Esquire Jauchem

Esquire Jauchem

Born: Akron, Ohio (At one time, The Rubber Capitol of the World)

Graduate of Defiance College where Mad Anthony Wayne stood at the confluence of the Auglaize and Maumee Rivers and defied the Indians to cross over...whereupon they attacked and killed every man he had. One of the few places where the American flag flies twenty-four hours a day.

Moving to Boston, Esquire worked with Sarah Caldwell, famed Artistic Director of The Opera Company of Boston, on more than fourteen major operas serving as Assistant Director and designing Special Effects. He burned Beverly Sills at the stake in NORMA, destroyed Troy in the American Premiere of Berlioz's LES TROYENS, created war scenes with cannonade and aerial explosions in Prokofieff's WAR AND PEACE in its American Premiere, and burned Moscow in the same production, a spectacle which was repeated at Wolftrap in 1976. Alan Rich wrote in New York magazine, "I hope that everyone who plans to show a fire on stage can see what this company can do!".

For the Bicentennial, he created electronic fireworks for the World Premiere of BE GLAD THEN AMERICA . The same effects were later used as the National Symphony played the national anthem at midnight on July 4, 1976 and broadcast it on nationwide television. He served as the Assistant Director and created special effects for the U.S. Premiere of the fanciful Russian opera, RUSSLAN AND LUDMILLA in its American Premiere with Sarah Caldwell directing and conducting.

At the age of 24 he founded the Boston Repertory Theatre and served as its Artistic Director for ten years while it grew to be Boston's largest, most popular local theatre company and the only professional Equity company. Under his leadership, The Rep created more than forty productions and built the first new theatre in Boston's theatre district in more than two decades.

Four Rep projects moved to the larger Charles Playhouse for successful runs: I AM A WOMAN starring Viveca Lindfors, P.S. YOUR CAT IS DEAD by James Kirkwood, NIGHTCLUB CANTATA with the original N.Y. cast including Elizabeth Swados, and THE LITTLE PRINCE which ran for five years. The Rep also toured as far south as Florida, north to Maine, west to Colorado, and east to Martha's Vineyard where they performed, at her request, the last play to be seen by Katherine Cornell before she died.

World Premieres by the Company included Kurt Vonnegut's PLAYER PIANO; Harry Nilsson's THE POINT!; MY MOTHER, MY SON starring Viveca Lindfors and Kristofer Tabori; THE SECOND GREATEST ENTERTAINER...starring Dick Shawn, and Tommy Tune in the musical ICHABOD.

For The Boston Rep, Esquire directed THE BEAUTIFUL PEOPLE, A HATFUL OF RAIN, THE ROMANTICS, THE KNIGHTS OF THE ROUND TABLE, THE NIGHT THOREAU SPENT IN JAIL, and HOME FREE. He created the scenario and directed the improvisational melodrama GRANDMA'S IN THE CELLAR, and adapted and directed the musical fantasy, THE POINT! in its highly successful premiere starring David Morse as Oblio. He also adapted and directed RONDELET: SCENES OF SEDUCTION based on Schnitzler's REIGEN (LA RONDE).

He also served as an actor with the company and appeared in roles such as King Arthur, the Old Professor in UNCLE VANYA, the Golux in THE THIRTEEN CLOCKS, Bergamin in THE ROMANTICS, and a vicious Doberman in ANIMAL FARM. He also appeared in PLAYER PIANO, THE MISANTHROPE, and P.S. YOUR CAT IS DEAD. With other companies he has portrayed Crown Prince Chulalongkorn, Emperor Alexander I, and Walt Whitman. He appeared on stage with Beverly Sills in several operas in acting roles.

Leaving the Boston Rep to become the Associate Director of The Opera Company of Boston, Esquire worked on Producing and Directing eleven Operas. They included FALSTAFF with Donald Gramm (also performed at the NYC Opera); THE BARBER OF SEVILLE and DIE FLEDERMAUS with Beverly Sills and Victor Borge; MADAME BUTTERFLY in the American Premiere of its original version; HANSEL AND GRETEL; THE FLYING DUTCHMAN with Simon Estes; WAR AND PEACE (revival); and AIDA with Shirley Verrett and James McCracken.

He was also the Associate Director of the Opera Company Residency at Wolftrap, supervising DUTCHMAN, AIDA, and BUTTERFLY in rotating repertory as well as being the design coordinator of the joint production of DER VAMPYR. He was also responsible for six operas which toured throughout the Northeast including THE IMPRESSARIO, which he directed. He also directed SIR GAWAIN AND THE GREEN KNIGHT for The Christmas Revels an annual holiday spectacle at Harvard University.

