JAG Productions Hires Jason Schumacher as First Full-Time Managing Director

With its continued growth as a company, and in order to solidify a long-term, sustainable presence in the theatre world, JAG Productions is elated to announce hiring Jason Schumacher as its first Managing Director. With over 20 years of professional theatre, film, and television experience, Schumacher will join Founder and Producing Artistic Director Jarvis Green and recently-named Director of Development Tamara Waraschinski as part of JAG Productions' core leadership team.

"Joining the JAG Productions' leadership team as Managing Director at this exciting time of growth is such an honor, and also a deeply humbling experience for me," Schumacher says. "The gratitude I feel to Jarvis and Tamara, the JAG Board of Directors, JAG artists, and to the greater JAG community for entrusting me to help center and support Black storytelling is profound and abiding."

Schumacher comes to JAG Productions having spent over a decade at ZFX Flying Effects, the world leader in performer flying effects and a company with over $5 million in annual revenue. He started as a flying director, rigging and choreographing flying effects on five continents, and was then promoted to the general manager and corporate officer role, which he occupied for nearly six years. During his tenure in this position he completely rebuilt the company's human resources and risk management departments, helped launch a new division and product line, and played a major role on the leadership team that shepherded the company through a growth period that resulted in significantly increased profits. As a producer, Schumacher has produced numerous live theatre performances. He also founded and managed Warehouse District Productions, a still active film production company. While with Warehouse District and other production companies, Schumacher produced films seen on most major streaming platforms, commercial and arthouse movie theatres, and domestic and international film festivals. Schumacher's credits include Wicked and Pippin on Broadway, Saturday Night Live, The Hangover Part III, Medal of Victory, Cathy Rigby's Peter Pan, and productions at Papermill Playhouse, Actors Theatre of Louisville, Calgary Opera, The Goodman Theatre, The Geffen Playhouse, Dallas Theater Center, the West Australian Ballet, and Teatru Manoel, among hundreds of others.

JAG Productions board member Keiselim A. Montás, who led the hiring committee tasked with selecting a Managing Director, says that Schumacher stood out as the leading candidate after the three-month search and multiple rounds of the interview process.

"The committee felt he would be most successful in the Managing Director's role for JAG, given his broad set of experience, which align with what we were looking for (i.e. planning, budgeting and finance, contracting, marketing and communications, facilities management, etc.)," Montás says.

With established roots in the Upper Valley of Vermont and New Hampshire as an incubator for Black, Brown, Queer, and Trans artists with series like JAGfest and Theatre on the Hill, JAG Productions hired Schumacher to help support the company as it works towards becoming a more fully realized organization and expands its horizons with new opportunities like JAG Musical Theatre Lab and a two-year residency at the New York Theatre Workshop.

"We hired Jason because of his experience managing the growth phases of companies," say Jarvis, "whether they are new, ones that he has founded, or existing companies that have brought him onto their leadership team at inflection points in their arts management development. We feel that his skills and experience will strengthen our organizational infrastructure and position us in building a robust Black theatre company in Vermont with significant ties to the NYC theatrical landscape."

For more information, please visit jagproductionsvt.com.

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