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Michael R. Jackson

  • Pulitzer Prize-Winning Playwright, Composer, and Lyricist
  • Creator of the Tony Award-Winning Hit Broadway Musical 'A Strange Loop'
  • One of TIME's "100 Most Influential People" (2022)

Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright, composer, and lyricist Michael R. Jackson is the creator of A Strange Loop, which the New York Times has called a “bravura meta-musical.” The piece – which took Jackson eighteen years to create – won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 2020. A Strange Loop went on to receive eleven Tony Award nominations and was called a “gutsy, jubilantly anguished musical with infectious melodies” by The New York Times. The musical received a New York Drama Critics Circle Award and won two Tony Awards – for Best New Musical and Best Book. In The New Yorker, Vinson Cunningham wrote, "To watch this show is to enter, by some urgent, bawdy magic, an ecstatic and infinitely more colorful version of the famous surreal lithograph by M. C. Escher: the hand that lifts from the page, becoming almost real, then draws another hand, which returns the favor." In engaging moderated conversations, the much-lauded creator shares the importance of making an impact in your own time, and leaves audiences feeling inspired and connected through shared empathy.

Jackson has been named one of TIME Magazine’s “100 Most Influential People” (2022) and has received numerous awards including a New Professional Theatre Festival Award, a Jonathan Larson Grant, a Lincoln Center Emerging Artist Award, an ASCAP Foundation Harold Adamson Award, a Whiting Award, the Hellen Merrill Award for Playwriting, the Windham-Campbell Prize, among many others. He has appeared on The Daily Show with Trevor Noah, CBS Sunday Morning, and Late Night with Seth Meyers, to name a few. The Pulitzer Prize-winner also wrote the book, music, and lyrics for White Girl in Danger, which will premiere in New York City in 2023. Jackson has been sought after for candid and compelling conversations about art and authenticity by audiences worldwide.

 
Michael R.  Jackson headshot

Keynote - Accepting the Human Rights Campaign Visibility Award | HRC [3:55] - Get Sharable Link
Talks & Conversations with Michael R. Jackson
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In Conversation with Michael R. Jackson

Award-winning playwright, composer, and lyricist MICHAEL R. JACKSON is the Pulitzer Prize-winning creator of A Strange Loop, which won two Tony Awards – for Best New Musical and Best Book – and has been lauded by critics and audiences alike. In this riveting moderated conversation, Jackson shares his 18-year journey creating this piece, the power of authenticity, and insights about how audiences can find shared connections through art.

Biography
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