Jones, Margo (1911–1955)

American theatrical producer and director. Born Margaret Virginia Jones, Dec 12, 1911, in Livingston, Texas; died in Dallas, Texas, July 24, 1955; dau. of Richard Harper (lawyer) and Martha Pearl (Collins) Jones; Texas State College for Women in Denton, BA in speech, 1932, MS in philosophy and education, 1933; never married; no children.

Director and producer who founded one of the nation's earliest professional regional theaters, Theater '47, in Dallas, helping to spawn the nationwide movement that revolutionized theater and cultural life in America; worked as assistant director of Houston Federal Theater Project (1935); founded Houston Community Players (1936); served as faculty member in drama department of University of Texas at Austin (1942–43); founded Theater '47 in Dallas (1947); wrote Theater-in-the-Round (1951); directed over 50 plays, including several of Tennessee Williams' early plays, You Touched Me (1943), The Purification (1944), and the Broadway premieres of The Glass Menagerie (1945, co-director) and Summer and Smoke (1948); also directed dozens of world premieres, such as Farther off from Heaven (1947), The Coast of Illyria (1949), and Inherit the Wind (1955). The Margo Jones Award was established by playwrights Jerome Lawrence and Robert E. Lee (1961) to recognize those who demonstrate commitment to production of new plays.

See also Helen Sheehy, Margo: The Life and Theatre of Margo Jones (Southern Methodist U. Press, 1989); and Women in World History.