Necrology

John Michael McCormack '81

Apr. 13, 1959-May. 18, 2020

For nearly four decades, John Michael ­McCormack ’81 was a quietly influential figure in the Off-Broadway scene, supporting the careers of actors and playwrights and serving as the longtime executive director of INTAR, a New York City theatre that ­produces Latino works in English.

“He was a living history of Off-Broadway,” wrote INTAR Artistic Director Lou Moreno in a remembrance of McCormack. “There was scarcely a name or a play he did not have intimate knowledge of, and that perspective is what kept our offices full of chatter and laughter.”

McCormack, of Queens, N.Y., died at home on May 18, 2020, at age 61. The New York Times wrote about his life as part of its series “Those We Lost,” which remembers people who died from COVID-19. In the Times story, those who knew McCormack said he “stopped at nothing to create opportunities for young actors. Also older actors. And young playwrights. And established playwrights who needed a recharge. And Latino playwrights, ­directors, and actors.”

McCormack was born on April 13, 1959, in New York City. At Hamilton he majored in theatre, then returned to New York City to pursue a career that would benefit many artists’ lives.

According to the INTAR remembrance, McCormack’s career began at the Ensemble Studio Theatre, where he was producing director. He co-founded the Directors Project with the Drama League, and after several other career stops, he founded his own company, All Seasons Theater. In 2006, he took on the job as INTAR executive director.

A sampling of the actors McCormack advocated for over the years include Kevin Bacon, Mark Brokaw, and Patricia Clarkson. “When 80 or so mostly theater people came together on Zoom to memorialize Mr. McCormack last month, nearly everyone told the same story: he lifted my career,” the June 4 Times story said.

The INTAR statement about ­McCormack included praise from a number of accomplished theatre professionals. “Nobody encouraged me more as a playwright than John McCormack,” said writer Warren Leight, a Tony Award winner and Pulitzer Prize finalist for his play Side Man and executive producer for Law & Order: SVU. “He produced the very first staged reading of Side Man and at least a dozen of my one-acts over the past 25 years. He was tireless in his support of writers and actors, and utterly self-effacing when anyone tried to thank him.”

McCormack’s survivors include four siblings, a niece, and nephews.

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