Artist Bio

(Bio as of July 2017)

Dawn Renee Jones is a writer, director and educator from Chicago. She is the recipient of the 2015 Ruby Prize for her play A Heap See. Her interdisciplinary collaboration with composer Carei Thomas and visual artist Seitu Jones entitled S’Kin received a workshop production at the Cornerstone Theatre’s Genesis Festival in New Brunswick, and was produced by Intermedia Arts in Minneapolis where it was recognized as one of the year’s best by the Twin Cities Reader. Her feature screenplay Man of the Word won Best Screenplay at the 2008 FilmColumbia Film Festival. Dawn Renee’s writing career began on Madison Avenue where she wrote print and broadcast advertising at the Leo Burnett Company, Young & Rubicam and McCann Erickson advertising agencies and for broad range of national brands. She has been a script doctor on the feature screenplays for Columbia Pictures, Warner Brothers and Paisley Park. Dawn Renee was the founder and artistic director of Alchemy Theatre in Minneapolis where she also directed productions for Actors Theatre of St. Paul (The Blood Knot, If I’m Traveling on a Movin’ Train, and Water Torture), Alchemy Theatre (American Menu, A Raisin in the Sun), Mixed Blood (Ali), Penumbra Theatre (Suspenders), At the Foot of the Mountain Theatre (Angela, Going to Seed, Head Over Heels, Ida B. Wells, and Wake Up Call), Women’s Theatre Project (A Place on Earth) and Starting Gate Theatre (A Raisin in the Sun). She developed theatre curriculum for the State of Minnesota’s Professional Development Institute at the Perpich Center for the Arts, has been an artist in residence at K-12 schools in Minnesota and New York and taught theater history courses at Macalaster College and Metropolitan State University. Dawn Renee has an MFA in creative writing with emphasis in playwriting from Goddard College.