Esquire Jauchem

Esquire Jauchem is a producer, director, writer, designer, and performer whose work spans theater, opera, ballet, film, and television. Born in Akron, Ohio, he grew up the son of a Goodyear Tire machinist and a former beauty queen. His maternal grandparents emigrated from Zics, Hungary, and his paternal family traced its roots to Biermansdorf, Switzerland. Jauchem's earliest theatrical experiences took place in his grandmother's garage, where he staged informal productions as a child. He attended Harvey S. Firestone High School before enrolling at The Defiance College, where he studied theology, made his first film, and became deeply engaged with the theater department under Professor William Curtis. During the summer of 1964, he performed as an actor with the Defiance College Players in Barnstable, Massachusetts. After graduating, he relocated to Boston to attend Emerson College, but his trajectory shifted when Sarah Caldwell, the world-renowned conductor and impresario, offered him a full-time position with the Opera Company of Boston.

At twenty-four, Jauchem founded the Boston Repertory Theatre, which over the following decade became the most successful local theater company in Boston. The company originated more than forty productions and featured performers including James Kirkwood Jr., Tommy Tune, Viveca Lindfors, and Dick Shawn. David Morse was an original founding member of the company, and the Boston Rep is credited with launching the careers of several emerging artists. The resident acting company performed in true rotating repertory, sometimes presenting two different productions in a single day. In 1976, the Boston Rep opened the first new theater built in the Boston Theater District in thirty years, located at One Boylston Place, inaugurating the space for the national bicentennial with the world premiere of Kurt Vonnegut's Player Piano. The previous year, in 1975, Jauchem had adapted and directed the world premiere stage version of Harry Nilsson's The Point!, with David Morse starring as the character Oblio.

Concurrent with his work at the Boston Rep, Jauchem served as Associate Director and Production Administrator of the Opera Company of Boston under Sarah Caldwell. In that role he helped stage numerous American premieres, including The Trojans by Berlioz, Russlan and Ludmilla by Glinka, The Icebreak by Sir Michael Tippett, and War and Peace by Prokofiev, the last of which incorporated the entire Boston Rep acting company in non-singing roles. Among the opera singers with whom he worked were Beverly Sills, Régine Crespin, Plácido Domingo, James McCracken, Donald Gramm, Victoria de los Ángeles, and Shirley Verrett. Jauchem also appeared onstage in a number of these productions and developed a reputation for creating elaborate special effects within Caldwell's stagings.

After relocating to New York, Jauchem co-founded Jauchem and Meeh Special Effects with Gregory Meeh, a company that has provided special effects for opera, Broadway, and Las Vegas productions over several decades. His Broadway work includes an appearance in Macbeth in 1981. He also served as General Manager of The Big Apple Circus in New York City and as co-producer of the American-Soviet Festival: Making Music Together, directed by Sarah Caldwell.

Jauchem subsequently moved to Venice Beach, California, where he transitioned into electronic media, producing and directing more than one thousand television episodes for networks including NBC, CBC, Spike, UPN, E! Entertainment, Style, Logo, and the Oprah Winfrey Network. He was Supervising Producer of Clean House, a comedy and makeover series starring Niecy Nash that ranked as the top program on its network for several years and earned Emmy nominations. A spin-off special, The Messiest House, achieved the highest ratings in the history of the Style network. Jauchem also served as Co-Executive Producer and Showrunner of Home Made Simple, starring Paige Davis on the Oprah Winfrey Network, which received an Emmy nomination, and as Supervising Producer of RuPaul's Drag U on Logo TV.

His theater work has continued alongside his television career. He directed an additional production of The Point! and produced The Little Prince, with David Morse starring as The Aviator. He has written and directed multimedia stage tributes to playwrights Paula Vogel, Marsha Norman, and David Henry Hwang for the William Inge Theater Festival. Among his projects in development are a short film based on David Henry Hwang's play Bondage, an independent feature film titled Down by the River with a screenplay by Gerald Berns based on a play by William Curtis and slated to star David Morse and Kimberly Elise, a cabaret-style musical built around the music of Stew and Heidi Rodewald, and an adaptation of The Madwoman of Chaillot set on the Venice Beach Boardwalk.