Jonathan Jones
Adjunct Assistant Professor
Speech, Communications and Theatre Arts
EMAIL: jojones@bmcc.cuny.edu
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Jonathan P. Jones, PhD is a graduate from the Program in Educational Theatre at New York University, where he earned both an M.A. and a Ph.D. He conducted his doctoral field research in fall 2013 and completed his dissertation in spring of 2014, Drama Integration: Training Teachers to Use Process Drama in English Language Arts, Social Studies, and World Languages. He received an additional M.A. in English at National University and his B.A. in Liberal Arts from the NYU’s Gallatin School of Individualized Study. Jonathan is certified to teach English 6-12 in the state of California, where he taught Theatre and English for five years at North Hollywood High School and was honored with The Inspirational Educator Award by Universal Studios in 2006. Currently, Jonathan serves as editor for ArtsPraxis (a peer-reviewed journal emphasizing critical analysis of the arts in society), on the editorial board of Applied Theatre Research and Youth Theatre Journal, as well as on the board of directors for the American Alliance for Theatre and Education (AATE) where was elected board chair for 2025-2027.
Jonathan has conducted drama workshops in and around New York City, London, and Los Angeles in schools and prisons. As a performer, he has appeared at Carnegie Hall, the Metropolitan Opera, Town Hall, The Green Space, St. Patrick’s Cathedral, The Cathedral of St. John the Divine, The Southbank Centre in London UK, Bord Gáis Energy Theatre in Dublin, and the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C. Production credits include co-producing a staged-reading of a new musical, The Throwbacks, at the New York Musical Theatre Festival and served as assistant production manager and stage director for the New York City Gay Men’s Chorus (2014-2019), most recently directing Quiet No More: A Celebration of Stonewall at Carnegie Hall for World Pride, 2019.
His directing credits include I See Fire: Anthems for a New Era (featuring the London Gay Men’s Chorus), Light: A Holiday Celebration (featuring Justin Vivian Bond), Hamlet, Twelfth Night, Julius Caesar, Elsewhere in Elsinore, Dorothy Rides the Rainbow, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Bye Bye Birdie, The Laramie Project, Grease, Little Shop of Horrors, and West Side Story. Assistant directing includes Woyzeck and The Crucible. In 2008, he was awarded a fellowship through the National Endowment for the Humanities and participated in the Teaching Shakespeare Institute at the Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington, D.C.
Jonathan’s courses have included Acting: Scene Study, American Musical Theatre: Background and Analysis, Assessment of Student Work in Drama, Development of Theatre and Drama I, Devising Educational Drama Programs and Curricula, Directing Youth Theatre, Drama across the Curriculum and Beyond, Drama in Education I, Drama in Education II, Dramatic Activities in the Secondary Drama Classroom, Methods of Conducting Creative Drama, Theory of Creative Drama, Seminar and Field Experience in Teaching Elementary Drama, Seminar and Field Experience in Teaching Secondary Drama, Shakespeare’s Theatre, and World Drama. He has supervised over 50 students in their student teaching placements in elementary and secondary schools in the New York City Area. Prior to becoming a teacher, Jonathan was an applicant services representative at NYU in the Graduate School of Arts and Science Enrollment Services Office.
Jonathan teaches Fundamentals of Public Speaking, History of Theatre, and Introduction to Theatre at CUNY: Borough of Manhattan Community College.
Expertise
Drama Education, Drama Pedagogy, Curriculum Development, Assessment, Shakespeare Pedagogy, Youth Theatre Production, Devised Theatre, Theatre History, Musical Theatre, Public Speaking
Degrees
- BA – Liberal Arts, New York University
- MA – Educational Theatre, New York University
- MA – English, National University
- PhD – Educational Theatre, New York University
Courses Taught
- The aim of this course is to develop effective skills in speech communication. The student examines how to generate topics and organized ideas, masters elements of audience psychology and practices techniques of speech presentation in a public forum. All elements of speech production and presentation are considered.
- The collaborative nature of the theatrical event will be explored in readings, presentations, play attendance, papers and creative projects. Contributions of the playwright, actor, director, designer, architect, critic, producer and audience will be investigated through selected periods, genres, theatre spaces and styles of production. The student's potential roles and responsibilities in creating theatre will be emphasized.
- A survey of theatre of the world from its ritual origins to Jacobean England. Major periods explored through reading and viewing significant plays, studying the sociological forces that led to different theatrical forms, theatre architecture, methods of production, playwrights and the relevance of these plays and theatrical forms today.
