8.15.24

Two high-profile Shockers meet in Los Angeles

Two Wichita State alums, Javier Ignacio fs ’07 and JJ Jonathan Jackson ’80, met each other earlier this month in Los Angeles – at Hollywood and Vine, to be precise, near the Pantages Theatre where Ignacio was performing as Peter in a national touring company production of the musical comedy Company. Ignacio is now off to Las Vegas for the show’s next stop, and Jackson is focusing on directing and producing the Esports Awards ceremony set for August 24 in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

The two Shockers carved out some Friday afternoon time from their hectic schedules for a photo session for their alma mater’s The Shocker magazine. The next issue, slated for distribution in September, will feature Ignacio and his performing arts career, which took off on Wichita stages. Photography by Jackson and his daughter, Aria, will accompany the article. (It’s Aria Jackson who snapped the photo here.)

Jackson – a multi-Emmy winning director and producer whose credits include directing episodes of Jimmy Kimmel Live!, NFL Sunday Ticket: Red Zone, E! Live for the Red Carpet, Chasing the Crown and many more – was profiled in the most recent issue of the magazine. That winter|spring issue also carries a photo taken by Jackson in 1978 during his days as a WSU student. The photo of a 1969 Lotus 61 Formula Ford race car and its owner Tim Hellman ’80 and two of Hellman’s friends is one in a series of black-and-white #Streetwalking: Wichita shots that Jackson has taken through the years and archived online.

Jackson’s #Streetwalking images now include Ignacio at Hollywood and Vine. Originally from Caracas, Venezuela, where his grandfather was a well-known guitarist and vocalist, Ignacio calls New York City home when he’s not on the road performing. He applauds Wichita and Wichita State for launching him as an actor, singer and dancer. “I give much credit to my instructors at WSU,” he says, “as well as to my mentors at Music Theatre Wichita, for my success in the industry.” Ignacio has worked on Broadway in Side Show (2014) as the famed escapologist Harry Houdini and at some of the most prestigious regional theaters and venues in the country, including the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C., the Actors’ Playhouse at the Miracle Theatre in Coral Gables, Fla., and at California’s La Jolla Playhouse and Pantages Theatre, where Company closed yesterday, on August 18.