Tristar
Mortal Kombat Recurring Guest Star New Line / Warner Brothers
From the Earth to the Moon Principal Tom Hanks, Prod./Sally Field, Dir.
Noah Knows Best Principal Nickelodeon
Liability Crisis Lead Richard Brody, Dir.
The Final Stroke Supporting Mark Kamine, Dir.
New York
The Contrast Jessamy Theatre of the Open Eye
The Death & Life of Sherlock Holmes Hopkins Theatre of the Open Eye
The Taming of the Shrew Lucentio Riverside Shakespeare Company
Macbeth Malcolm Riverside Shakespeare Company
Berkeley Square Peter Standish Riverside Shakespeare Company
The Velvet Pumpernickel Breton Sanford Meisner Theatre
Regional
The Winter's Tale Leontes Prague Shakespeare Company
The Tempest Stephano Pennsylvania Shakespeare Festival
The Merry Wives of Windsor Master Ford Pennsylvania Shakespeare Festival
The Importance of Being Earnest Lady Bracknell Pennsylvania Shakespeare Festival
Twelfth Night Malvolio Pennsylvania Shakespeare Festival
The School for Wives Arnolphe Pennsylvania Shakespeare Festival
Much Ado About Nothing Dogberry Pennsylvania Shakespeare Festival
A Midsummer Night's Dream Bottom Pennsylvania Shakespeare Festival
Hamlet Hamlet Northshore Music Theatre
The Lion in Winter Philip Worcester Foothills Theatre
The Taming of the Shrew Petruchio Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival
Dracula:...Jonathan Harker Dracula/Harker Cape May Stage
Cyrano de Bergerac Cyrano Orlando Shakespeare Theater
Gross Indecency…. Oscar Wilde Orlando Shakespeare Theater
Henry V Henry V Orlando Shakespeare Theater
Hamlet Hamlet Orlando Shakespeare Theater
Wittenberg Dr. Faustus Orlando Shakespeare Theater
The Tempest Stephano Nebraska Repertory Theatre
As You Like It Silvius Utah Shakespearean Festival
Translations Doalty Dan Alabama Shakespeare Festival
Hands Across the Sea Peter Gilpin Alabama Shakespeare Festival
The Changeling Alsemero Alabama Shakespeare Festival
Directors
Sally Field, Jason King Jones, Carolyn Howarth, Matt Pfeiffer, Russell Treyz, Dennis Razze, Michael Carleton, Ed Stern, Martin Platt, Kent Thompson, Libby Appel, Tony Van Bridge, Will York, Stephen Hollis, Robert Hall, Terry O’Brien
Special Skills
Accents: British RP, Cockney, Scottish, Irish, German, etc. Skinner training in dialects, Fencing, Guitar, Juggling, Darts, Disc Golf, Apple computers, Poker, and being a dad
Education
Bachelor of Arts - Miami University
Master of Fine Arts - University of Alabama/Alabama Shakespeare Festival Professional Actor Training Program
Headshots
Acting Videos, Gallery, and Reviews
Romeo & Juliet - Orlando Shakespeare Theater
Friar Laurence
Engaging and Energetic
Orlando Shakes artistic director Jim Helsinger brings warmth, depth, paternal pride and regret to his Friar Laurence, whose advice to “take things wisely and slow” goes unheeded.
The Orlando Sentinel
Production Truly Shines
Where this production truly shines, however, is in the performances of Nadia Ra’Shaun (Juliet), Brendan O’Leary (Romeo), Suzanne O’Donnell (Nurse), and Jim Helsinger (Friar Laurence). This quartet, in their individual performances and in their on-stage relationships, are among the strongest things that the production offers. O’Donnell and Helsinger (a real-life couple) bring such maternal and paternal warmth to their roles that it’s no wonder to the audience when the teenagers turn to them rather than than their parents. O’Donnell lends Nurse a delightful midwestern dialect, a bawdy sense of humor, and a haggard wisdom in the ways of the world; Helsinger’s Laurence has that same haggard wisdom, paired with a twinkle in his eye to rival Saint Nick. Seeing these two brought low at the death of their charges is deeply painful.
