Artistic Director • Director • Actor • Writer • Educator
DIRECTING
Selected Directing Credits
Prague Shakespeare Company, Czech Republic
Dracula: The Journal of Jonathan Harker
Actors Theatre of Louisville, KY
A Tuna Christmas
Flat Rock Playhouse, NC
The Hound of the Baskervilles
Colorado Shakespeare Festival, Boulder CO
Much Ado About Nothing
Cymbeline
Florida Studio Theatre, Sarasota FL
The Complete Works of Wllm. Shakespeare (Abridged)
The Mystery of Irma Vep
Florida Repertory Theatre, Fort Myers, & Actor’s Playhouse, Coral Gables, FL
The 39 Steps
New York Fringe Festival, NYC
China, The Whole Enchilada
The Pennsylvania Shakespeare Festival, Center Valley, PA
Million Dollar Quartet
The Importance of Being Earnest
Lend Me A Tenor
Northshore Music Theatre, Beverly, MA
Phantom (Associate Director)
Cape May Stage, Cape May, NJ
Rounding Third
The Big Bang
Stones in His Pockets
King Mackerel and the Blues Are Running
The Fourposter
Orlando Shakespeare Theater, FL
Lake Eola Amphitheatre (Outdoor 936 seats – Proscenium)
A Midsummer Night's Dream
Antony and Cleopatra
Two Gentlemen of Verona
Margeson Theater (Indoor 324 seats - Thrust)
Noises Off
West Side Story
The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby
Goldman Theater (Indoor 118 seats– Proscenium)
Dracula: A Comedy of Terrors
The Hound of the Baskervilles
Henry V
Dracula: A Comedy of Terrors
Orlando Shakes
Million Dollar Quartet
Pennsylvania Shakespeare
Selected Directing Videos & Reviews
Dracula: A Comedy of Terrors
Orlando Shakes
Critic’s Pick: Silly gender-bending ‘Dracula’ is bloody good fun
“Dracula,” directed with tongue firmly in cheek by Jim Helsinger, reaches the same giddy heights of fun... Helsinger and his actors treat the small parts with as much care as the large ones... a show that’s a bloody good time.
Orlando Sentinel
Orlando Shakes’ Dracula Offers Biting Comedy
It’s positively scary how much laughter can fill the theater... For those who like their horror with some fine guffaws, the show is calling your name.... exceptionally lighthearted and goofy... hip, kinky, and ever on the prowl... delightful
Freeline Productions
Million Dollar Quartet
Pennsylvania Shakespeare Festival
Hail, hail, “Million Dollar Quartet” at PA Shakespeare Festival
Superb performances in song and memorable staging in a thought-provoking musical drama... The high-stakes of contracts, loyalties and royalties is emphasized in the show’s direction by Jim Helsinger, Artistic Director, Orlando Shakespeare Theater.
Helsinger underscores the show’s inherent drama in personality conflicts and the lure of money.
Lehigh Valley Press
The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby Parts 1 & 2
Orlando Shakes
Broadway worthy...To keep so complex an enterprise in motion is a formidable feat of directorial engineering, but Messrs. Helsinger and Niess are fully equal to the task, ... Everything about this production is right...
Terry Teachout, The Wall Street Journal
There is a certain thrill in watching a local theater succeed with a production of this magnitude… Nicholas Nickleby soars.
A marathon viewing of this epic production is theater nirvana… An unforgettable experience.
The Hound of the Baskervilles
Flat Rock Playhouse, Pennsylvania Shakespeare Festival, Orlando Shakes
Critic’s Pick: Nonsense is afoot in delightfully daffy ‘Baskervilles’
The Orlando Sentinel
Henry V
Orlando Shakes
Review: The King’s Not Dead, Long Live the King!
An extraordinarily fine small-scale production... outstanding.... Mr. Helsinger’s staging is propelled by a strong comic energy that is never allowed to undercut the high seriousness of the proceedings... spectacular in a way I wouldn’t have thought possible in so intimate a setting.
The Wall Street Journal
Lend Me A Tenor
Pennsylvania Shakespeare Festival
Tenor’ is funny and flawless... A superb cast and deft direction by Jim Helsinger ... quick delivery that provides nonstop laughs.”
The Morning Call
Jim Helsinger directs a cast of PSF “all-stars,” missing no opportunity to mine the play’s laugh lines.
PSF’s “Lend Me A Tenor” generates laughter of operatic proportions. It’s another Helsinger comedic tour de farce.
Lehigh Valley Press
Hilarious... Will leave the audience in stitches...from the direction to the casting to the gorgeous set, lighting and costume designs, the show hits every mark... perfect...The audience shakes with laughter.”
The Reading Eagle
Directing Archives
West Side Story
Orlando Shakes
Superb ‘West Side Story’ is timely, touching and tear-filled
For the Shakes, director Jim Helsinger has assembled a young cast, and it’s top-notch... Helsinger directs the show with the urgency of youth.
The Orlando Sentinel
Much Ado About Nothing
Colorado Shakespeare Festival
Every once in a while, someone puts together a definitive version of one of the Bard's masterpieces, and in director Jim Helsinger's Much Ado About Nothing we experience such a gem.
ColoradoDrama.com
Director Jim Helsinger mined the script for every comic turn and inserted nonverbal physical comedy wherever appropriate... prime examples of comic timing and using the set to full advantage. Every motion in every scene is given motivation.
Boulder Magazine
The 39 Steps
Florida Repertory Theatre, Actors Playhouse, Orlando Shakes
An Enjoyable Mishmash of Comedic Shtick
A kinetic comedy driven by great performances, split-second wardrobe changes, and inventive stagecraft, and it’s a unique and enjoyable way of experiencing one of Hitch’s all-time classics.
