Jay Michaels is a producer/executive with a specialty in communications and promotion. He has been part of the independent theater and film movement since 1977 and was part of Lincoln Center’s tribute to Caffe Cino and the original off-off Broadway movement in 1985. Before becoming an entrepreneur, he worked as an actor (stage and film) and director (off-Broadway) for many years, garnering accolades for helming new plays and musicals and a wildly successful series of Shakespeare plays sporting unique production schemes.

His career as a director/producer began as a member of the production staff for Hard Times, 1984, and Romulus Linney’s Holy Ghosts at the Joyce Theater’s American Theater series, which won a 1986 Drama Desk Award. He also served on the production staff of events featuring Eliot Feld, Meredith Monk, Pilobolus, and the Nicholas Brothers. He went to serve as a national tour manager for Les Miserables, Cats, Oliver, and Edwin Drood and a production associate at PBS for the special series, Increase the Peace.

As a stage & film producer, he worked with David Canary, Tovah Feldshuh, George Morfogen at the Pearl Theater; Adrienne Shelly and the Missing Children Theater, to name a few, at venues including the Perry Street Theater, Theater Off-Park, The Wild Project, LaMama, American Theater of Actors, and much of Theatre Row. He directed the final company of LINE at the 13th Street Playhouse.

His career as an executive in charge of promotion and marketing began on Broadway with Guys & Dolls (1992) and continued with Damn Yankees (1994), The Vagina Monologues (2005) and recently with Beginnings (2017). He served on the promotional staff for The Daily News, producing events at Lincoln Center, Madison Square Garden, and Atlantic City. He served as copywriter for Bob Hope at Carnegie Hall featuring Skitch Henderson and his orchestra.

As senior marketing executive for an international philanthropy, he produced large scale events at which he also served as speech writer and coach to dignitaries including James Earl Jones, Jon Stewart, Rocco Landesman, Barry Weissler, and Hillary Clinton.

Continuing in marketing and promotion creating campaigns including social media, web content composition and management, and graphic design for Luxury Universal Experience, Diamonds.net, Novoe Russkoe Slovo, among others.

In 1997, he opened a nonprofit arts & education organization: Genesis Repertory, founded with Mary Elizabeth Micari, this non-profit arts organization is dedicated to creating opportunities for young and emerging artists on stage and in film & TV. He also fostered its promotional arm: JMC: Channel I – a network of programs featuring – and dedicated to – independent artists. Under the banner of JMC, he created visibility for more than 300 productions in New York City and led the promotional teams for most of NY’s leading theatre festivals including MITF, Planet Connections, DUAF, Spotlight, Fresh Fruit Festival, as well as individual productions at festivals including The Fringe, FRIGID, Broadway Bound, and others,

Jay lectures around the tri-state area in theater, communications, public relations, and media culture and sits on the Boards of Pace University’s Remote Learning Division; CLASP (CUNY League of Active Speech Professors); and M Center for the Arts. A noted genre film and television historian, Jay hosts numerous television programs including Terror Talk, Indie Influencer, and In The PassionPit. He can be also be found producing/presiding conventions including Phoenix FearCon and Boston Sci-Fi Film Festival. He is also a published writer and reviewer.

Jay Michaels is also a voice over artist, creating the character of Shadrack in the Video Game, Kings Quest: Silver Lining

Jay Michaels is also a voice over artist, creating the character of Shadrack in the Video Game, Kings Quest: Silver Lining

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Credentials as Director/Producer

OFF BROADWAY

A Yorkshire Tragedy – La Mama ETC*
Shivah – The Mazer Theater*
Ride – New York Public Library*
Doctor Faustus – Spotlight Festival at Raw Space*
A Bench at the Edge – Genesis Repertory*
Coulda Woulda Shoulda – Homefront Theatre, NYC*
Guys and Dolls – Interlude NYC*

ORIGINAL WORKS/PREMIERES

Muse – Theatre for the New City**
Klingle’s Ghost – 13th Street Playhouse**
Old Men are Full of Shit –Midtown Theatre Festival**
The Comedy of Terrors – Fringe NYC**
Critic – Judith Anderson Theatre, NYC**
The Big Dream – Abrons Arts Center
The Bard – Lion Theatre, Theatre Row
Common Ground – The Actor’s Temple
Lonely Night in Coney Island – The Wild Project
Sandcastles – The Mazer Theater
Under Darkness – Noho Playhouse
One of Us – Under St. Marks
The English Lesson – Genesis Repertory
Sicilian and Female – Genesis Repertory
Earth-Men – Manhattan Rep
Linoleum’s Hard – Midtown Theatre Festival
Tea Time – Samuel French New Works Festival
The Signal – Samuel French New Works Festival
Intruder – MITF Short Plays Festival
Pull the Trigger – MITF Short Plays Festival
Stalled – MITF Short Plays Festival
Descent – MITF Short Plays Festival

CLASSICAL THEATRE

Richard III – Midtown Theatre Festival**
A Christmas Carol – Genesis Repertory
Hamlet – Jan Hus Playhouse**
Macbeth – Jan Hus Playhouse**
A Midsummer Night’s Dream** – Genesis Repertory
Merry Wives of Windsor** – Genesis Repertory
The Merchant of Venice** – Genesis Repertory
Oedipus Rex – HBO Summer Stage
The Bacchae – HBO Summer Stage

CONTEMPORARY PLAYS

Line – 13th Street Playhouse (original prod.)
Dark of the Moon – The Pearl Theatre Stage**
Rosencrantz & Guildenstern are Dead – Theatre Off Park**
War of the Worlds – Spotlight Fest @ Raw Space**
The Madwoman of Chaillot – Pearl Theatre Stage**
What the Butler Saw – The Merrick Theatre
Counselor-at-Law – The Mazer Theatre**

MUSICAL THEATRE

The Velevetten Rabbit – The Merrick Theatre
Guys and Dolls – The Merrick Theatre
The Pajama Game – Whitelake Summer Theatre
Grease – Whitelake Summer Theatre
The Music Man –Narrows Theatre

CABARET/CONCERT

The Lady in Black series – Don’t Tell Mama; Pangea
Voices – The Producers Club
Granny’s Blu-Mers – Otto’s; Duplex; Don’t Tell Mama NYC
Arias & Sonnets – CAMI Hall
Snow White Goes West – The Duplex

GUEST DIRECTOR – UNIVERSITY/ACADEMIC  

Dracula – Queensborough Performing Arts Center
Masque of the Red Death – – Queensborough Performing Arts Center
A Doll’s House – Queensborough Performing Arts Center
The Taming of the Shrew – Fordham University
Sweeney Todd – Fordham University
Children of Eden – Fordham University
The Tempest – Kingsborough Performing Arts Society
Cradle will Rock – Kingsborough Performing Arts Society  
Guys and Dolls – Kingsborough Arts Society
Arsenic and Old Lace – Kingsborough Arts Society
Damn Yankees – Kingsborough Arts Society
A Doll’s House – Queensborough Community College
A Yorkshire Tragedy – Yeshiva University
Deathtrap – Queens College Theatre
You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown – Roberts Youth Center
Bye Bye Birdie – Riverdale Academy
The Rothchilds – Riverdale Academy
Fiddler on the Roof – Riverdale Academy

FILM (Genesis Pictures, prod.)

Two Families (music video)
Slings & Arrows
Code Red

*Off-Broadway Contract

** Showcase Agreement