By Beth Lipoff – Correspondent
John Nimick has spent the last few weekends performing in a facsimile of Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre.
His full-time vocation, though, is to bring the sport of squash back to the world stage.
The U.S. Squash Hall of Famer plays multiple roles in The Concord Players’ current production, “Shakespeare in Love.”
“Auditioning made me more nervous than I have probably been since the final of a major squash tournament in the late ’80s,” he said.
Nimick moved to Concord a few years ago from Brookline. Though he’s long wanted to get back into theater, it wasn’t until now that the timing was perfect.
His company, Squash Engine, just finished staging its biggest annual event, the Tournament of Champions. That involves putting a glass squash court in New York’s Grand Central Terminal for people to watch games.
Nimick flew back for just one night in the middle of it to attend a rehearsal in Concord.
An early start
Growing up near Philadelphia, Nimick got into squash through a club his parents attended and later through schools. By the time he joined the varsity team at Princeton in the late ’70s, squash was booming in the United States.
There, he and his team won the national championship three times, and, after a short post-college stint selling cable television door to door, he joined the North American professional squash tour, playing singles from 1982 to 1992 and doubles for 10 years after that.
Nimick won the North American Open and the Boston Open twice each.
“I love how physically intense it is. I love that you and your competitor are sharing the same space,” he said.
Squash requires a level of self-awareness a player might not need in a sport with a net.
“Many people have said squash is kind of physical chess. You’re always tactically trying to be in the right spot at the right time and hit the right shot, but you also have to respect the fact that your opponent has the right to go respond to that shot, and you have to get out of that opponent’s way,” he said. “It’s quite an athletic dance in a squash court.”
He moved to the Boston area because of its squash community, and it was there, at a squash club in Allston, that he met his future wife, Kate. They’ve been married for 34 years and have a son, Tyler.
Olympics-bound
After running the North American pro tour, Nimick led the Professional Squash Association. He developed the Tournament of Champions in 1990 and has produced it every year since save 2021.
Squash continues to keep him busy, both through his company and because he’s helping to stage the sport’s entry into the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles.
Because of his experience producing squash events, he’s a technical consultant on things like how many courts to construct, placing them inside or outside, and having the events during the day or evening.
“That doesn’t mean I get an invitation or a ticket. We’ll have to see about that,” he said. “It is exciting. It’s squash’s shot to make a difference in the public consciousness and get back to a growth cycle.”
He hopes the Olympics shine a light on more local squash-based urban youth development programs like SquashBusters.
As for theater, he says, the skill sets for squash and acting aren’t mutually exclusive.
“I like to win, and I like to get it right. I have enjoyed really applying practice time and rehearsal time, and I think I know how to be a team player,” he said.
So for one more weekend, he’ll be in Elizabethan England, portraying a Guard, Goon, Heavy, Enforcer, Actor in the Company, and Priest.
And when time allows, he says, he’s eager to take part in another show.
For ticket information for “Shakespeare in Love,” visit concordplayers.org.
