Mary-Catherine Jones
Mary-Catherine Jones attended a two-week summer drama class when she was in the fourth grade – and went back every year for four more years. She started dancing at a local studio when she was 3. It started with ballet and then she added tap, jazz, lyrical, modern, pointe and musical theater.
“My first ever musical outside of the summer program was ‘Fiddler on the Roof Jr.’ at a community theater in downtown Danville, Virginia. I think I realized I wanted to perform for the rest of my life when I was cast as Ursula in the ‘Little Mermaid’ at the same community theater. The thing I love most about performing is probably the lasting impact that it leaves on an audience. I can’t remember a time that I’ve been to see a live performance that didn’t move me and make me feel. That’s what is so interesting about theater. It’s something so personal and emotional, only it’s in no way private,” she says.
When she was in high school, she performed at her local community theater with the North Star Theatre Project. She has also performed at Averett University in a few musicals and cabarets. She performed at the Prizery in South Boston, Virginia, as well as Hawks Cay Resort in Duck Key, Florida. Now that she’s attending Emory & Henry College, Emory, Virginia, she performed as Wendla in “Spring Awakening” and Paulette in “Legally Blonde.” This month she plays Alice in “Look, We Are Breathing.”
“I definitely have gone through stages in my life where I preferred dancing or singing. However, as of right now, my heart’s true passion is acting. And all of these things are not mutually exclusive for me either. I act within a song or a dance piece. To me, theater is a way of expression when nothing else will do. Especially when I am having a tough day or tough week, I walk into the rehearsal room, and I am allowed to bare my soul. Theater is eye-opening for me. I discovered things about myself during the process for ‘Spring Awakening’ that helped me heal my inner child, among other things. In many ways, theater is my medicine. Before I came to college, I definitely would’ve said comedies were my favorite. And while comedy still has a chokehold on me (I am very much into improv and sketch comedy), I would say that I love dramas and dark comedy plays and musicals more now,” she says.
Mary-Catherine says that she has several inspirations. Her musical theater dance teacher from her home studio, Brad Bass, was a huge inspiration – especially because he found his way to Broadway. Her E&H professors, Kevin Dudley, Annalee Tull, Kelly Bremner, Patrice Foster, Zacchaeus Kimbrell and other adjuncts have helped her figure out who she is as a theater artist and how to be her best self, both on and off the stage. They support her and encourage her to succeed.
She is auditioning for graduate schools and hopes to find a home to pursue her MFA in acting. She is from Danville, Virginia, and is a senior majoring in musical theater She is the daughter of Lisa Mills Jones and Scott Jones.
