Today we’d like to introduce you to Emani Jones.
Thanks for sharing your story with us Emani. So, let’s start at the beginning and we can move on from there.
I have had a passion for acting and storytelling for as long as I can remember. When I was a child, I was always involved in it in any way I could be, even down to writing and performing short skits with my sisters for our parents to videotape. So when it came time for me to go to college in 2013, it was a no-brainer that I would go to Spelman and study Theatre Arts. However, life hit and due to financial burdens, I couldn’t stay at Spelman and had to leave after my first year. When I transferred schools, I went down to the amazing Rust College in Holly Springs, MS and got my Bachelor’s in Mass Communications Broadcast Journalism. I enjoyed my time there, I was a radio personality and producer while I was in Mississippi, but I wasn’t passionate about the work I did. See, my dream was the be a professional actor and receive a Master’s Degree from Yale just like Angela Bassett.
So upon graduation – mostly because I wasn’t quite ready to jump into the “real world,” nor was I prepared to apply to Yale – I returned to college. I came back to Atlanta and enrolled in another Bachelor’s degree program at Clark Atlanta University studying theatre arts – again. There, I flourished in ways I never had before. After my first year at Clark, I had a colleague, Christian “Spade” Fedison, who approached me about a play he’d written and wanted me to produce with him. It was a brilliant piece called “Love and Other Things That Kill You” and I was eager to work on it despite my severe lack of experience in the field. I did a ton of research and learned things along the way and at the end of the process we put on a remarkable production. After each curtain call, we were bombarded with questions by the audience, “When is the next show? How can I get involved?” They were in love with our ingenuity and our drive to produce this 100% student-led production with little to no help from our academic department at Clark. So right there on the spot, Spade and I decided we would found the Dynamite Theatre Company, which quickly evolved to incorporate dance. Spade acts as the Artistic Director while I serve as the Executive Director of the newly-founded company. In Spring 2019, the play was adapted into a film for which I served as the assistant director and is currently in post-production also being edited by me.
A semester later, still reeling from the high of producing “Love and Other Things,” I was ecstatic to jump into the first official project as the Dynamite Theatre and Dance Company: directing a play. I chose “Hurt Village” by Katori Hall because it resonated with me in ways I can hardly explain. The show is a brilliant work of art that takes place in my father’s hometown of Memphis, TN – the show just felt like home to me, the characters felt like family and friends of mine. The process was 100% a learning experience for me. I’d been the assistant director for our original film, but this was my first time stepping into the “head honcho” role. Again, I did extensive research and learned along the way. In the end, I could not have been more proud of the production. The show was authentic and moving, and there was only one position – that of the technical director – which was not filled by a black woman (writer, director, stage manager, sound designer, prop master, marketing, PR, set constructors all black women). I am honored to have been able to direct this play and tell this story, giving so many black women the chance to hone their crafts in the process. My next goal, aside from graduating from The Illustrious Clark Atlanta University in May 2020, is to grace the stage as a director again, but this time directing a piece written by me. I still act as well and have hopes of attending Yale for either acting, directing, or playwriting whenever God sees fit for me to go.
We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
This was definitely not a smooth road. I have been trying to be in the theatre world all of my life. However, to appease my family and try to ensure a financially stable lifestyle, I was originally supposed to go to college as a pre-law student. Because of that, there was a lot of preparation I should’ve been doing in high school that I just wasn’t and when I got to college I felt somewhat behind compared to my peers. It was even worse when I transferred to Rust College which didn’t even have theatre as a major or even so much as a theatre club at the time. I was out of commission for three years and almost stayed in radio. It was my late professor, John Arthur House, who taught me Speech at Rust College that inspired me to rejoin the industry after he and another professor, Dr. Alisea McLeod took me to a workshop at the Hattiloo Theatre in Memphis, TN. There, I was reunited with my classmates from Spelman who were performing for the workshop and my former professor Kieth Bolden who’d organized the production, “Hands Up.” That definitely inspired and encouraged me to go back to what I truly loved, rather than what I was simply good at.
When I returned to undergrad the second time around, I was longer and living off campus, trying to juggle finances, relationships, and feeling like the old chick on campus. Although I am only 24 now, I feel like a whole generation older than my classmates which I think comes from the maturity of having been through a whole four years of undergrad already. I did and often times still do feel like an island, it is hard to make friends when I feel like I can’t relate to my fellow students because they’re mentally so much younger than me. I worked 18 hour+ days in times I was working on a show. While I was producing Love and Other Things That Kill You, I was also cast in Clark Atlanta University’s production of “In Real Life” by Charlayne Woodard where I played six different roles in one show. Many nights I would get home around midnight, try to fit homework, studying, and running lines in before bed, then wake up at 5 am to hit the gym and do it all over again. As a student actress, working a real job is extremely difficult and because I have a degree already, I’m no longer eligible for federal work-study through FAFSA.
So, as you know, we’re impressed with Dynamite Theatre and Dance Company – tell our readers more, for example what you’re most proud of as a company and what sets you apart from others.
The Dynamite Theatre and Dance Company was founded to give students in the Atlanta University Center (AUC) the opportunity to work. Our academic departments at Clark Atlanta University and Spelman College each put on at most four productions per year and most of them have a cast of less than 10. It was our goal to give students more experience, not only as performers but in all areas backstage including set, costumes, sound, lights, etc. We don’t always have the opportunity to gain hands-on experience through the school in those areas, but the Dynamite Theatre and Dance Company is 100% student-operated. If we don’t do it, it will not get done. I think this is what I’m most proud of about our company. Of course, the fact that we produced an amazing play, Hurt Village, which sold out tickets and had amazing feedback, being credited as the “best play I’ve seen all semester” by my classmates and peers, was an amazing accomplishment of which I am beyond proud. However, the ability to give my peers the opportunity to do what they love, or try things out they ordinarily wouldn’t have the chance to do, warms my heart. We’re providing students with real life resume credits backed by real experience.
So, what’s next? Any big plans?
I plan to continue acting, directing, and playwriting. I’m not certain which of these paths I will follow in graduate school, but God Willing, I will complete one of these programs at Yale University when I decide. In January 2020, I will be attending the URTA recruiting event in New York City to audition for graduate programs all over the world. Until then, I will be working at a major theatre company in Atlanta and/or teaching theatre or English in an Atlanta area school district.
Contact Info:
- Phone: 4049390503
- Email: EmaniOnStage@gmail.com thedynamitetheater@gmail.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/emani_jones/
- Facebook: https://www.instagram.com/dynamitetheatre/
Image Credit:
Lem Luvah, WaveBeast, Spade Fedison, Al G.
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