Miami New Times
Noises Off
Orlando Shakes
Impeccable comedic timing and blocking so precise it feels more like choreography.... complex and elaborate staging that Helsinger’s cast executes like a well-oiled machine… just go see the show.
The Orlando Weekly
The Three Musketeers
Orlando Shakes
A stage rendition of THE THREE MUSKETEERS that would do Dumas proud... swift and stylized...dynamic... good storytelling of Dumas' timeless work with the modern sensibilities an audience can enjoy today.
Broadway world
The Comedy of Errors
Orlando Shakes
In ‘Comedy of Errors,’ simpler, sillier Shakespeare
Director Jim Helsinger, who keeps things trotting along briskly, has located the tale of two sets of twins in 1920s New Orleans, and the good times are rolling.... serves up enough fun to make a diverting trip to the Big Easy worthwhile.
The Orlando Sentinel
Pericles
Orlando Shakes
Mr. Helsinger’s “Pericles” is at once traditional and up to date, with period costumes, a simple but handsome unit set and plenty of comedy to leaven the twisty plot. The results are pleasing in every way...
Terry Teachout, The Wall Street Journal
The entire show carries an underlying magnetizing energy.
April Montgomery, Broadway World
A highly entertaining journey...
Matt Palm, The Orlando Sentinel
A Midsummer Night's Dream
Pennsylvania Shakespeare Festival
One of the best productions of this classic comedy I have ever seen.
The Morning Call
Macbeth
Orlando Shakes
Some Badass Bard
Visually stunning and hauntingly beautiful production. Director Jim Helsinger delivers a work of art complete with killer special effects... fast-paced, heart-pounding theatrical experience... a highlight among the company’s most creative and exciting undertakings.
The Orlando Weekly
The Tempest
Pennsylvania Shakespeare Festival
PSF Tempest a majestic vision... Bold and brilliant... spectacular.... The stuff that truly great Shakespeare productions are made of.
Bethlehem Press
Compelling... Captivating... Mesmerizing... The unforgettable, wondrous universe in which the Bard’s universal theme of forgiveness finds its resonance.
Philadelphia Inquirer
Fanciful, magical... Not only intrigues and seduces, but it also shows a love and reverence toward this work... This production amazes, delights, and astonishes until its very satisfying end... Theatrical wizardry... Fiery and full of sparkle...
The Morning Call
Spamalot
Orlando Shakes
Shakes really does comedy spectacularly. This season opener was thoroughly entertaining with all the bells and whistles that it needed to have. The direction provided by Orlando Shakes legend, Jim Helsinger used the space to his advantage; used the comedy to his advantage; and overall put on a great production. You can tell that Helsinger always has his audience in mind when making decisions.
Broadway World
Titus Andronicus
Orlando Shakes
With cannibalism, bondage wear and brimming buckets of blood, Shakes’ latest show is certain to shake up your view of Shakespeare... Under director Jim Helsinger, these gory proceedings are leavened by bawdy gallows humor and bold characterizations that resemble a Tarantino remake of The Cook, the Thief, His Wife, and Her Lover. Every time the broadness – Saturninus’ mustache-twirling tantrums, Tamora’s Disney-villainess vamping – threatens to go overboard, Epstein and Kilgore’s heartbreaking relationship reels us back in... the passion and gonzo production values of a cult-favorite exploitation flick. It should appeal strongly to a younger audience that doesn’t often attend the Bard.
The Orlando Weekly
Gertrude and Claudius
Orlando Shakes
Revenge, adultery and murder... The stage is positively electrifying in the second act when Amleth confronts his adulterous brother for having betrayed him... “Gertrude and Claudius ” is able to stand on its own and create complex, even sympathetic figures and establish their motivations in a clear and believable way.
Freeline Media Review
Complete Works of William Shakespeare (Abridged)
Actors Theatre of Louisville, Pennsylvania Shakespeare Festival, Orlando Shakes,
Florida Studio Theatre
It’s a dizzy, affectionate mocking of the world’s best-known playwright, peppered to great effect with pop-culture references and local jokes.
Director Jim Helsinger has created a vibe that makes it seem as though his three actors are winging it. In fact, their comic timing, vocal intonations and facial expressions often make the slapstick-y material rise above itself... for Shakespeare fans and foes alike, the Shakes’ congenial production is a nifty little treat.
The Orlando Sentinel
Every Christmas Story Ever Told (And Then Some!)
Orlando Shakes
The gags range from laugh-out-loud hilarious to big smirk silly to complete groaners, but the mood is consistent: if it’s sentimental, it gets wildly targeted — and satirized. The results are enormously fun, to say the least... The three performers are more than up to the task that this kind of zany production demands, and manage to seem like they’re having great fun even while they’re working hard to be funny.
Freeline Productions
All's Well that Ends Well
Orlando Shakes
Orlando Shakespeare Theater’s artistic director, Jim Helsinger, playing at the top of his game, admirably delivers all these comic goods and more in the company’s current production. He renders a delightful and surprisingly full-blooded version of the Bard’s romantic fantasy – a play that, in lesser hands, would have petered out long before its predictably joyous finale... Marni Penning is radiant as Helena; Eric Zivot, perfect as the sly braggart, Parolles; Steve Hendrickson’s portrayal of the king is powerful and poignant; and Brandon Roberts, as Lavatche the clown, and Anne Hering, as the countess, successfully bear much of the heavy comic lifting.
Al Krulick, The Orlando Weekly
Two Gentlemen of Verona
Orlando Shakes
Under Jim Helsinger’s sparkling direction, this comedy is a rockin’ good time… anyone who didn't leave the performance laughing had to be made of stone. Helsinger has chosen, and directed, brilliantly.
The Orlando Sentinel
