2008 co-production with American Musical Theatre of San Jose and The 5th Avenue Theatre in Seattle of CABARET brings second Ivey Award recognition to Ordway Center! Click here for more details.

Welcome to James Rocco on the web!

I am Vice President of Programming and Producing Artistic Director of Ordway Center for the Performing Arts, (Click here for article that appeared in Minnesota Monthly) I also do free lance producing, directing and consulting. Currently I am working on a project for DreamWorks.

I've produced, directed, written and performed all around the world. Along the way I found an unlikely hero: George M. Cohan. Cohan was a rebel, a man who revolutionized musical theatre by bringing contemporary "music of the people" into a tradition that had grown sleepy and self-satisfied. Cohan put his brash personality on the stage and the public loved him. He gave a new generation stories they wanted to see and music they wanted to hear.

That's what Oscar Hammerstein did. That's what Hal Prince did. That's what Arthur Miller did.

The rock generation, my generation, made free-form expressionism the norm. We are accustomed to quick image flashes that conjure up entire stories. Getting these contemporary visions to the stage and reaching an audience is what I do.