You can catch Jackson Jirard on the Boston campus or in a performance of “Hello, Dolly!” at the Lyric Stage Theater.
During the day, you might find Jackson Jirard in his office on Northeastern University’s Boston campus, setting up partnerships between professors and community organizations that will allow students the chance for more experiential learning.
But when the sun goes down, the stage lights come up on Jirard’s other passions: theater and dance.
While he now works as the associate director of Northeastern’s Center for Community-Engaged Teaching and Research, Jirard has also been a professional ballet dancer, a choreographer for films like “Little Women,” and featured in musicals around the Boston area. His performances have earned him local award nominations and even caught the eye of the casting company behind “Hamilton.”
He still makes time to perform professionally even now, hopping from campus to rehearsal. His most recent role is as an ensemble member in the Boston-based Lyric Stage Theater’s current production of “Hello, Dolly!”
“‘Hello Dolly!’ is a golden age musical, but it’s one of those golden age musicals that holds up really, really well,” he said. “Every single cast member feels like this speaks to today in the same way it spoke to 1964, right when it was first created. It is a wonderful journey of female empowerment that doesn’t belittle, but rather brings light. It’s wildly entertaining … and it’s truly an amazing time.”
Jirard’s performance roots date to his childhood in New Orleans when his mother tried to enroll him in a ballet class at age 2. He cried the entire time.
“I was too disruptful,” he said. “But (my mom) tried again when I was 7 with tap, and I immediately fell in love.”
Jirard said he would’ve continued with tap had his family not moved from New Orleans to Pennsylvania. But the relocation allowed him to study ballet at Central Pennsylvania Youth ballet, a word-class facility with what Jirard described as an “unorthodox” approach to training.
Unlike other high-caliber ballet schools, CPYB wasn’t a pipeline to professional companies. The focus was simply on students learning to be the best dancers they could be.
“The mission and vision that drove (the) school and made it such a prestigious one that wasn’t connected to a ballet company,” Jirard said. “It was just a school, and the driving force behind that school was that anybody deserves good dance training. That felt extremely important because I’m not a typical ballet dancer … (The founder) did not care. She would give you the best training. … And I think that really set me up for success in many, many aspects of my life. … It put me on the path of always wanting to be connected to the stage in some way.”
It was here in this school in a little borough of Pennsylvania that Jirard’s desire to be on the stage took root and bloomed. When he graduated high school, he deferred on higher education in favor of working as a professional dancer, spending a year each performing with Ballet Austin and the Sacramento Ballet.
When he did go to college, he continued dancing, running a student ballet company. After completing undergrad, Jirard moved to the Boston area to get his master’s while continuing to dance in a local company.
Even once he had two degrees under his belt, Jirard continued to pursue his artistic career. He performed in “The Nutcracker” with the Jose Mateo Ballet in Cambridge, danced in a baroque ballet, and served as a choreographic assistant in the 2019 “Little Women” adaptation from Columbia pictures that was filmed in the Boston area.
“My mother was like ‘Honey … why not use the tool of your body now?’” Jirard said of his decision to pursue performing. “I was like ‘OK, you know, that’s actually not a bad idea.’ I’m only young once so why not use this thing while I still got it and I did.”
Around this time, Jirard got an invitation to audition for the company that casts for “Hamilton.” While he didn’t get cast in the noted show, the invitation prompted him to start working with a vocal coach and auditioning for musicals. His first role ended up being in the ensemble of “42nd Street” with the Umbrella Stage Company in Concord.
“I’d never done a musical in my entire life,” he said. “It did prepare me to start doing auditions right here in Massachusetts and that’s exactly what I started doing. … Once I had a bunch of songs in (my) back pocket for a casting agency, it became very easy to use the same amount of discipline and practices I gained during the audition circuit for ballet in the audition circuit for musical theater.”
Jirard continued his foray into musical theater, appearing in the now-defunct New Repertory Theater’s production of “Oliver!” as Noah Claypole. He didn’t give up on dancing either, performing in the world premiere of “Swan Lake in Blue” at the Greater Boston Stage Company, a reimagining of “Swan Lake” but with big band music.
Then COVID-19 hit and the theater world ground to a halt. But luckily, Jirard had his degrees to fall back on and found a job working at a local nonprofit called Rehearsal for Life as the associate director of a theater-based program that allows participants to role-play in scenarios in order to teach communication and conflict resolution.
And when stage lights rose again, Jirard stepped back into the spotlight, continuing his burgeoning musical theater career on the side. He’s since performed in several shows at companies around Boston, channeling his ballet background into musical theater. He’s featured in several Lyric Stage shows and was in the Central Square Theater’s production of “Ain’t Misbehavin’” as one of the five ensemble members that carry the show.
Jirard received a nomination for an Elliot Norton award for his performance in “Ain’t Misbehavin’.” The awards recognize achievements in the Greater Boston theater community.
“‘Ain’t Misbehavin’” is a very Afrocentric party-going musical that is carried by its ensemble,” Jirard said. “We are all principle and ensemble at the same time. That kind of solidarity was wonderful because we all encouraged each other.”