Jordan West is a theatre education specialist living in Ocean Springs, Mississippi. He has taught theatre all over South MS, and is the builder, designer, teacher, and consultant for his business, “Puppets Near Me, MS”. Jordan grew up doing theatre and creative ministry on the Coast and majored in theatre at The University of Southern Mississippi. He lives and works out of Ocean Springs, MS. He further received his Master of Fine Arts in Theatre Education from the Mississippi University for Women in 2023. He has been teaching, designing, technical directing, and directing theatre of all kinds for over 20 years and has been employed teaching theatre at the secondary level for the past 14 years. Jordan specializes in puppetry, design, stagecraft, and direction. He takes individual and departmental commissions and can create grand-scale designs (the five-headed dragon, Tiamat, in She Kills Monsters for a state university), small-scale designs (a Little Mermaid Jr. puppet package), personal designs (customer-based designs), and specialties (puppets with light systems installed). He has directed over 100+ projects and productions, some of them award-winning, and also prides himself on building strong ensembles as a director and leader. In 2022, Jordan was honored with the “Outstanding Contribution to Theatre” Award for secondary educators by the Mississippi Theatre Association. That same year, he was also selected as one of only fifty US teachers to celebrate Walt Disney World’s 50th Anniversary with Disney’s Imagination Campus. His goal in his work, educational or otherwise, is to promote creativity, practicality, authenticity, and uniqueness, and bring unique experiences to people who may never have them otherwise. He teaches workshops and coaches on team-building, a variety of puppet-building and puppet operation types, mask-building, foam work, design, and stagecraft of all kinds, character creation, theatrical knot-tying, improvisation, effective critique, and more. He firmly believes that theatre, when taught effectively, with its many facets and subgenres of study, can only complement and support other types of work. You can find his catalogue of workshops and get more information by contacting him at jwesttheatre@gmail.com or by finding “Puppets Near Me, MS” on social media.