New creative director at Sonoma Community Center brings Broadway talents

Eric Jackson performed on Broadway and made a living in show business in New York City for more than a decade, but he doesn’t boast about that career.

“It just so happened that I could sing, dance and act,” he said. “I have learned I am definitely not the world’s greatest dancer, singer or actor, but I tried to make a career of it back in the day. I never thought of performing as my end goal.”

What he really wanted to do was sew. Or maybe teach. Or both.

In his new role at the Sonoma Community Center, where he started work as creative programs manager last spring, he has found a job that fulfills both dreams, in a way. He oversees the fabric arts department and lines up teachers for classes open to all.

Jackson, 41 and single, still thinks of himself as a New Yorker at heart, but he has happily settled into the city of Sonoma, a place he refers to as “paradise.” His decision is based on his experience and, he hopes, maybe a little bit of wisdom.

“I was done with New York, because I figured I’d done everything I wanted to do,” he said. “I had checked off the to-do list. I got to be Off Broadway. I got to be on Broadway. I got to travel not only the country, but the world. I went to Japan. I did a play in Alaska. I got to be at Carnegie Hall. I did some TV and film, but that was never a big thing. I did a couple of commercials.”

From his earliest days in New York, Jackson’s experience there was dosed with straight shots of sometimes humbling reality.

“My first role on Broadway was in the ensemble of the ‘Thoroughly Modern Millie’ revival. I was a replacement. I didn’t have an appointment to audition, but I danced, I made the cut and I sang for the entire creative team.

Then they invited me to the stage door that night. I still didn’t know if I’d gotten the job or not. I showed up and the head costume supervisor was taking my measurements,” Jackson recalled.

“I finally asked her what was going on, and she said, ‘It’s down to you and another guy, and whoever fits the costume gets the job.’ So I guess I fit the costume better than the other guy, and that was a lesson about the business, right?”

Television work

That business included not only appearing and touring in musicals, but also modeling and working as an extra in television shows like “Sex and the City,” where he appeared regularly as a “recurring background actor” without lines.

He even did temporary office work, including a job for fashion designer Ralph Lauren’s company.

“The great thing about acting is it teaches you to always be present, so any job becomes one long game of improv,” Jackson said. “You know how to be adaptable and reliable.”

One of Jackson’s favorite theater memories comes from the time he spent traveling and performing with the national touring company of the satirical hit musical “Book of Mormon.”

“You get very bored on tour. On the bus, I learned how to sew and knit,” he said.

“The cast would get together and we’d have these costume balls with challenges monthly, and there’d be a theme. It started out with recycled materials, and you had to create an outfit.

“We’d do the first act of the show, we’d run downstairs, throw on our costumes and do this runway show for ourselves. Sometimes our stage manager would judge it and there’d be prizes. Then we’d change back into our costumes for the actual production and go up and do Act II.”

Fine arts degree

His interest in sewing dates back to growing up in the Midwest, first in Ohio and later in Michigan with his father, who worked for an oil distribution company and his teacher mother, who loved to sew. He went on to get a bachelor of fine arts degree from the University of Michigan, before heading for Broadway.

Jackson’s theater career brought him to Sonoma County in 2011, when he helped friends in the Broadway-trained Transcendence Theatre Company put on their first “Broadway Under the Stars” outdoor concert at Jack London State Historic Park in Glen Ellen.

After that, he returned yearly to participate in the troupe’s annual summer shows, ultimately moving out to live in the area and work with the theater company full time - both directing, performing and designing costumes - until he left the company last January.

At that point, Jackson returned to one of his long-term goals: working in education.

“I helped out my friend Nancy Dome at Epoch Education. She does diversity training for school districts and organizations.

“It was another form of me giving me back, not only to my community, especially about issues important to me like race relations, and how we still have a systematic oppression and bias in this country, but also to help her,” said Jackson, who is African American.

From there, he came to the Sonoma Community Center, where he has been able to develop some fabric art projects that express his interest in sewing and clothing design.

“The first initiative I started was a ‘Fiber Arts Happy Hour.’ I’m providing every Wednesday from 4:30 to 6 p.m. a free open studio, open to anyone and everyone who wants to come in, whether they’ve been curious about crocheting or sewing, or just want to hang out with others who might be knee-deep in whatever crafts they’re doing,” Jackson said.

“You have people who are highly skilled artists and then you have people who are beginners,” he explained.

“A community has developed in the studio, where those who are skilled sit and teach those who haven’t learned any of this before.”

Tapestry project

His next project idea - developed in collaboration with the center’s director for ceramics and the arts, Kala Stein - was a tapestry project for the community at large.

“Together, we thought of a community quilt, allowing the opportunity for anyone - be it an individual, a group, a family, an organization or even a company - to take a 12-by-12-inch square, and design it and decorate it. Then we at the community center will put it together as a tapestry,” he said.

“We’re going to unveil it at our open house Sept 8.”

Jackson has a list of future projects in mind, such as a establishing a costume bank and costume-maker training program with the center’s resident theater company, Sonoma Arts Live. And he looks forward eagerly to next April and the center’s long-established annual Trashion Fashion event, which challenges designers to create stunning garments from recycled or reused materials.

“Part of his job is to do special events and creative projects,” Stein said.

“He brings enthusiasm and different ideas to our program. We’re really happy to have someone running our fiber arts program who is coming from a theater arts background, because it brings a new perspective to an art form that tends to be very traditional.”

Local fans who have seen live shows featuring Jackson - 6-foot-2 and poised in the manner common to polished performers - have told him they miss seeing him onstage, but he’s not looking back.

“I’ve had a lot of ‘So, now what?’ moments in my life,” he said.

“I’ve tried my hand at everything. But when I was working out here in the summers, and I would go back to New York, I kept asking myself, ‘Why am I leaving paradise?’”

You can reach staff writer Dan Taylor at 707-521-5243 or dan.taylor@pressdemocrat.com.