Broadwayworld.com
The Winter's Tale - Prague Shakespeare Company & Verona Fringe Festival
Leontes
The Tempest - Pennsylvania Shakespeare Festival
Stephano
A production that will delight Shakespeare aficionados as much as those getting to know Master Will.
Talkin' Broadway
A monumental production...bold, beautiful, and powerful.... Jim Helsinger as the drunken Stephano is a force to be ridiculed with. Helsinger is the picture of pomposity with preposterous voice, facial expressions, and body language. That he is outfitted in impressive attire makes him all the more ridiculous.
Lehigh Valley Press
The Merry Wives of Windsor - Pennsylvania Shakespeare Festival
Justice Shallow
"Rollicking, sidesplitting fun"
Kathy Lauer-Williams, Lehigh Valley Stage
"Roguish and radiant!"
Kiran Pandey, Broad Street Review
Twelfth Night - Orlando Shakes
Malvolio
‘Twelfth Night’ finds the funny, in Elizabethan style
Orlando Shakespeare Theater’s “Twelfth Night” provides a clear and enjoyable reminder that some things remain eternally funny... Jim Helsinger’s silly mannerisms make Malvolio, the steward, a crowd favorite... performances with depth and panache."
The Orlando Sentinel
The Importance of Being Earnest - Pennsylvania Shakespeare Festival
Lady Bracknell & Director
You are in for a ‘Wilde’ time of laughter.... Great theater... Jim Helsinger directs the cast with an impeccable sense of comedic timing, staging and pacing.... A delicious concoction of word-play, subterfuge and tom-foolery... One of the best productions ever presented at PSF.”
If you’re going to see one show this summer Earnest should be the one... Don’t miss it.
Lehigh Valley Press
Dazzling and hilarious. Lavish, impeccably directed and performed. Helsinger has assembled a cast that seems destined to act in this play. The three acts go like the wind, and, like a perfect soufflé, seem effortless, weightless and completely delicious. The sensuous experience Wilde himself would have loved.
The Reading Eagle
Love's Labours Lost - Orlando Shakes
Don Armado
The Shakes has created a lovely environment for the romance.... Jim Helsinger, the troupe’s artistic director, has a merry twinkle in his eye as a language-mangling soldier. He also performs an enchantingly silly duet with Maxel Garcia, who displays droll wit as a servant wryly observing his master’s buffoonery.
The Orlando Sentinel
The Merry Wives of Windsor - Pennsylvania Shakespeare Festival
Master Ford and Director
The Pennsylvania Shakespeare Festival's hugely entertaining production of The Merry Wives of Windsor is straightforward Shakespeare all the way: It trusts the text, right down to the last piece of stage shtick it draws from the Bard's words. And that's why Jim Helsinger's production, bulging like Sir John Falstaff - but with talent, not Falstaffian bombast - works so effortlessly; Shakespeare seems to stand with Helsinger behind every scene...
Howard Shapiro, Philadelphia Inquirer
Wittenberg - Orlando Shakes
Dr. Faustus
Repartee keeps ‘Wittenberg’ on point
Helsinger, his head shaved clean, plays the Machiavellian like a master: He is genuinely captivated by the new world of science and psychology, but you also sense that he simply delights in being bad.
The Orlando Sentinel
Mortal Kombat - New Line Television/Warner Brothers
General Reiko
A long time ago, I was a recurring guest star on the television series Mortal Kombat: Conquest as General Reiko, commander of Shao Khan's legions. It was a great time, but alas the series was cancelled after its first season. You can play Reiko in the video game, Mortal Kombat 4. His special moves include:
-
Shurikens — throws ninja stars at the opponent.
-
Teleport / Teleport Slam — disappears vertically and reappears behind the opponent; he can then grab and slam them.
-
Quick Spin Behind / Circular Teleport — rapidly spins around to the opponent's back.
-
Flip Kick — an unusual twisting/backflip-style kick.
-
Spiked Club — he can draw a large spiked club as his weapon.
His MK4 Fatalities include a Torso/Thrust Kick where Reiko kicks the opponent with such force that the torso is sent flying away from the rest of the body, and the Shuriken Shower, where he riddles the opponent with throwing stars and finishes with one to the head.
