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Black Theater, Black Lives
From National Endowment for the Arts | Part of the Art Works series | 28:30
Writer, director, and actor, Thomas W. Jones II makes sense of the world through theater
Tom Jones isn't just a writer, director, choreographer, lyricist, producer and co-founder of a Black Theater Company, he's also an actor who went straight from directing Bessie's Blues at MetroStage to the Woolly Mammoth Theatre where he is rehearsing the part of Mike in Lisa D'Amour's new play, Cherokee.
Thomas W. Jones II is a man of the theater--a living theater that seeks to break down barriers and start an audience wondering and thinking. He's also immensely successful at it. Even though he makes his home in Atlanta, he's been nominated for the prestigious Washington DC theater honor the Helen Hayes Award 45 times.... and he's won 15. not a bad record. He came of age during the Black Arts Movement and continues its aim of producing theater that creates a context for public conversation. But don't worry: it's not didactic and neither is he.