Seizing Opportunity

Political science graduate has found fulfilling careers onstage in New York and now keeping Prince’s legacy alive at Paisley Park

Mitch Maguire ’97 believes persistence has played a large role in his various career stops.

Maguire is now the Managing Director of Paisley Park, which is an active museum, state-of-the-art recording studio and concert venue in Chanhassen, Minnesota. For nearly 30 years, the facility served as Prince’s home, creative sanctuary and production complex. Fulfilling Prince’s vision that Paisley Park would one day be open to the public, the venue today welcomes fans, musicians and audiophiles for tours, concerts, festivals and special events.

Maguire not only manages the daily operations of the Paisley Park museum but also determines concert and event programming for the performance venues and recording studios.

A political science major, Maguire said he was bit by the theater bug as a junior at State and participated in Prairie Repertory Theatre and State University Theatre. While a part of the PRT cast, Curtis C. Jackson, a visiting artist, helped Maguire determine his career path.

While the path has had multiple turns, Jackson’s influence has paid off in almost every stop.

“He made me aware of an acting internship at a professional regional theater called Playhouse on the Square in Memphis,” Maguire said. “I called them weekly, upon graduating, expressing my interest in their program. Riding a fine line between persistence and annoyance, they eventually broke down and offered me the gig, which set the course for my professional trajectory over the next few years.”

After the internship in Memphis, Maguire worked at several regional theatres across the country before moving to New York City in 2000. It was there where he performed in various off-Broadway shows, including some in Brooklyn, some at the Classical Theatre of Harlem, and a show at The Public Theater.

Make Ends Meet

“Theatre was my focus at that time. However, as anyone who has lived in New York will tell you, sustaining an existence is difficult,” he said. “I knew I needed to find another job when I wasn’t acting to make ends meet.”

That’s when Maguire happened to walk past the Ed Sullivan Theater, the site of the “Late Show with David Letterman.” He decided to introduce himself to someone wearing a Letterman jacket in front of the theater.

“I just walked up to him and said, ‘I recognize you probably get this question every day, but I’m curious to know how you got your job at the Late Show?’” Maguire said. “He said, ‘You know what, if you’d like, you can come back with a resume and I’ll pass it along to my boss.’ I pulled my resume from my bag, handed it to him, and said, ‘Here you go.

“To his credit, he walked inside and gave it to his boss who then came out to speak with me for a few minutes,” he continued. “The guy I approached in front of the theater was a Late Show page. His job was to help facilitate audience check-in every day.”

After a brief talk with the gentleman’s boss, Maguire asked if there were any openings and said he would love to come back for an interview. Shortly thereafter, he received a phone call for that interview and was hired as a page in 2000.

“Working at the Late Show allowed me to sustain an existence for myself in a way that many people in New York City never find because it’s just that tough,” Maguire said. “I started as a page, and was then promoted to a recruiter – someone who actively recruits studio audience members, and also appeared on several taped television segments.”

After a staff member left for a job at NBC, Maguire interviewed to be the audience coordinator. In addition to making sure the theater was full each night, Maguire needed to make sure the audience consisted of the right people.

“Part of what that meant was testing the waters before the show started,” he said. “I’d throw out a few jokes to gauge everyone’s mood. The takeaway message was that if you were on the fence as to whether something was funny, it was probably funny, we needed the laughter in the theater—they were free to debate the jokes on the way home.”

“This was important because it made Dave a better host and it sounded better on TV … and that’s what we were doing, creating something that was going to be broadcast across the airwaves internationally,” Maguire continued. “We needed to create the best show possible.”

Leaving New York

Maguire left the “Late Show” in 2005 to start an arts education consulting company. He married his wife, Marci, in 2006 and the two welcomed their daughter, Sadie, in 2008. It was at that point that they began looking at New York through a different lens. 

“My wife was a principal at a brand-new high school in Queens, New York, when a couple of professional opportunities became available to her in Minneapolis and New Orleans,” he said. “My work at that time was flexible in that I could operate from anywhere. It didn’t take a lot of digging for us to realize that Minneapolis was going to win out and it did.”

After moving to the Twin Cities in 2012, the lifelong Prince enthusiast had numerous opportunities to see Prince perform at Paisley Park before the artist’s death in 2016.

“For me, Prince has always been the single most influential artist in my life. For whatever reason, I always resonated with his music and the social impact he had on the world,” Maguire said. “I think my college roommates would vouch for the fact that I listened to more Prince music than any one person probably should. It was on constant rotation in the apartment and my car.”

“I was one of those people who was coming out to Paisley Park whenever I could to see Prince do his thing,” he continued. “And those were moments that I wouldn’t trade for the world.”

“These events were usually announced at the last minute and always happened late at night. It wasn’t uncommon to be walking out of Paisley Park as the sun was coming up, and on a really great night, Prince served you pancakes on your way out the door. It was an incredibly interesting and singular counterculture that Prince created.”

Persistence Pays Off

After Prince’s death, Maguire’s wife learned that the Chanhassen Dinner Theatre was hosting a job fair for the Paisley Park museum.

“She said, ‘you should go’ and knowing that my wife is always right, I was like ‘yeah, I probably should.’ So, I did,” he said. “The job fair took place over two days. Everyone was given a number and you sat and waited until your number was called for an interview.

“I went on a Friday, which was the second of the two days, and there were approximately 400 people there. I kept waiting and waiting and waiting and finally toward the end of the day, someone came onstage and said, ‘I’m sorry, we’ve seen all the people we can see today because there is a show tonight at the dinner theatre so this is going to be it.’

“I started packing things up and resigned myself to the fact that this was how it was going to play out for me. But not more than five minutes later, that same person came back onstage and said ‘we’ve been able to broker a deal with the theatre. We’re going to see about 20 more people.’ They started rattling off the numbers and mine was the last number called,” Maguire said. “I started unpacking my stuff and ended up having about a 10-minute interview. And, you know, in some way, not unlike my experience with Letterman, the next day I got a call to have a second interview and then a day or two after that was hired as a part-time tour guide at Paisley Park.”

After serving as a tour guide, Maguire started training tour guides before becoming the tour operations manager. In 2019 he became the legacy preservationist, which included leading both the Tour Operations and Museum Collections departments, as well as developing production and programming. In the spring 2021, came his promotion to managing director.

“I was thrilled to be hired as a tour guide because Prince was my guy, and I was now actively playing a role in fostering his legacy,” he said. “I think based on my experiences, whether it was the ‘Late Show’ or acting or certainly being a Prince enthusiast, the confluence of these experiences enabled me to explore various opportunities at Paisley.

“At some point in your life, if you’re really lucky, you will have an opportunity professionally that exceeds your wildest dreams and expectations. That’s what working at Paisley Park has been for me.” Maguire said.

“I pour my heart into the work because it matters. I believe in what we are doing and the artist’s legacy for which we are doing it. I didn’t know Prince personally, but he certainly helped me get to know myself, and I always considered that to be a tremendous gift. The work I do now is how I repay that gift—and that’s a true privilege.”

– Matt Schmidt