Jacob G. Padrón

Jacob G. Padrón was the Artistic Director of Long Wharf Theatre from February 2019, when he succeeded Gordon Edelstein, until the end of the 2025-26 season. He remains with Long Wharf Theatre as Creative Producer to support the leadership transition and continuity of the theatre’s artistic programming. Padrón guided Long Wharf through a transition and reinvention of its producing model, leaving its longtime theatre venue and expanding its reach to serve New Haven’s diverse communities as an itinerant company, presenting work across 26 venues in seven cities. Long Wharf received a $1 million Mellon Foundation grant to advance equity and artistic programming, and Padrón was named the Person of the Year by the National Theatre Conference. In the past seven years, Padrón directed a multiracial production of She Loves Me; launched Black Trans Women at the Center, the first national festival dedicated to amplifying the voices of Black trans women; created the Lab to incubate new work; produced productions and partnerships with NAATCO, Woolly Mammoth, Alliance Theatre; guided the pandemic-era One City, Many Stages initiative that brought theatre into parks and virtual spaces; and launched the Artistic Congress with the Yale Schwarzman Center, featuring Anna Deavere Smith, Luis Alfaro, and Dominique Morisseau. 

He is also the Founder and Artistic Director of The Sol Project, a national theater initiative that works in partnership with leading theater companies to amplify the voices of Latinx playwrights in New York City and beyond. Padrón has held senior-level artistic positions at theater companies across the country. He was the Senior Line Producer at The Public Theater where he worked on new plays, new musicals, Shakespeare in the Park, and Public Works. He was formerly the Producer at Steppenwolf Theatre Company in Chicago where he oversaw the artistic programming in the Garage – Steppenwolf’s dedicated space for new work, new artists, and new audiences. From 2008 to 2011, he was an Associate Producer at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival where he was instrumental in producing all shows in the 11-play repertory. Under the guidance of his late mentor Diane Rodriguez, he served as the producer of Suzan-Lori Parks’ 365 Days/365 Plays for Center Theatre Group, a collaboration that included over 50 theater companies to launch Festival 365 in Los Angeles. He is also a co-founder of the Artist Anti-Racism Coalition, a grassroots movement committed to dismantling structural racism within the Off-Broadway community. Originally from the central coast of California, Jacob holds degrees from Loyola Marymount University (BA) and Yale School of Drama (MFA).