Steve Tucker, Michigan Theatre of Jackson
“I’m glad to be back.
I taught for 34 years—high school literature, journalism, and media along with coaching wrestling and football. I also taught creative writing and 19th century American Literature at the college. I could have gone on teaching forever, but I retired in my 50s. I was still playing music about 50 weekends a year, volunteering with the Ella Sharp Museum and the DDA to help organize their concert series.
And that’s when the Executive Director position at the Michigan Theatre of Jackson opened up.
I performed here in 1992 in a production of Jesus Christ Superstar, and the theatre was cool as heck to me. It was a little rough around the edges, but I thought it could be something special, so I applied for the job; along with 55 other people from all over the country. I thought I had a good shot because I lived down the street, but I was nervous. I really wanted it because I believed I could do something.
I was hired on March 15, 2012. My first event was the day after a cage fight! I don’t know if you’ve ever seen a cage fight, but people were sweating and bleeding and punching each other’s eyeballs out on the stage. It was crazy. After that, I decided that there’s no way a theatre like this should have a cage fight in it. They were booked for three more, but I said no.
Later that year, there was a turning point when I really knew we could do something big with the theatre. Marnie Hade, a wonderful English and Journalism teacher from Northwest Community Schools, came to me and said, ‘Hey, Steve, we’d like to bring this anti-bullying campaign into the Michigan Theatre.’ I said great. She goes, ‘We want to do it the whole week.’ We were in that theatre for seven straight days with seven full houses, from floor and balcony. 8,000 kids from all around the area.
Along with ‘no more cage fights’, everything is different from that first day. The budget at the time was around $180,000 a year, and now we’re over a million. There were 40 or 50 events a year. We do 300 now. We just go, go, go. I blame it on my dad. He always wanted me to ‘do better, do better’. Wrestle better, play baseball better, play the guitar better. He wasn’t horrible or mean about it, he just wanted me to be the best that I could be. That desire to do better is now a part of me, and no matter how much we do here, I still want to go forward. Taking the job was about wanting to do better, both for the theatre and for myself. It was about the challenge and the achievement. It was about knowing, cosmically speaking, that I’m only here for a minute.
That’s become more evident to me than ever, considering everything that’s happened since January.
I’m averse to losing. I’ve lost before, but this was something. I thought I was ahead in the fifth inning. To be honest, it was crippling. ‘Paralyzed’ was the word I used, and my wife would say that was accurate. It was bad, and it was bad for my son because he’s on the autism spectrum and couldn’t quite process what had happened. For 14 years, I spent 60 hours a week at the theatre, and it felt like going from 90 mph to zero. My phone would ring and I’d accidentally say, ‘Steve Tucker, Michigan Theatre’ out of habit because every phone call to the Theatre came directly to my phone.
But it also was a good time to self-assess and see that I am weak in a lot of ways. What am I going to do if something really bad happens in my life? If I lose a child or my wife gets sick? If I get a bad x-ray? Buck up, little guy. I saw that I need to be better prepared for the real bad things in life.
I learned a lot about myself, but I also learned a lot about this community. To get so much support from so many people. It was overwhelming. Very rarely do things like that happen. Usually, an issue gets a lot of attention, then everybody forgets about it and moves on to the next crisis. But to see how many people fought for me for so long was incredibly moving. That makes me know that I owe them. Now that I’ve got another chance, I owe them the best effort I’ve got.
Moving forward, I want to build enough stability so the Theatre can withstand the highs and the lows; whether that’s economic or structural. Sure, a situation might slow you down, but nothing should keep the Theatre from doing its job and bringing a lot of people here. I’ve learned that I can do better myself… and will continue to lead the theater to something better than it is now. There’s always room for growth.
A friend of mine has always told me that life is about relationships, because what else do we really have? ‘Steve,’ he’d say, ‘we have nothing more.’ Everyone who comes in here is important: they’re here, witnessing a moment in history together, with the small amount of time we have. There is something about people being together in the same room, face to face, maybe even touching each other with a handshake or a hug. At the Theatre, everyone is here together sharing the same experience. There’s nothing like it.
I love coming in here. I love the way it looks: the colors, the lighting. I love the quietness of it when no one else is here. I love the chaos when it’s crazy busy.
Being able to walk into the Theatre as Executive Director again puts a real focus on what I owe the Jackson community. They made me feel like I deserve it, and I will show them that I do.”
—Steven R. Tucker, Executive Director
Michigan Theatre of Jackson
124 N. Mechanic St., Jackson, MI 49201
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