Jay Michaels

JAY MICHAELS (DIRECTOR) Before becoming a live event and film producer with a specialty in marketing & promotion, Jay worked as a stage & film actor & director. He came to prominence for directing a series of wildly successful stage and film adaptations of Shakespeare plays sporting unique production schemes. His work in musical theatre is also notable, as director of New York and world premieres of Sandcastles (the story of the Beach Boys), Common Ground (about Lincoln and Douglas), Jayson (based on the ground-breaking comic strip), All of a Kind and Sicilian & Female (both based on autobiographies) and most recently, the world premiere of A Symphony for Portland, schedule to run off Broadway in late 2023; and producer of the premiere of Relapse (about a group in a psych ward) at Playwrights Horizons; not to mention helming classic musicals like Guys & Dolls, Fiddler on the Roof, Sweeney Todd, Children of Eden, and Applause. Acclaimed for direction of straight plays as well, Jay helmed premieres of MUSE (performances in New York and the United Kingdom), Teatime (winner, Samuel French New Works Series), Dark of the Moon (TheatreWorld Award) at the Pearl Theater; A Doll’s House for Queensborough Performing Arts Center, and direction of the final company of the original LINE (its 50th year) at 13th Street Playhouse; Promotional executive credentials include Broadway Guys & Dolls (1992), Damn Yankees (1994); The Vagina Monologues (2004), and Beginnings (2017) as well as countless off-Broadway productions and events at venues like Lincoln Center, Madison Square Garden, Javits Center, Pace, Fordham, and Kingsborough universities, the Wild Project, Theatre Row, Abrons Arts Center, the HBO Summer Stage, and CAMI and Carnegie Halls. He was also on the production team for The Joyce Theater’s American Theater Series, which won a 1986 Drama Desk Award. Today, his claim to fame is associate producer and on-air commentator for stage and screen on Spectrum Cable’s Hi Drama, and Impresario – a program spotlighting the business end of theatre & film. This recent career move allowed Jay to create JMC: Channel I – a network of multimedia programs and platforms promoting independent artists and their work. A noted horror film historian, Jay is also associate producer and on-air/live event personality for a series of horror, sci-fi, and fantasy programs and events. Credits here include Terror TV & Horror-Storian – both programs dedicated to genre filmmakers – plus numerous appearances at conventions and film festivals including NYComicCon, Phantasm-Con, Boston Sci-Fi, Drac-Fest, HorrorHound, and Phoenix FearCon. Now, he is thrilled to be host of “In the Dark with Jay Michaels” on FearCon’s ROKU Streaming Network, continuing his series of interviews on genre artists and their work.   Jay was part of the original off-off Broadway movement and appeared at Lincoln Center’s tribute to the movement and Caffe Cino. He also lectures as a professor of communications & media culture.