Jacob Winchester

Winchester grew up in Florida, the child of a pharmacist and an artisan jewelry maker/environmental activist.{{Cite book |last=Pittman |first=Craig |title=Paving Paradise: Florida's Vanishing Wetlands and the Failure of No Net Loss |publisher=University of Florida Press |year=2010 |isbn=9780813035079 |location=Florida, USA }} He attended The University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, the University of Iceland, and Uppsala University, before beginning his career in Chicago during the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis working for an organic tomato company in the middle of the night at a Logan Square warehouse as well as in the Art Institute of Chicago's gift shop.{{Cite web |title=Jacob Winchester |url=https://www.jacobwinchester.com/ |access-date=2024-10-06 |website=Jacob Winchester |language=en-US}}

During this time, Winchester was tapped by composers Kyle Vegter and Ben Kauffman to help develop and revamp the original score and sound world for Manual Cinema's multi-disciplinary, feature-length work Lula del Ray. Composer Ben Kauffman temporarily relocated to New York City from Chicago for graduate school,{{Cite web |date=2024-10-07 |title=Manual Cinema mixes puppets, projectors, and live music – Chicago Tribune |website=Chicago Tribune |url=https://www.chicagotribune.com/2014/05/02/manual-cinema-mixes-puppets-projectors-and-live-music/ |access-date=2024-10-20 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20241007213440/https://www.chicagotribune.com/2014/05/02/manual-cinema-mixes-puppets-projectors-and-live-music/ |archive-date=2024-10-07 }} and Winchester was recruited as Kauffman's replacement guitarist and multi-instrumentalist.

While Winchester was employed at the Art Institute of Chicago gift shop, Manual Cinema undertook a residency at the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago in which museum-goers were granted access to the development of the show Mementos Mori in the museum's Edlis Neelson Theatre.{{Cite web |date=2018-11-22 |title=MCA – Manual Cinema, Open Doors |url=https://mcachicago.org/calendar/2015/01/manual-cinema-open-doors |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181122214802/https://mcachicago.org/calendar/2015/01/manual-cinema-open-doors |archive-date=2018-11-22 |access-date=2024-10-06}}{{Cite web |date=2018-11-22 |title=MCA – MCA Studio: Manual Cinema, Mementos Mori |url=https://www.mcachicago.org/Calendar/2014/08/Manual-Cinema-Mementos-Mori |access-date=2024-10-08 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181122215624/https://www.mcachicago.org/Calendar/2014/08/Manual-Cinema-Mementos-Mori |archive-date=2018-11-22 }} The show was funded in part by a 2015 Project Grant from The Jim Henson Foundation and developed in part by the MCA Stage New Works Initiative, the University of Chicago Theatre and Performance Studies Summer, Inc. Residency, the National Museum of Health and Medicine Chicago, and the Almanack Farms Arts Colony. 

Despite Winchester's contracted work as a sound designer and script consultant on Manual Cinema's Mementos Mori, and despite his work being shown as a part of the show's premiere at the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago from January 15, 2015, a large portion of his work was subsequently cut from the show's final version, and he is not currently credited for his contribution. This work included creating a game show soundtrack for one of the show's central characters.{{Cite web |title=Mementos Mori |url=https://manualcinema.com/work/mementos-mori |access-date=2024-10-06 |website=Manual Cinema |language=en-US}} He is, however, listed as Assistant Sound Designer on previous incarnations of the Manual Cinema website.{{Cite web |date=2016-03-31 |title=Manual Cinema » Mementos Mori |url=http://manualcinema.com/mementos |access-date=2024-10-08 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160331221747/http://manualcinema.com/mementos |archive-date=2016-03-31 }}

