HOW SHAKESPEARE SAVED MY LIFE World Premiere is Coming to Berkeley Rep

Kicking off the new year, Berkeley Repertory Theatre will present its 90th world premiere production,  How Shakespeare Saved My Life — an autobiographical and music-filled tour de force written and performed by Jacob Ming-Trent. Directed by former Berkeley Rep artistic director Tony Taccone, How Shakespeare Saved My Life will perform at Berkeley Rep’s Peet’s Theatre from Friday, January 23, through Sunday, March 1, 2026.

In How Shakespeare Saved My Life, Jacob Ming-Trent dares to rescue himself from the “slings and arrows” of his past. Born with a gift for poetry but rejected as unfit to play the poet, his search for home yields results both hilarious and tragic. Invoking artistic geniuses like Biggie, Tupac, and Basquiat, he takes audiences on a propulsive ride that reaffirms the power of language and music. A co-production with Folger Theatre and Red Bull Theater, How Shakespeare Saved My Life begins with the Bard but becomes a ritual of communal salvation.

Ming-Trent was born in Boston and raised in Pittsburgh, where he auditioned and booked his first play at age eleven. His arts education started at the performing arts middle school followed by the Pittsburgh Creative and Performing Arts high school before moving to New York City at seventeen to train at the Stella Adler Conservatory. During his first year, he was accepted into The Public Theater in NYC's Shakespeare Lab where he was the youngest person ever accepted. After completing the program, he was the youngest person ever accepted into the American Conservatory Theater’s MFA Program. On stage, Ming-Trent has appeared on Broadway in Shrek the Musical, Hands on a Hardbody, and the recent revival of Gypsy. Having worked in 48 of the 50 states, he has worked with Pulitzer Prize winning playwrights such as David Lindsay-Abaire, Jeanine Tesori, Beth Henley, Doug Wright, Quiara Alegría Hudes, and Suzan Lori Parks. His television and film credits include Watchmen, Only Murders in the Building, R&J, and The Forty-Year-Old Version.