The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Stage Door’s artistic director resigns
Jones leaves after less than a year as board looks in new direction.
Less than a year after he accepted the job as artistic director at Dunwoody’s Stage Door Theatre, Willie E. Jones III has left the company. Jones resigned just before Thanksgiving, according to board chair Donald Boyken.
When former artistic director Robert Egizio was furloughed in 2020 — after what Stage Door’s board said was a significant loss of revenue at the time because of COVID-19 — many wondered what direction the company would take for its 48th season. Jones, 22, was hired in March and began this spring, setting an ambitious schedule that included “Romeo and Juliet” in the fall and additional Shakespeare fare in 2022. His goal was to make Stage Door (formerly known as Stage Door Players) a classical repertory theater company.
Jones’ version of “Romeo and Juliet,” which opened Sept. 30, “came across OK,” said Boyken, but was not a moneymaker. The board began looking at the remainder of the season at the time, and the company decided to scrap next year’s planned versions of “The Miser,” “Twelfth Night” and “The Tempest.”
“We tried to course-correct, and Willie chose that he’d rather do more Shakespeare than go with the direction we wanted to go, so he resigned,” said Boyken, who has been the board chair since February.
In exchange for a larger severance package, Boyken said, Jones signed a confidentiality agreement and a non-disparagement agreement.
Jones did not return a phone call or text message from ARTSATL.
Prior to Jones’ departure, Justin Ball also joined the company as executive director, replacing Debbie Fuse, who had served as managing director since 2018 and had decided to retire. Kelly Johnston also came aboard in July as assistant artistic director.
An Atlanta resident since 2017, Ball assumes job duties that include overseeing the organization as a whole, preparing budgets, handling marketing, working alongside the artistic staff for
season planning, community outreach and education.
When Ball started, he thought he would be working in tandem with Jones for a while.
He was not completely surprised to see Jones depart, though. “Personally, I understand he has a lot of friends and family in Chicago, so — in that regard — it did not come as a shock to me,” Ball says. “He did what he needed to do.”
At the top of Stage Door’s current to-do list is replacing the canceled shows. In a board meeting next week, Ball hopes to make final decisions that can be announced before year’s end. The company also is looking at its staff as it prepares to move forward, including an acting ensemble of 10 that Jones hired.
“We are honoring our commitment to the actors we brought aboard and not terminating their contracts. We will look at the organizational chart and go from there,” Ball says.
In a recent ARTSATL interview, Jones, who was trained in an ensemble environment, indicated that he felt ensemble performing made the work better and hoped that his performers eventually would appear in multiple shows at once.
Although his role is more managerial, Ball expects to have some input in programming decisions. “I think with most theaters there is a dialogue amongst leadership,” he said. “I would not imagine one person would do it in isolation.”
In his recent ARTSATL interview, Jones made it sound like there had been a constructive dialogue, including mutual compromise, with the Stage Door board.
“When I interviewed for the position, they were really able to give me a sense of what they were looking for,” Jones said. “They said they wanted to diversify the audience, cast and creative team, but that they also wanted a new direction. We’ve given a little and taken a little, but what you see onstage and in the education programs we offer is part of that vision.”
Now the vision is changing again. Stage Door’s version of “A Christmas Carol” continues its run through Dec. 19, and “The Importance of Being Earnest” will open as planned in February.