Manual Cinema's Lula del Ray was largely developed during the summer and fall of 2012 at the University of Chicago's Reva and David Logan Center for the Arts as a part of its Theatre and Performance Studies Program, and early versions of the show were performed at various venues and festivals around Chicago in 2013, including the Chicago International Music and Movies Festival on April 20, 2013.{{Cite web |last=Denette |first=Kelsey |title=CIMMfest No. 5 Announces Lineup, Expands Live Music Programming |url=https://www.broadwayworld.com/chicago/article/CIMMfest-No-5-Announces-Lineup-Expands-Live-Music-Programming-20130313 |access-date=2024-10-20 |website=BroadwayWorld.com |language=en}} However, by January 2017, the show had undergone several major, collective revisions in terms of its script and musical score. Musically, these revisions included significant added contributions from Winchester, Thin Hymn's frontman Michael Hilger, and musician/photographer Maren Celest.{{Cite web |date=2017-07-07 |title=Edinburgh Festival Fringe 2017 – Lula del Ray by Manual Cinema {{!}} The Edinburgh Reporter |url=https://theedinburghreporter.co.uk/2017/07/edinburgh-festival-fringe-2017-lula-del-ray-by-manual-cinema/ |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170707034504/https://theedinburghreporter.co.uk/2017/07/edinburgh-festival-fringe-2017-lula-del-ray-by-manual-cinema/ |archive-date=2017-07-07 |access-date=2024-10-06}}

The newly revised show was performed at the 2017 Under the Radar Festival in New York City which resulted in a NYT Critic's Pick from The New York Times.{{Cite web |date=2017-01-11 |title='Lula del Ray,' a Spectral Parade of Fantastical Images - The New York Times |website=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/06/theater/lula-del-ray-a-spectral-parade-of-fantastical-images.html |access-date=2024-10-06 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170111172826/https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/06/theater/lula-del-ray-a-spectral-parade-of-fantastical-images.html |archive-date=2017-01-11 }} The show's updated, original musical score, which included Winchester's contributions, was lauded as "beguiling" by the publication's chief theatre critic Ben Brantley.

Lula del Ray also received unanimously favorable reviews from a variety of publications, television stations, and radio outlets, including The Los Angeles Times,{{Cite web |date=2024-09-05 |title=Don't call it a shadow puppet show. For Manual Cinema, this is the art of 'live film' - Los Angeles Times |website=Los Angeles Times |url=https://www.latimes.com/entertainment/arts/la-et-cm-manual-cinema-20170210-story.html |access-date=2024-10-07 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240905082500/https://www.latimes.com/entertainment/arts/la-et-cm-manual-cinema-20170210-story.html |archive-date=2024-09-05 }} Chicago Tribune,{{Cite web |last=Tribune |first=Christopher Borrelli {{!}} Chicago |date=2014-05-02 |title=Manual Cinema mixes puppets, projectors, and live music |url=https://www.chicagotribune.com/2014/05/02/manual-cinema-mixes-puppets-projectors-and-live-music/ |access-date=2024-10-07 |website=Chicago Tribune |language=en-US}} PBS News Hour,{{Cite web |date=2015-02-12 |title=Creating live cinema with puppets and shadow |url=https://www.pbs.org/newshour/arts/creating-live-cinema-with-puppets-and-shadow |access-date=2024-10-07 |website=PBS News |language=en-us}} KCRW,{{Cite web |date=2017-02-16 |title=The magic of hand-made movies |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230928040144/kcrw.com/culture/articles/the-magic-of-hand-made-movies |access-date=2024-10-06 |website=KCRW |language=en}} The Edinburgh Reporter,{{Cite web |date=2017-07-07 |title=Edinburgh Festival Fringe 2017 – Lula del Ray by Manual Cinema {{!}} The Edinburgh Reporter |url=https://theedinburghreporter.co.uk/2017/07/edinburgh-festival-fringe-2017-lula-del-ray-by-manual-cinema/ |access-date=2024-10-06 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170707034504/https://theedinburghreporter.co.uk/2017/07/edinburgh-festival-fringe-2017-lula-del-ray-by-manual-cinema/ |archive-date=2017-07-07 }} Fast Company, Aesthetica,{{Cite web |date=2016-07-31 |title=Aesthetica Magazine – Manual Cinema: Mementos Mori, MCA Chicago |url=https://aestheticamagazine.com/manual-cinema-mementos-mori-mca-chicago/ |access-date=2024-10-06 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160731042758/https://aestheticamagazine.com/manual-cinema-mementos-mori-mca-chicago/ |archive-date=2016-07-31 }} and Paste Magazine,{{Cite web |date=2023-01-06 |title=Review: Lula Del Ray - Paste |url=https://www.pastemagazine.com/theatre/review-lula-del-ray/ |access-date=2024-10-06 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230106205607/https://www.pastemagazine.com/theatre/review-lula-del-ray/ |archive-date=2023-01-06 }} whose critic Alicia Kort opined that the show "reminds us what we were like when we thought that the possibilities were endless."

