Returning Home: Kooza’s Artistic Director Closes the Loop

Jamieson Lindenberg talks about how he went from being fired as an usher to directing Kooza, which is showing in Hong Kong until July 13

I WAS BORN IN

St Petersburg, Florida, in 1984. My mum called me Mr Sparkles or Mr Showman. I was always putting on a show. I was always entertaining whoever was around. I definitely had something. That’s why I think they encouraged me to go into theatre. There was just something a little different. They recognised something special.

NO ONE KNEW

I could sing until I was probably nine or 10. When they heard me sing in the school choir, that was when it turned into “put him in lessons and let’s help facilitate that as much as we can”.

I STUDIED AT

A performing-arts high school for theatre and dance. My core education and training vocally as an artist was in this conservatory as a young adult. That is where
Cirque du Soleil
came to recruit ushers. We did an interview and they offered me a position as an usher for a show called

Quidam

that was playing at the Tropicana Field (in St Petersburg). That was my first job. I was 15.

Do you have questions about the biggest topics and trends from around the world? Get the answers with
SCMP Knowledge
, our new platform of curated content with explainers, FAQs, analyses and infographics brought to you by our award-winning team.

I’D NEVER HEARD OF

Cirque du Soleil, but I was absolutely blown away by what I was seeing. I was studying theatre, so it was quite a contrast to Broadway, which is what I went on to do.

I BROKE SOME OF

the rules – I was very late to work as a 15-year-old high-school student is – and I was let go. I was disappointed, but didn’t even think about Cirque or that I could ever perform or be involved in that capacity because I finished school for theatre.

I WENT TO NEW YORK’S

Marymount Manhattan College to study theatre and directing. After I graduated, I did Broadway musicals like

Rent

. I toured internationally on its Asian tour and I did kids’ shows and other touring theatre shows.

I WAS IN BETWEEN

two gigs when Cirque had a call-out for a show called

Zumanity

in Las Vegas. I went in for that audition and they actually said, “Would you mind submitting for

Quidam

?” I was like, no way, that’s the show that I watched as an usher.

I SANG FOR



QUIDAM


for almost nine years. Then that show closed and I went to

Varekai

as a principal singer. Singing was something people always thought I did well but, to be honest, I wasn’t always passionate about it. I tell people all the time that you may be great at something and everyone’s rooting for you to go on Broadway, to go on an

Idol

or to be a singer, recording artist or a dancer, but you may not really feel totally passionate about that.

MY PASSION IS DIRECTING

, staging, conceptualising, creating visions and carrying on visions of others and connecting people. It’s storytelling. Not singing. So it was hard. I had to break up with that part of myself. In 2013, I started branching out on my own and doing small projects. On my breaks, I would go and self-produce shows. I started a cabaret show and a queer circus.

I CREATED A SHOW

that had a great message for queer people. It felt like I was a bit ahead with that – in opening doors for queer and trans performers, and in the message I was trying to send about
gender identity
and how we view identity.

I WAS PROFOUNDLY

humbled and honoured to see people pay to see our work. When I saw 500 to 600 people at night over three weeks – buying tickets to see shows, standing up and enjoying it – that was really like: this is the right path for me.

IN 2018,



KOOZA



HAD

an opening for an artistic director’s assistant. I thought this would be a great way to come back to Cirque du Soleil with a more editorial, director’s point of view.

THE PANDEMIC WAS A

pivotal point for me. Many of us in the arts and entertainment were dishwashing. The reality is you had to reinvent yourself. In this world at Cirque, it’s our livelihood, but it’s also our identity. We live and we travel together. When all of that is stripped away, you question everything about yourself. You have to reinvent yourself, not just for your finances. There were three or four years of just, “What do I do now? Where do I go now?”

NOW I LIVE ON A

small island called San Juan (in Washington state). I moved there during the pandemic and I bought a business – talk about reinvention – for wedding rentals because it’s like “mega wedding” out there.

MY BEST FRIEND

, who is from Cirque, and I bought this business called San Juan Shindigs. And then we kind of flipped it over the last two years before I came back to Cirque. Again, a total pivot. I owned tents. I owned thousands and thousands of forks and plates. And we supplied all of the major wedding and receptions out there. I feel like I’ve lived a million lives.

AFTER THE


PANDEMIC

, I came back as an artistic director for Cirque’s new show,

Songblazers

, which is our country music show that just wrapped up last year. So here I am again, back at

Kooza

in an AD role. Usher to artistic director, in a nutshell!

MY GOAL IN LIFE

is to create art or to create large productions that touch people and uplift the voices of others and are meaningful. I was an empathetic kid. I was protective of my classmates. I was always calling out when something wasn’t fair or was unjust. Empathy helps me in my daily job here as an artistic director to relate to artists.

THE FUTURE FOR ME

is to get on board with even bigger voices and bigger productions. This is as big as it gets for the circus world. But do I have those same visions? I don’t know. Maybe I do.

WE HAD A MAJOR

celebrity visit us recently, and she’d just won a bunch of Grammys. When I was talking with her, I was envisioning what ideas I would bring to her show. That really gets my juices going. We’re doing a major pink UFO and it’s gonna beam you up and the vibe is Italy 1960s in space. How do we get there? Putting logistics together, creating the art direction, the staging team, the choreography – making all that come together for the vision of the artist would be awesome. Gaining experience in major shows like this just gets you closer.

I WOUND UP ON

this path. Whether you believe in fate or destiny, clearly the circus ran away with me. It keeps coming back. It’s bizarre – even when I’m like “enough”, the train of joy comes back.

More Articles from SCMP

Shangri-La Dialogue: France’s Macron warns credibility at stake if war condemnation inconsistent

Unitree Robotics changes to joint stock limited company, fanning IPO speculation

Wang Yi ushers in new era of China-led mediation with Hong Kong-based legal body

China closer to lifting Japanese seafood ban after ‘substantial progress’ in talks

This article originally appeared on the South China Morning Post (www.scmp.com), the leading news media reporting on China and Asia.

Copyright (c) 2025. South China Morning Post Publishers Ltd. All rights reserved.