Moving to New York, Esquire joined with Gregory Meeh to found Jauchem & Meeh Special Effects which has been involved in major productions across the country and around the world including PHANTOM OF THE OPERA, MADONNA on tour, THE PHOTOGRAPHER by Philip Glass directed by JoAnne Akalaitis, THE GOSPEL AT COLONUS, LES MISERABLES, NABUCCO (Miami and NYC Opera), INTO THE WOODS, MISS SAIGON, LA DONNA DEL LAGO (Houston Opera), DER FREISCHUTZ (NYC Opera), CRAZY FOR YOU, TOMMY and RELATIVE CALM created by Lucinda Childs and Robert Wilson. He then became the Managing Director of THE BIG APPLE CIRCUS taking the company on its first tour of five states and into its residency in the dead of winter on the marble plaza at Lincoln Center next the Metropolitan Opera.

Adventuring to Los Angeles, Esquire helped to create the hit syndicated television series DIVORCE COURT where he eventually became the Producer and supervised hundreds of episodes over five seasons.

He was drafted to design special effects for the Premiere of THE GLORY OF EASTER at the Crystal Cathedral and direct and design the American Premiere of THE TRIALS OF PETER THE HEBREW and LENYA, LIFE TO LEGEND at the LA COUNTY ART MUSEUM. He returned to Boston to assist on productions of MEDEA, Bernstein's MASS, the World Premiere of THE BALCONY, and to direct and design LA TRAVIATA in a production set in 1980 with Violetta dying of AIDS.

He served as the Producing Director of the American/Soviet Festival in Boston which featured a staff of 300 Soviet and 400 American artists presenting 80 different live musical events over four weeks including six fully staged productions of the Bolshoi Ballet starring Maya Plisetskaya, the Bolshoi Opera in a joint production of the American Premiere of THE DEAD SOULS, the 100 member American/Soviet Symphony Orchestra and concerts with the Boston Symphony.

Back on the West Coast, he produced THE LITTLE PRINCE on stage in LOS ANGELES, SAN FRANCISCO, and BERKELEY. Esquire produced LEATHER AND SPIKES featuring classical pianist, Richard Kastle who subsequently had his New York debut at Lincoln Center, and directed THE LES STEVENS COCKTAIL SHOW which ran for a year on stage in West Hollywood. He worked with Laurie Anderson on her STRANGE ANGELS tour He produced and designed the transformation of a 5,000 seat arena into a Tibetan mountaintop as a setting for the Dalai Lama on the eve of his award of the Nobel Peace Prize. Esquire has also been seen acting on local stages and national television shows. _

His book SPECIAL EFFECTS FOR THE THEATRE. which he co-authored with Graham Walne and published in London is the only book currently available on the subject.

He served as lighting designer and technical director of LES BALLETS TROCADERO DE MONTE CARLO in their tour of Moscow, St. Petersburg, Siberia, Lithuania and 30 cities in Japan. He also wrote, directed and designed a corporate extravaganza for ARCO which was the first industrial presentation ever staged in the 50 million dollar Seigfried & Roy showroom in Las Vegas. Back on the coast, he designed the scenery and the lighting the Los Angeles Repertory Company's eight hour production of George Bernard Shaw's rarely performed BACK TO METHUSELAH.

In the midst of this activity, Esquire managed to hike across a glacier in the Swiss Alps, journey to Malta for the filming of POPEYE, explore the Andes of Peru, and join the 175 people in the Mexican jungle who made it to the absolute epicenter of the longest total eclipse of the sun anyone who is now alive will see.

For the past twenty five years, Esquire Jauchem has been producing, designing and directing television as well as live performances.

His television credits include Executive Producer of OCEAN DRIVE starring Hunter Reno, Coordinating Producer of the daily UPN/Rysher magazine show, STRANGE UNIVERSE; Producer of the courtroom news daily, TRIALWATCH for NBC; Producer of the original daily scripted drama, DIVORCE COURT; and Producer of the children's show, THE KRYPTON FACTOR. He has also contributed as a writer/producer for MOVIE MAGIC and WORLD OF WONDER seen on the Discovery Channel, ANATOMY OF CRIME for Court TV. I HATE MY JOB starring Rev. Al Sharpton and LIVIN’ LARGE starring Carmen Electra airing on NBC.

Since 2002 he has been one of the creators and Producer of the Carnevale! Venice Beach and his light sculptures have been featured on Main Street in Santa Monica and currently on Abbot Kinney Boulevard in Venice, California.

His television credits include over 1,000 individual shows for NBC, CBS, UPN, The Discovery Channel, Spike, Court TV and for the past three years he has been the Supervising Producer of the Style Network's hit series, CLEAN HOUSE starring Niecy Nash. In 2009 he was nominated for two Emmy's for his work on that number #1 rated show and a special based on his work there.

He served as lighting designer for the Inge Festival award ceremony for the Distinguished Achievement in American Theater award twice and in 2010 directed A HOT WALTZ WITH PAULA the live performance and video production honoring Pulitizer Prize winning playwright, Paula Vogel as she received the Distinguished Achievement in American Theater Award.

For the past twelve years Esquire has participated in the famed Burning Man Festival, designing large installations which have been chosen to be featured in the prized Center Camp area of the event which is held on the desolate moonscape environment of the Black Rock Desert .

Esquire lives in a house over one hundred years old one block from the Pacific Ocean in the living circus known as Venice, California.