In August 2017, Lula del Ray was shown as a part of the Edinburgh Fringe Festival where it garnered a "★★★★★" review from The Telegraph which described the show as "moving – a wordless, dreamlike fable set against the backdrop of the Fifties space-race" and noted that the show's "emotional impact comes partly from the enchanting live soundtrack, scored for guitar and cello, which includes snippets of a recurring melody: the Baden Brothers' Roy Orbison-esque ballad 'Lord, Blow the Moon Out Please.'"{{Cite news |date=2018-07-31 |title=Edinburgh theatre reviews: from Frogman to Lula del Ray, the best shows to see at the Fringe |newspaper=The Telegraph |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/theatre/what-to-see/best-theatre-shows-see-edinburgh-fringe-2017/ |access-date=2024-10-06 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180731004658/https://www.telegraph.co.uk/theatre/what-to-see/best-theatre-shows-see-edinburgh-fringe-2017/ |archive-date=2018-07-31 |last1=Cavendish |first1=Dominic |last2=Saunders |first2=Tristram Fane }}

Winchester was contracted by Manual Cinema in 2014 to create work and perform for Show & Tell as a part of "Let's Get Working," a tribute festival to celebrate the life of Pulitzer Prize-winning author and broadcaster Studs Terkel hosted by the University of Chicago in the Reva and David Logan Center for the Arts.{{Cite web |title=Show & Tell with StoryCorps |url=https://manualcinema.com/work/show-tell-with-storycorps#credits |access-date=2024-10-19 |website=Manual Cinema |language=en-US}} The show, a multimedia collaboration between Manual Cinema and NPR's StoryCorps, animated and reimagined StoryCorps stories that dealt with themes of "love, loss, and redemption."{{Cite web |title=Show & Tell with StoryCorps |url=https://manualcinema.com/work/show-tell-with-storycorps |access-date=2024-10-23 |website=Manual Cinema |language=en-US}} It was performed as the opening act for This American Life{{'s}} Ira Glass.{{Cite web |date=2014-02-28 |title=Chicago to celebrate Studs Terkel during 'Let's Get Working' festival {{!}} University of Chicago News |url=https://news.uchicago.edu/story/chicago-celebrate-studs-terkel-during-lets-get-working-festival |access-date=2024-10-19 |website=news.uchicago.edu |language=en}}{{Cite web |date=2021-10-28 |title=Our guide to Let's Get Working, a tribute to Studs Terkel - Chicago Reader |url=https://chicagoreader.com/arts-culture/our-guide-to-lets-get-working-a-tribute-to-studs-terkel/ |access-date=2024-10-19 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211028194648/https://chicagoreader.com/arts-culture/our-guide-to-lets-get-working-a-tribute-to-studs-terkel/ |archive-date=2021-10-28 }}

Winchester composed the score and produced the sound design for a story told by Gilbert Zermeño and Pat Powers-Zermeño, retitled "Sax Trombone" for the event.{{Cite web |title=Gilbert Zermeño and Pat Powers-Zermeño |url=https://storycorps.org/stories/gilbert-zermeno-and-pat-powers-zermeno/ |access-date=2024-10-19 |website=StoryCorps |language=en-US}} He also directed and scripted the live version of a story by Thomas Weller, retitled "Lone Ranger" for the event.{{Cite web |title=Thomas Weller |url=https://storycorps.org/stories/thomas-weller/ |access-date=2024-10-19 |website=StoryCorps |language=en-US}}

Show & Tell received praise from the Chicago Tribune which described the show as a "Kafka-esque psychodrama, with cardboard puppets mixing with live actors, planes gliding onto runways and Terkel delighting a giggling baby."{{Cite web |date=2024-10-07 |title=Manual Cinema mixes puppets, projectors, and live music – Chicago Tribune |website=Chicago Tribune |url=https://www.chicagotribune.com/2014/05/02/manual-cinema-mixes-puppets-projectors-and-live-music/ |access-date=2024-10-19 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20241007213440/https://www.chicagotribune.com/2014/05/02/manual-cinema-mixes-puppets-projectors-and-live-music/ |archive-date=2024-10-07 }}

