Jocelyn Suzanne Kuritsky is an actor and a producer. She is a three-time Princess Grace Award nominated performer, and a founder and the actor-in-residence of the Drama Desk Award nominated & Lucille Lortel Award winning immersive theater company, Woodshed Collective. Jocelyn is also the creator of The Muse Project, dedicated to empowering women actors, and she is the Co-Executive Director of Staging Film, an experimental investigation of the stage/film mashup.
Jocelyn featured in 365 Portraits. Photo by Bill Wadman.
Onstage, Jocelyn mostly works on new plays and new theatrical forms; and, as a performer, she has become a favorite among New York's downtown theater stalwarts, often portraying intense, fragile, and feral characters. Papermag calls her an "outstanding actor." She has appeared in more than 20 NYC productions, including premieres by Sheila Callaghan, Erik Ehn, Ken Urban, Rachel Bonds, The Assembly, and avant-garde theater legend, Mac Wellman. She has also performed in original works by Sarah Burgess, Caridad Svich, and others for Woodshed Collective. Regionally, Jocelyn has performed in developmental work by various established and emerging playwrights at Arena Stage, The Kennedy Center, Theater Alliance, and ScriptWorks.
Jocelyn in Mac Wellman's 3 2's; or AFAR. Photo by Jim Moore.
Onscreen, film credits include Caridad Svich's This Thing of Ours, opposite Black Eyed Susan, directed by José Zayas, with an original score by Stephin Merritt; Neil LaBute’s Over The River and Through The Woods, opposite Larry Pine, directed by Leigh Silverman, with an original score by Heidi Rodewald; Chisa Hutchinson's Domesticity, directed by Rebecca Atkinson-Lord (2017 Discover.film Awards Best Micro Drama); Nana Mensah’s Queen of Glory; and Ghazi Albuliwi’s Peace After Marriage (Montpellier Mediterranean Film Festival Audience Award), opposite Louise Lasser.
She is also currently featured in two radio plays produced by Play For Voices, and she is the voice of the Grand Cuspid in Podmusical's The Fall Of The House Of Sunshine.
She is also currently featured in two radio plays produced by Play For Voices, and she is the voice of the Grand Cuspid in Podmusical's The Fall Of The House Of Sunshine.
Jocelyn & Leigh Silverman in pre production for Over The River & Through The Woods. Photo by Anna Rooney.
Jocelyn helms The Muse Project, a relatively new initiative that moves women actors to the center by charging them to identify and generate the roles they want to play. With The Muse Project she initiated, developed, and starred in Stet, a play in which a young journalist is assigned to write about sexual assault on college campuses. Stet premiered at Abingdon Theatre Company in the 2015/16 season, and it enjoyed a successful, extended, Off-Broadway run. In 2018, Jocelyn produced a collection of new, actress-led work for Muse at The Flea Theater with performers Lynn Cohen, Jessica Frances Dukes, Kyra Miller, Déa Julien, and Vanessa Aspillaga.
Jocelyn is also the founder of Staging Film, an ongoing, experimental short film project that is designed to meld the stage and screen. Staging Film is currently partnered with The Tank.
With Woodshed Collective, she has co-conceived productions such as KPop (2018 Richard Rodgers Award, 2018 Lucille Lortel Award for Outstanding Musical, 2018 Off Broadway Alliance Award for Best Unique Theatrical Experience, 7 Drama Desk Award nominations, and a Drama League nomination for Outstanding Production), Does It Hurt?, The Tenant (Patrick Lee Theater Blogger Award for Unique Off-Off Broadway Experience), Empire Travel Agency, The Confidence Man, 12 Ophelias, others.
Jocelyn has worked with Tony-winning composer, Duncan Sheik, on a variety of projects, including Woodshed's The Tenant. She is a New Group artist, and she is affiliated with a variety of Off and Off-Off Broadway companies.
Jocelyn is also the founder of Staging Film, an ongoing, experimental short film project that is designed to meld the stage and screen. Staging Film is currently partnered with The Tank.
With Woodshed Collective, she has co-conceived productions such as KPop (2018 Richard Rodgers Award, 2018 Lucille Lortel Award for Outstanding Musical, 2018 Off Broadway Alliance Award for Best Unique Theatrical Experience, 7 Drama Desk Award nominations, and a Drama League nomination for Outstanding Production), Does It Hurt?, The Tenant (Patrick Lee Theater Blogger Award for Unique Off-Off Broadway Experience), Empire Travel Agency, The Confidence Man, 12 Ophelias, others.
Jocelyn has worked with Tony-winning composer, Duncan Sheik, on a variety of projects, including Woodshed's The Tenant. She is a New Group artist, and she is affiliated with a variety of Off and Off-Off Broadway companies.
Woodshed Collective at the West Park Presbyterian Church. Photo by Guy Calaf for The New York Times.
Outside of her acting and producing life, Jocelyn teaches, assists, and designs. She has taught language and literacy in low and moderate income communities at a variety of organizations, including Make The Road NY, New York Communities for Change, and LaGuardia Community College. She has guest instructed students in theater at Rutgers University for playwright Caridad Svich and she regularly mentors theater students at the Playwrights Horizons Theater School (NYU). Jocelyn has been a director's assistant to Trip Cullman, Kip Fagan, Will Frears, Ian Morgan, John Gould Rubin, among others; and she occasionally personally assists the highly renowned Stanley Donen and Elaine May. She designs websites for artists, creatives, entrepreneurs, and corporate professionals as often as she can.
Jocelyn was born in Albuquerque, New Mexico and raised in La Paz, Bolivia and Atlanta, Georgia. She studied at Scripps College (The Women's College) in Claremont, California. She has received additional training from the O'Neill National Theater Institute, the American Academy of Dramatic Arts-Los Angeles, and The Flea Theater. She is a member of SAG-AFTRA, AEA, and UFT.
Jocelyn at a benefit event for Woodshed Collective. Photo by Anna Rooney.