Jamie McGonnigal, Director / Producer / Actor

After attending the "Pippin" benefit concert starring Michael Arden on Nov. 29th, a benefit for the National AIDS Fund raising $93,000 before expenses. I was very impressed with the show and with the effort of Co-Producer Jamie McGonnigal after reading in his program bio that he also had produced or directed numerous benefit concerts in just the past several years. I really wanted to find out what inspired Jamie and thought it would be a very interesting conversation. He graciously made time in his busy schedule for the interview a few days prior to his most recent benefit concert, "Miracle on Lafayette", held on Dec 19th, benefiting God's Love We Deliver.  Links were added by Theaterscene.

JQ	Where in Massachusetts are you from? How long have you been in New York? Was it a lifelong dream to come here? I read you attended Bridgewater State College.
JM	I grew up on the South Shore of Massachusetts…kind of all over and graduated from Marshfield High School. Most of my family is still in that area. I've been in NYC just under 6 years now. I got here in March of 99. As of about 10 years old, I always knew I'd end up coming here. Of course I thought it would be to perform, but life takes you in different directions. And yes, I graduated from Bridgewater State College in MA in 1997.
JQ	I read that you did the English dub for the part Takeo in the gay themed anime "Magic User's Club" How did you get involved with doing voice-overs for the "Magic User's Club". What was the reaction of the audience then (in 1996)? Did you do any other voice-overs?
JM	Actually, yes I did…never really thought of Magic User's Club as " gay-themed." There is a gay character and some strange love triangles. My role, Takeo is actually straight and is president of the club. He has a crush on Sae, who is the main character, while Aburatsubo (the gay character) has a big crush on Takeo. Strangely, it's been an entire second career for me. I probably have about 40 titles or so on shelves now, as well as working on Saturday morning cartoons, F-Zero, Kirby and Pokemon.
JQ	You co-produced Pippin with Kate Shindle and it was directed by Gabriel Barre. Next week you are Producing and Directing Miracle on Lafayette benefiting "Gods Love We Deliver". Do you have a preference for performing / producing / directing?
JM	I enjoy doing it all, having something else to do helps keep me sane. The voice acting is a year-round thing so that's always going on and as for other projects, I enjoy staying booked a few months in advance. So to answer your question-I guess I'm happy as long as I stay busy. That's where a lot of these concerts come from-I get bored and want to do something so I call someone and say "Hey let's do a benefit for The Matthew Shepard Foundation." And in the past year, people have started calling me for these types of events. I have a great time doing it and get to work on some great projects while raising money for really worthwhile organizations.
JQ	How did you get your start in the business of Directing…all of a sudden I'm seeing your name all over town – "2004 Nightlife Awards", "Children of Eden", "Pippin", "Miracle on Lafayette".
JM	I've always enjoyed directing. I've done a number of readings and workshops here in the city and before that, I was able to direct a lot regionally and in Summer Stock. But I have to say, concert directing is something very different from directing a show. It has it's own unique set of challenges. The primary ones being very limited time to put up a show, working with little to no rehearsal and of course working with mostly celebrities who also have unique sets of challenges. I didn't direct Pippin, the amazing Gabe Barre did - Kate Shindle and I both felt that my focus being not so divided this year would help matters. I also have to give some kudos to Stephen DeAngelis, our Casting Director/Talent Executive - we clearly could not have done it without him… I'm so grateful that he threw his hat in to help out this year.
JQ	How early did you start planning the Pippin concert? You did a Stephen Schwartz concert of Children of Eden last year – has this become a regular annual thing – a different musical each year? I was getting press releases almost weekly announcing cast changes and additions. Did it turn out the way you expected? How does it work – do you just keep calling actors asking if they'll participate?
JM	Well Shindle and I started speaking at the start of the summer about this year's show and for next year, the discussions have already begun. We find that in gaining sponsorships, more and more corporations are deciding on who they are going to support for the year by the end of March or April. Once that happens, that corporation turns down any further requests. Pippin was our second show, of course Eden being our first last year. The press releases came directly from me. We were unable to find a pro-bono publicist this year, and I've spent time building a nice press list, so I did it myself (and hope not to have to again). Much of the cast had actually already been put in place long before press releases had been sent. We knew we had Ben Vereen, but depending on ticket sales we were going to have him be a surprise reveal at the end of the show. But rethought that as we got closer to the evening and realized how many people would be disappointed if they'd found out he'd reprised his role and they weren't there to see it. The show was far beyond what I expected it. Last year's show was a large cast in a church singing into standing microphones with music stands. Not to take away from it because it was an absolutely magical evening that I'll never forget, but Pippin was quite a different animal. Pippin requires more staging, technicality and well…"Magic."
