Darryl V. Jones, MFA, Theatre Directing Faculty Profile

Darryl V. Jones is Full Professor of Theatre at Cal State East Bay where he teaches in the Musical Theatre, Acting and Directing concentrations. At CSUEB Prof. Jones has directed several west coast premieres of new plays including Follow Me To Nellie’s by Dominique Morisseau and Xtigone by Nambi Kelley, which was chosen to attend the Region VII American College Theatre Festival. The list of musicals he has directed and sometimes co-choreographed at CSUEB includes In The Heights, Chicago, I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change, Godspell and The Wiz.

On Broadway Prof. Jones was the assistant director for the musical Play On. Off-Broadway he directed We Are Your Sisters for the Blue Heron Theatre Co. receiving and AUDELCO award for outstanding production. 

Prof. Jones’s professional directing work in the Bay Area includes the musical Spunk for The Lorraine Hansberry Theatre Company and A Soulful Christmas in which he was also a featured performer. He directed Welcome Home for the Aurora Theatre’s GAP series and the world premiere of the opera Dark River, based on the life of civil rights leader Fannie Lou Hamer for the Oakland Opera Company.  He subsequently directed the East Coast premiere or Dark River at Mt. Holyoke College. Prof. Jones also directed August Wilson’s Gem Of The Ocean for the Sacramento Theatre Company

Prior to his move to the Bay Area, Prof. Jones was Head of the B.F.A. Directing Concentration at the University of Michigan and Foundation Advisor for the BFA Acting Program.  His productions of The Grapes Of Wrath and Balm In Gilead both received Best Dramatic Production honors from the Ann Arbor News.

In Washington, D.C. he was Directing Associate at Arena Stage where he directed and was associate producer of PlayQuest the New Play Development Series and the Young Artist 2K Playwrights Festival.  Prof. Jones directed in many of DC’s leading theatres including The Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company where he directed Paula Vogel’s Minneola Twins.  His production of SPUNK presented at the Kennedy Center, earned him a Helen Hayes Award nomination for Outstanding Direction of a Resident Musical. He was also collaborated with Arthur Miller on a Dominican-American production of A View From The Bridge for the Source Theatre, winning the Washington Theatre Lobby Award for Outstanding Direction. Other regional theatre directing credits include and From The Mississippi Delta, Colored People’s Time, Oliver, The All Night Strut, Avenue X The A Cappella Musical, Mud River Stone and more.

He is an active member of Actors Equity Association and has performed for theatre companies such as The Lorraine Hansberry, Theatre Rhinoceros, Arena Stage, The Old Globe, Ford’s Theatre and The Kennedy Center.

Prof. Jones holds a Bachelor of Music, Vocal Performance from The Catholic University of America, School of Music and a Master of Fine Arts in Directing from the Boston University School of Theatre.