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COM Outlook . Fall 2013
SECOM GRADUATION...FIRST PRODUCING OFFICE...LONDON PREMIERE
ing classes, studying, and teaching
aerobics classes. “My life during this
time was very interesting because
I would get up early and go to
class from literally 8:00 a.m. to 5:00
p.m., four days a week,” he said.
“I would then dash to Bally Total
Fitness, where I would teach one or
two aerobics classes. Then I’d grab
a quick bite to eat and race to the
library to study from around 8:00
p.m. until midnight before heading
home to bed. That was my life for
about two years until I began my
clinical rotations.”
As graduation approached in 1990,
Dr. Jackowitz remained unsure of
what his ultimate choice would be
when it came to selecting a specific
specialty. “I really didn’t know what I
wanted to do because, to me, medical
school was just one big vocabulary
lesson,” he explained. “I felt like I was
learning a language that didn’t begin
to make total sense until I was doing
my one-year internship at Northlake
Regional Medical Center in Atlanta,
Georgia. At that stage, I realized I
really enjoyed primary care because
I liked the idea of being the captain
of the ship in terms of dealing with
medical issues, which is why I ap-
plied to Beth Israel Medical Center in
New York to do my internal medicine
residency training.”
Over the previous six years, his life
had been consumed with all things
medical. But now that he was several
years older and increasingly more
self-assured, Dr. Jackowitz decided to
tenuously reenter the theater realm.
“It wasn’t until my second year of
residency that I reintroduced myself to
that world,” said Dr. Jackowitz, who
completed his internal medicine resi-
dency in 1994. “I did a little research
and discovered there was an organiza-
tion in New York called The Directors
Company, which was an organization
that taught potential directors how to
direct. It looked interesting, so I took
the workshop and directed scenes
from
Death of a Salesman
.
In a thunderbolt of self-realiza-
tion, Dr. Jackowitz immediately
knew a career in directing was not
where his destiny lay. “It was actu-
ally quite funny because one of
the actors I had to direct was very
difficult, so I definitely didn’t love
the experience,” he admitted. “As I
was talking to some of the people at
the workshop, someone mentioned
I should really consider becoming a
producer instead of a director.”
Taking that advice to heart, Dr.
Jackowitz then attended an intensive
weekend workshop about producing
at the Commercial Theater Institute,
which he loved. “I remember buying a
bottle of champagne and going back to
The Directors Company to thank the
artistic director for turning me on to
all of this,” he said. “While I was there
the phone rang, and it was Hal Prince,
the famed Broadway director and
producer, who told the artistic direc-
tor he had just received funding for a
new project he wanted to house at The
Directors Company. He then asked if
there was somebody in the artistic di-
rector’s office who could serve as a li-
aison to his office. The artistic director
put down the phone and whispered
to me, ‘Do you want to be the musical
theater liaison to a Hal Prince musi-
cal theater program?’ I said, ‘SURE,’
which is how it all started.
“I ended up working with all these
great actors, composers, musicians,
directors, and playwrights, including
Stephen Schwartz (
Wicked
), Jason Rob-
ert Brown (
Bridges of Madison County
),
Dr. Jackowitz in action at The Farber
Center for Radiation Oncology.
