Venzella Jones

Venzella Newsome Jones (1893-1973) was a black actress, orator, playwright, drama teacher, and theatre director.

Education and career

Jones was born in Ohio. She attended King's School of Oratory in Pittsburgh, becoming its first black graduate.[1] Later she taught drama at Rust College, Mississippi[2] and at Morgan State College in Baltimore.[3]

She organised the Imperial Art Players in Pittsburgh in 1924[4] and later formed the eponymous Venzella Jones Repertory Group.[5]

She was the Director of the Federal Theatre Project’s Negro Youth Theatre.[6]

References
  1. "Imperial Art Players Will Give Play Here". The Gazette Times. Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. 15 June 1923. p. 5 – via Google News Archive.
  2. "Will Appear in Special Lyceum". The Pittsburgh Courier. Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania: 6. 19 June 1926. Retrieved 12 September 2022.
  3. "Afro-American Notes". The Pittsburgh Press. Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania: 50. 31 July 1921.
  4. "March 30th Presentation by Imperial Arts Players to be triumph". The Pittsburgh Courier. Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania: 6. 31 Mar 1928.
  5. Sewell, Jan; Smout, Claire, eds. (29 April 2020). The Palgrave Handbook of the History of Women on Stage. Springer Nature. p. 445.
  6. "Theatricals". The New York Age. New York City: 8. 29 Aug 1936. Retrieved 12 September 2022.

Further reading
  • Sewell, Jan; Smout, Claire, eds. (29 April 2020). The Palgrave Handbook of the History of Women on Stage. Springer Nature. pp. 444–446.
  • Childress, Alice (19 April 2011). Perkins, Kathy A. (ed.). Selected Plays. Northwestern University Press. pp. XIV–XV.
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