Nagle Jackson, former Artistic Director of McCarter Theatre Center who brought Charles Dickens’ novel, A Christmas Carol, to life on the McCarter stage for the first time in its history directing his 1980 adaptation, died July 15 in Rhinebeck, New York, at age 88.
Internationally known theatrical director and playwright, writing 20 original plays and adaptations, Mr. Jackson was a seminal figure in the American regional theater movement, serving as Resident Director of the American Conservatory Theater in San Francisco (1967–70), Artistic Director of the Milwaukee Repertory Theater (1971–77), and Artistic Director of the Tony Award–winning McCarter Theatre Center for the Performing Arts (1979–90).
Nagle Jackson was the first American director ever invited to direct in the Soviet Union where, in 1987, he was contracted to stage Tennessee Williams’ The Glass Menagerie for the Bolshoi Dramatic Theater in Leningrad (now St. Petersburg). It opened in April 1988 and remained in the repertory of that theater for 12 years.
Mr. Jackson’s directorial career began at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival in 1965 where he staged Ben Jonson’s Volpone. He returned to direct seven productions there in total — among them a 1994 production of The Two Noble Kinsmen that completed the festival’s Shakespeare canon.
An esteemed playwright, Jackson’s works include the widely performed comedy/drama Taking Leave, the farce Opera Comique, and the award-winning The Elevation of Thieves. In addition to A Christmas Carol, his adaptations include Faustus in Hell, a musical staging of Horace McCoy’s They Shoot Horses, Don’t They?, and Charles Dickens’ A Tale of Two Cities.
Mr. Jackson directed and co-wrote the book for Clark Gesner’s musical The Utter Glory of Morrissey Hall starring Celeste Holm, which debuted on Broadway at the Mark Hellinger Theater in May 1979. A gifted educator, Jackson’s “System of Five” is used throughout the country by actors and directors.
Born in Seattle in 1936, Nagle Jackson was the younger of two children raised in Walla Walla, Washington, by his parents, Paul Jackson and Gertrude Dunn Jackson. After graduating from the Portsmouth Abbey School in Rhode Island, he returned home to attend Whitman College, graduating in 1958 with a BA in English and French Literature, after which he studied as a Fullbright Fellow in Paris at L’Ecole de Mime with Etienne Decroux. In 1995, Jackson was awarded an Honorary Doctorate in Humane Letters from Whitman College.
Mr. Jackson was married to Sandy Suter Jackson in 1963, living the last 44 years of their lives together in Princeton Junction, New Jersey, until her death in 2023, just weeks shy of their 60th wedding anniversary.
He is survived by his daughters Rebecca Morton (Jeffrey Morton) and Hillary Jackson; his grandchildren Martha Morton and David Morton; his sister, Jeannette Jackson Murphy; and nieces and nephews Danielle Murphy McMahon, Mark Murphy, Megan Murphy (Gregg Lachow), Morgan Murphy (Lori Murphy), and Topher Murphy.
A celebration of Nagle Jackson’s life is being planned for spring 2025. Please contact [email protected] for more information.