In the Loop
Alumni News : Jun 7, 2017

Outstanding Young Alumni update: John Pinckard

By Abigail Friedman

In 2009 John Pinckard was selected as the College of the Arts’ Outstanding Young Alumnus for his work as a two-time Tony Award-winning producer. This summer, Pinckard returns to Gainesville with his boutique production office, Titled Windmills Theatricals, for its third partnership production with the School of Theatre + Dance.

The show that the company workshopped at University of Florida (UF) last summer,  PUFFS: or, Seven Increasingly Eventful Years at a Certain School of Magic & Magic, is in its tenth successful month Off Broadway “with no end in sight” Pinckard said. The creative team is getting ready to launch both a national tour and our first international production next year.  

This fall, Pinckard is working on a new immersive show called Joe’s NYC Bar, but first he will be at UF to workshop a new play that incorporates new technology, The Magnificent Revengers In…A Choose Your Own Tragedy – A Comedy!

Now an accomplished Broadway producer, Pinckard originally came to UF for the strength of its physics program because he planned to be a professor of astrophysics.

“By the time I left, I wanted to be a world-class lighting designer,” Pinckard said. “Instead I'm a Broadway producer. Make plans, God laughs.”

Looking back on his experience at UF, Pinckard said the university helped shape him in “absolutely every way.”

Even being all the way in New York, Pickard still feels connected to the university, specifically the School of Theatre + Dance.

“I have great relationships with Dean Lucinda Lavelli at the College of Arts and Director Jerry Dickey at the School of Theater + Dance, and they're my partners in bringing a professional developmental residency to UF every summer. I love spending five weeks in Gainesville every year.”


Pinckard’s production with SOTD, The Magnificent Revengers, will open June 7-11.

Click here to watch a video with Pinckard discussing The Magnificent Revengers.

Please click here for more information about the play.