Mary-Catherine Jones speaks on her Musical Theatre Training at E&H and Current Lead Role in “Spring Awakening”

Senior Musical Theatre major Mary-Catherine Jones is grateful for the opportunity to have a leading role in the theatre departments production of the musical Spring Awakening this semester.

Mary-Catherine Jones

Senior Musical Theatre major Mary-Catherine Jones is grateful for the opportunity to have a leading role in the theatre department’s production of the musical “Spring Awakening” this semester.

Guest Contributor, Nathaniel Hupp

Mary-Catherine Jones is a senior at Emory & Henry College and is a BFA Musical Theatre major. The theatre department has been hard at work preparing for their upcoming musical, “Spring Awakening”, in which Jones has a leading role.

“I play Wendla, so a lot of my energy this semester has been spent working on my character development,” Jones said.

She also hinted at what the show consists of and provided a sense of warning to those who plan to attend the show. “There is a lot of emotional stuff to tackle in this show, like suicide and sexuality.”

Jones opened up on how she got her foot into the theatre door. In the fourth grade, she was cast into a small production of the musical “Honk”, a show around the ugly duckling story. She credits that show to her long-lasting and current passion for musical theatre here at Emory & Henry. That is a platform that she uses to try to recruit students into the theatre world.

Jason Hall, a sophomore at E&H, says that he has been thinking about attending the upcoming musical. “Truthfully, I have never been to a musical or show before. But I have heard so much about the upcoming show from people around campus that I may actually go out and see what it is all about.”

Personally, Jones says her love of musical theatre has led her to enjoy her time on campus thus far, and that she does get to participate in other activities, whether it be through being a sister of Sigma Upsilon Nu, or working alongside another organization here on the Emory & Henry College campus.

“Even though I am mostly in theatre courses, I have the opportunity to be all over campus pretty much all of the time!” Jones said.

A faculty member here at the college who Jones recognized as somebody who has been a great asset to her in the theatre department is Professor Foster, who teaches Jones in her Stage Movement and Acting IV courses this semester. “She inspires her classes and the energy she brings into the room makes everyone comfortable enough to take risks and make mistakes to truly discover different aspects of our craft.”

Jones is looking forward to the rest of the semester, and is excited to finish performances of “Spring Awakening” which premiered at the MCA on Thursday, October 21.