JQ	Great – a musical about me: I saw on your website pictures from a reading I believe of "Jack: The Musical". What is it all about?
JM	"Jack" was a workshop of a really fun musical I worked on via The BMI/Lehmen Engel Musical Theatre Workshop. While I was still performing regularly, I spent a lot of time as a guinea pig for new musical theatre writers. While I was there, projects like "Avenue Q" was born. " Jack" was a futuristic retelling of Jack and the Beanstalk by Andrew Marcus-a really talented young writer. I played Il Dawg, a very Caucasian rapper from Brooklyn. It was a blast.
JQ	I read on your website the review of Tommy Foster's cabaret show "There's a METHod to my Madness" at Don't Tell Mama where he sang about crystal meth drug addiction and contracting HIV, it was a moving review, and it struck me that it is seemingly rare in the gay community for someone to move to the city and to escape the "traditional" untraditional path described in the cabaret show…it always amazes me the arc that a lot of newly poz people seem to go thru where they re-embrace life and use the diagnosis of HIV to inspire them to live life more positively – and it seems a shame that it takes a poz diagnosis to do that. Any comments on that?
JM	Wow. Very intense question, and a very good one. We are not living in 1982. We are in a day and age where despite huge strides forward as gay men and women, we are still faced with constant challenges. It is not easy to be young and gay in New York City in 2004. So many young people see contracting the virus as a "rite of passage" which one must go through in order to have hot, unprotected sex. They see adults who have lived 10, 20 years with the virus and are outwardly doing just fine. They don't see the nausea from the medication, the chronic diarrhea in many cases. They don't see the downside of HIV and AIDS. So they end up learning the hard way. As with any hardship in life, we have two choices as to how to deal with that hardship-you let it take over and live your life as a disease-or you take the attitude that many are taking now, live for today and find the beauty in the simplicity of your life. It's definitely a shame that it takes this kind of hardship to realize these things but without darkness, we'd never know the light.
JQ	What is your criteria for supporting a certain cause? I've seen that you've supported the National AIDS Fund with "Pippin", God's Love We Deliver with "Miracle on Lafayette", York Theater with "Neo"...
JM	Oftentimes a project comes first, and the benefactor of it comes second. Generally when I have chunk of time and can throw something fun together, then I decide what it's going to be. After that, I look for an organization which is serving a greater good and organizations that are personal to me. I enjoy being able to give back to a community that has given so much to the people that are a part of it, so I tend to stick to a lot of foundations that are community-based. Perhaps my favorite organization to do work for is The Matthew Shepard Foundation. The work they are doing is absolutely inspiring to me. We've turned the "Embrace!" concert into a series now which is being presented around the country for that foundation. We will be doing the 2nd Annual Embrace! concert on February 19th at the Westside Theatre.
JQ	I attended both the 2003 Nightlife Awards and the 2004 Nightlife awards. Did you direct both of them? Frankly, I felt the 2004 show was much tighter of a show and clearly showed the maturation of the concept. Are you directing the 2005 Nightlife awards. If so, how early do you start work on this? How is it working with Scott Siegel, producer and emcee?
JM	Well thank you very much. I didn't attend the 2003 Nightlife Awards, but I do recall being at a party afterwards where several of the attendees had appeared in that event. I also remember waiting several hours for them to show up. The 2004 Nightlife Awards were a lot of fun to work on. Scott and Barbara had asked me back in November of '03 to direct that event. Scott and Barbara have such great hearts and intentions in putting these things together. And unfortunately, the 2004 show, though artistically very successful was a bust financially. I think it's just a hard time of year for people to spend money-you know, right after the holidays. As for 2005, I have no idea what's going on, I haven't heard from them about directing it and I haven't seen a director's name attached in any of the press releases or posters. At this point it's a little late to jump in as a director if they were to call me.
