In High school, I was an Art Major. Through the discipline of visual art I learned not only how to see and interpret but I began to have a scientific method of understanding all subjects. I began to blossom as a student. I could see relationships between abstractions of history, science and language and the present reality. I.e. I understood correlations between music and math, negative space/shape and geometry and even Shakespeare’s verse and rhyme cuplits to the command of the use of language and Standard English. Then in college, at Cheyney University, I learned how to control and manipulate both the visual art and my story telling ability as an actor under the tutelage of Edythe Scott-Bagley. It was there I learned to be intentional with how lines were delivered, how a set would be designed or crafted and how lighting affects the mood and/or weight of a scene. There, while designing sets, lighting, sound and learning the history of theater and acting, my gifts were converted into skills, which are the foundation of my artistic practice. That foundation has allowed me to be able to craft together my own theater company.
It has allowed me to embrace my history, my skills set and my design. At Temple University, I had the opportunity to refine my writing skill even further. Having access to reference points, from Aristophanes to Ben Johnson and from Friedrich Schiller to Lynn Nottage, to choose from and experiment with different ways to tell a story. So now, here on my grandmother’s shoulders and my education I stand. I’ve become a singer/songwriter, poet, visual artist, playwright, actor and historic storyteller and activist. I am the legacy of my grandmother’s toil, my own exploration, research and immersion in plays and playwriting at Temple and Professor Edythe Scott-Bagley’s instruction. I have been entrusted with their wisdom, gifts and my own creativity to inform, beautify and enrich the world. That is my mission. That is my design. That is Andre N. Jones.
