John Colgan McCluggage

A theater artist with over forty years of experience as an actor, director, teacher, and writer, John was also a loyal friend, loving husband, and dedicated uncle. Charismatic and wildly funny, he merged his professional and personal lives from an early age and brought his entire self to his theater work, and his theater passion deeply into his family life. From regional artistic leadership and directing, to bringing the joy of the classics to a pub, to impacting inmates in the prison system by teaching them Shakespeare... John inspired others and truly lived and breathed what it meant to be an artist.

He served in leadership roles at San Jose Repertory Theatre, Seacoast Repertory Theatre, and Andy’s Summer Playhouse and directed hundreds of productions at theaters across the country, including San Jose Rep, Cleveland Playhouse, Children’s Musical Theater San Jose, Seacoast Rep, Studio Arena Buffalo, Repertory Theatre of St. Louis, Barnstormers, Center Rep Walnut Creek, City Lights Theater Company SJ, and more. He taught and mentored students at Webster University, Evergreen Community College, University of New Hampshire and in many less formal settings. In 1992 he founded San Jose’s Red Ladder Theatre Company, which he directed for fourteen years. Red Ladder's award-winning programming continues today and has included improvisational theatre work with elementary and high school students and teachers, incarcerated youth and adults, developmentally disabled youth and adults, and pregnant and parenting teens. Under John’s leadership, Red Ladder was selected as a national semi-finalist for the President's Coming Up Taller Awards and was one of ten programs nationwide selected to host The Art of Peacemaking: Conflict Resolution Workshop, provided by the NEA and U.S. Department of Juvenile Justice.

With his wife of twenty nine years, Alexandra, he founded and led Buck Hill Productions with a mission to produce theatre they love, for communities they adore, with artists they admire, and to do it unusual spaces filled with joy and fun. Their production of the musical COLE! became a holiday staple for several years in Concord, NH, and ShakesBEERience San Jose – a pub, a pint and a play - was launched at Café Stritch in 2013. The irreverent homage to Shakespeare is still going strong today in San Jose under the leadership of Silicon Valley Shakespeare. Alexandra and John made homes in San Jose, Monterey, Portsmouth and Manchester NH, and beyond…where ever life and theater took them.

John was born in St. Louis and passionate about the Cardinals and the Blues. He was an avid crossword puzzler with a multi-decades unbroken streak of completed daily New York Times Crossword puzzles. He was a fabulous self-taught and adventurous chef and foodie. He loved history, and Sherlock Holmes, and his cat, Sushi. John graduated summa cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa, from Illinois College in Jacksonville, IL and received an M.F.A. in Directing from Webster University in St. Louis, MO; he was a member of the Society of Stage Directors and Choreographers as well as Actors Equity Association.

John had close friends and theater buddies across the country and across many decades. He mentored, inspired, laughed with, and deeply cared for many youngsters and family members, including his god-daughter and nieces whom he taught to cook, and act, and enjoy Shakespeare and Cole Porter and much more. John's work, passion, humor and warmth indelibly enriched the lives of both those close to him and of all those wider communities he touched. A celebration of life is planned for July in Monterey, CA.