JQ	I've read that you are Artistic Director for BroadwayWorld.com . What can you tell me about that?
JM	Robert Diamond, who runs BroadwayWorld initially had asked me to direct Mandy Gonzalez' one-woman show, as I had just finished work on John Tartaglia's and Max von Essen's at Ars Nova. Rob handed me a flier for a benefit concert they wanted to do at Joe's Pub a few months later, and seeing that they wanted something similar in style and format as the Embrace! Concert, I offered to direct it. So since then, Rob has created a really phenomenal concert series which highlights performers and casts of reputable shows in concert format. In the past six months, we've had Susan Egan, Laura Benanti & Gavin Creel, The casts of Bare & Hairspray and two Standing Ovations concert to benefit Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS. Working with Rob is always really fun and artistically rewarding so I hope to continue doing that.
JQ	I am not really that familiar with The Storm Theater, it's located in a church? Did part of the Pippin concert benefit The Storm Theater in addition to the National AIDS Fund? How are you affiliated with Storm? What was their role in the concert/ have you worked with them before?
JM	I had actually seen my co-producer, Kate Shindle in a production of Midsummer Night's Dream at the Storm back in the summer and when discussing who the presenting organization would be, Kate had me meet with the Storm. It's a small company with really great aspirations. They are indeed located in St. Mary's Church. The role they played in putting together an event like this one was to act as a presenting non-profit organization, so when someone would write a sponsorship check for the event, they would write it to the Storm. Then they in turn, wrote checks for the production costs. At the end of the day, they do end up getting a portion of the proceeds as well.
JQ	By the way, Michael Arden did a fabulous job as Pippin. I read in your bio that you have played Pippin before yourself. Any part of you wished that you were back on stage that night?
JM	It's very strange being an actor and doing this work. I don't have a name as an actor to speak of, so I'm not going to throw myself into my own benefits. I perform in my Miracle series for the holidays, but outside of that, I don't think it's tasteful. I played Pippin when I was 19, but I'm also realistic about where I am at now. When I played the role I was 19 and working with a community theatre in Southeastern Massachusetts. And Pippin has always been one of my favorite shows, so to be producing the first major production of it in the city, since it's original run was really plenty for me. Michael is an amazing performer and actually will be playing the role again in Los Angeles' REPRISE Series-it's fun to say that we had him first!
JQ	I've never produced a show. How do you go about it contractually. Who is responsible for financing/underwriting it?
JM	Producing a benefit and a commercial run are two very different things. With an event such as Pippin, we have to find sponsors as opposed to investors. If you don't find the sponsors and can't bankroll it yourself, you're kind of out of luck.
JQ	It always amazes me how broad and deep the theater community in New York is. I lost track counting how many theater companies, groups, and collectives there are – probably 300 – there's a huge listing of companies somewhere on some website…yet, you seem to have transcended working with one group. Why do you think other people have not done what you seem to be able to do so well?
JM	Well, it hasn't been intentional that I don't continue to work with the same theatre group. With most of my events, they've become annual or even more frequent than that, so I continue to work with other individual producers, (Kate Shindle, Robert Diamond - BroadwayWorld, Michele Helberg - Embrace!) but I enjoy being somewhat independent and being able to work with a lot of different groups of people over the course of the year.
JQ	Who are your mentors in life & the theater industry. What lessons have they taught you? What lessons are you teaching to others you hope?
JM	When I was young I learned so much from my High School theatre directors, Peter Kates and Bates Wilder…and of course my good friend Meri-Lee Mafera, Meri-Lee is a brilliant musical director I worked with a long time ago. She taught me that I can use my skill to get just about whatever I want in life…I've definitely been able to apply that little lesson. I'm consistently inspired by my friends-Laura Benanti, Max von Essen, Scott Nevins, Sue Gilad, Mike Babel - and honestly, lots of others. They're always there encouraging me to keep doing what I'm doing. What I've learned the most from these people and the circle I keep close to myself especially, is that relationships are amazingly important. Producing is not about being able to do everything, it's about knowing someone who can do everything. Making sure that you can find a person you need within the matter of 2-3 phone calls. It makes life so much easier when your resources are amazing people who bend over backwards.

For more information about Jamie McGonnigal and his various projects visit his website: jamiemcg.com