Jay Michaels

PR Guru, Producer, Professor, Original Gangsta.

JAY MICHAELS ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT
Mr. Michaels’ career in the arts began in the 1970s as an actor then moving to the director’s chair and the office of producer before founding WGNY Communications – a marketing and public relations firm dedicated to the off-off Broadway and independent film communities. Today, his PR services, combined with extensive knowledge in event production, forms Jay Michaels Arts & Entertainment.

Jay Michaels Arts & Entertainment has 40 years of experience in arts marketing and promotion:
1986: The Joyce Theater, promoting Twyla Tharp, Murray Louis & Alwin Nikolais, Mabou Mines, Pilobolus, Theatre 890, Ballet Tech, Eliot Feld, Drama Desk Award-winning American Regional Theater Exchange (including the Long Wharf Theater and Mark Taper Forum).

1989: Special promotional associate for the New York Daily News
He sat ringside at Madison Square Garden; Wrote copy for Bob Hope at Carnegie Hall; Assisted Robert Maxwell at The United Nations; Handled casting for the newspaper’s TV commercials; Served as production manager for the News/PBS’s Increase The Peace.

1993 – 2000: Broadway, National Tour, TV:
Broadway revivals of Guys & Dolls (1992) and Damn Yankees (1994); Columbia Artists Management national tour coordinator for Cats, Les Miserables, Edwin Drood, and Oliver; KSL Media New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles

2000 – TODAY: NYC’s Independent Arts & Education Community:
Director of Public Relations @ Midtown International Theatre Festival, Spotlight-On Festival, and Planet Connections
Production Manager, The Vagina Monologues, Broadway’s Town Hall
Promoted and Produced Events at…The Fringe Festival, Fresh Fruit Festival, Samuel French Festival, New York New Works Fest, Spotlight-On Productions, Genesis Repertory, The Kaye Playhouse @ Hunter College, Mimes & Mummers at Fordham University, Yeshiva Arts Festival, Lehman and Kingsborough college theater programs

Marketing Director for … Fashion shows, Art gallery openings, Perscriptives promotion at Macy’s, Brightest Star Award for the Block Institute (one of its founders), Senior Marketing Executive for a prominent international philanthropy

Mr. Michaels wrote speeches and coordinated event materials for events featuring
Hillary Clinton
Fran & Barry Weissler
Jon Stewart
James Earl Jones
The Nederlanders
Clive Davis
Alex Shchegol (College of Advance Technology founder)
Lawrence and Lilly Wajnberg (Novoye Russkoye Slovo)

He also headed the Israel at 65 International Marketing Mission Campaign creating its slogans and heading its design and marketing team.

He produced and edited a documentary on Time Warner founder, Steven J. Ross
Wrote (and voiced) numerous PSAs, and appeared in the recent Community Study TV commercial.

A professor at Kingsborough College, Mr. Michaels has lectured on arts management at venues Theatre Resources Unlimited

Recognized in …
SDC National Quarterly
The New York Times
TheatreWorld
Soul of the American Actor
American Theater Magazine.

won ASCAP, MITF, SPOTLIGHT, and OOBR Awards
were published by Samuel French
were nominated for Drama Desk, GLAAD, and NY Innovative Theatre awards.