By 2015, Winchester and his then-partner had become tired of the chaotic and politically charged city life in the US. Throughout the summer of that year, they sold the majority of their possessions in preparation for a working holiday in New Zealand. In New Zealand, Winchester and his then-partner lived in a camping tent and a used Honda Accord, while spending additional stretches in cheap Airbnbs, including a brief stay with director Danny Mulheron in Wellington. While there, Winchester worked as a features and profile writer for corporate business magazines. His clients came to include executives from Facebook,{{Cite web |last=Marketing |date=2018-10-29 |title=Natalie Naugle and Nikki Stitt Sokol Expand Facebook's Legal Group |url=https://modern-counsel.com/2018/natalie-naugle-and-nikki-stitt-sokol-facebook/ |access-date=2024-10-07 |website=Modern Counsel |language=en-US}} LinkedIn,{{Cite web |last=GHMarketing |date=2018-06-15 |title=Andy Yasutake Is Connecting More than Dots at LinkedIn |url=https://sync-magazine.com/2018/connecting-dots-linkedin/ |access-date=2024-10-07 |website=Sync Magazine |language=en}} New Balance,{{Cite web |last=Staff |first=M. C. |date=2019-04-08 |title=Stolen Soles |url=https://modern-counsel.com/2019/daniel-mckinnon-new-balance/ |access-date=2024-10-07 |website=Modern Counsel |language=en-US}} AT&T,{{Cite web |last=Staff |first=M. C. |date=2019-09-30 |title=David Cho Knows Integrity Is Integral to Trademark Law |url=https://modern-counsel.com/2019/david-cho-att/ |access-date=2024-10-19 |website=Modern Counsel |language=en-US}} AARP,{{Cite web |last=Winchester |first=Jacob |date=2016-12-15 |title=Think You Know AARP? Terry Bradwell Says Look Again |url=https://profilemagazine.com/2016/aarp-2/ |access-date=2024-10-07 |website=Profile |language=en-US}} Bodybuilding.com,{{Cite web |last=Winchester |first=Jacob |date=2019-02-11 |title=Brandon Poe Brings Muscle to Bodybuilding.com's Content Creation |url=https://profilemagazine.com/2019/poe-muscle-content/ |access-date=2024-10-19 |website=Profile |language=en-US}} The Hershey Trust,{{Cite web |last=Sprouls |first=Frannie |date=2019-10-28 |title=Steve Sparks Makes an Impact - Modern Counsel Magazine |url=https://modern-counsel.com/2019/steve-sparks-hershey-trust/ |access-date=2024-10-19 |website=Modern Counsel |language=en-US}} David Yurman,{{Cite web |last=Cruz |first=Melaina de la |date=2018-07-26 |title=Laurent Charlet Fashions Every Facet of David Yurman's Stores |url=https://americanbuildersquarterly.com/2018/laurent-charlet-david-yurman/ |access-date=2024-10-19 |website=American Builders Quarterly |language=en-US}} Alex And Ani,{{Cite web |last=Winchester |first=Jacob |date=2016-12-15 |title=Wearable Purpose |url=https://profilemagazine.com/2016/alex-and-ani/ |access-date=2024-10-19 |website=Profile |language=en-US}} Roche,{{Cite web |last=Winchester |first=Jacob |date=2018-05-01 |title=Virginia MacSuibhne is Solving the Compliance Puzzle |url=https://profilemagazine.com/2018/virginia-macsuibhne-solving-the-compliance-puzzle/ |access-date=2024-10-19 |website=Profile |language=en-US}} and the US Securities and Exchange Commission.{{Cite web |last=Staff |first=M. C. |date=2020-01-27 |title=Eun Ah Choi Achieves Success Through Collaboration |url=https://modern-counsel.com/2020/eun-ah-choi-willis-towers-watson/ |access-date=2024-10-19 |website=Modern Counsel |language=en-US}}{{Cite web |title=Written |url=https://www.jacobwinchester.com/writing |access-date=2024-10-19 |website=Jacob Winchester |language=en-US}}

{{Reflist}}

• [https://www.jacobwinchester.com Official website]
• [https://www.imdb.com/name/nm15862075/?ref_=tt_ov_st_2 Jacob Winchester] at IMDb

Category:1987 births

Category:Living people

Category:American composers

Category:American writers

Category:American voice actors