Prerequisite: THE 100 and ENG 201 or ENG 121
Research and Projects
Editor, ArtsPraxis
Editorial Board, Youth Theatre Journal
Editorial Board, Applied Theatre Research
Chair of Research & Scholarship and Board Chair-Elect, American Alliance for Theatre & Education
Publications
Books:
Assessment in the Drama Classroom: A Culturally Responsive and Student-Centered Approach (Routledge, 2024)
Paradigms and Possibilities: A Festschrift in Honor of Philip Taylor. (2019)
Book Chapters:
Let Them Speak: Devised Theatre as a Culturally Responsive Methodology for Secondary Students in Routledge Companion to Theatre and Young People (edited by Selina Busby, Charlene Rajendran, and Kelly Freebody; Routledge, 2022)
Education at Roundabout: It’s about Turning Classrooms into Theatres and the Theatre into a Classroom (with Jennifer DiBella and Mitch Mattson) in Education and Theatres: Beyond the Four Walls (edited by Michael Finneran and Michael Anderson; Springer, 2019)
Peer Reviewed Articles:
Audience Response to COVID Monologues: Research-Based Theater on the Societal Impact of COVID-19 (with Emily Hurley, Saraniya Tharmarajah, Genevieve de Mahy, Jess Rassp, Joe Salvatore, and Steven Harvey). American Journal of Health Promotion. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/08901171231216204 (2023)
“And So We Write”: Reflective Practice in Ethnotheatre and Devised Theatre Projects. LEARNing Landscapes, 14 (2), 173-185, DOI: https://doi.org/10.36510/learnland.v15i1.1061 (2022)
Call to Action: Elevating Activism in Performance. The Teaching Artist Journal, 16 (1-2), 52-60, DOI: 10.1080/15411796.2018.1470390 (2018)
Speaking Engagements:
Reimagining Drama Curriculum: The Gradual Release of Responsibility Framework, Workshop Facilitator, AATE Theatre in Our Schools (TIOS), Washington, D.C. (2023)
The Bear That Wasn’t: A Process Drama Investigating Identity, Workshop Co-Facilitator with David Montgomery, Dorothy Heathcote Now, sponsored by the University of Aberdeen and Midland Actors Theatre. (2023)
The Last Book in the Universe: A Process Drama Unpacking the Consequences of Book-Banning, Workshop Co-Facilitator with David Montgomery, Dorothy Heathcote Now, sponsored by the University of Aberdeen and Midland Actors Theatre. (2023)
Assessment in the Drama Classroom, Workshop Facilitator, Dorothy Heathcote Now Online, sponsored by the University of Aberdeen and Midland Actors Theatre. (2023)
The American Alliance for Theatre & Education: Current Projects and Resources, Panelist, International Drama/Theatre and Education Association (IDEA) Online World Festival: Together We Go On. (2023)
Classroom Justice: Culturally Responsive, Student-Centered Assessment in the Drama Classroom, Workshop Facilitator, AATE National Virtual Conference: Illumination, Seattle, W.A. (2023) Slide Show; JamBoard
Cultivating Spaces for LOC in Educational and ‘Professional’ Theatre Settings – Opening Keynote with Daphnie Sicre and José Casas, Panel Moderator, AATE Leaders of Color Institute (LOCI), Washington, D.C. (2022)
Locating Order in the Chaos: Revisiting Assessment in the Drama Classroom, Workshop Facilitator, AATE Theatre in Our Schools (TIOS), Washington, D.C. (2022) Session Recording Part 1 and Part 2
Story Drama Demonstration: Biblioburro: Children around the World Access Books through Story Drama, Workshop Facilitator, AATE National Conference: Arriba el Telón, Providence, R.I. (2022)
Origins, Inspirations, and Aspirations, Featured Guest, Fluency with Dr. Durell Cooper, Podcast (2021)
Stage to Page: Reimagining the Teacher/Practitioner Role in Scholarship, Panel Moderator, AATE Theatre in Our Schools (TIOS), Washington, D.C. (2021)
Process Drama Demonstration: First Ice, Workshop Facilitator, University of Regina, Regina, SK, Canada (2021)
Pandemic Positives: What Do We Keep? Looking Backwards to Move Forward, All-Conference Panel Moderator, AATE National Conference: Monuments and Landmarks, Washington, D.C. (2021)
Activism and Race within University Teaching and Research, Featured Guest, Conversations in Social Justice Podcast, York St. John University, UK (2021)
Performance as Activism, Invited Lecture. Research-Based Theater Seminar, Washington, D.C. Citizen Diplomacy Fund Rapid Response COVID-19 Research-Based Theater Project, The COVID Monologues, part of the Citizen Diplomacy Action Fund for US Alumni Rapid Response made possible by the US Department of State and Partners of the Americas (2020)
Drama and Education: Why and How, Keynote Lecture. Drama and Education Conference. Shanghai, China (2020)
On Creativity, Invited Lecture. University of Anbar, Iraq (2020)
Key Strategies for Educational Theatre in Elementary School Education, Keynote Lecture. 2017 Shanghai Bolun Educational Technology Conference. Shanghai, China (2017)
Editorials:
Editorial: Get Woke. ArtsPraxis, 10 (1). (2023)
Editorial: Radical Imagining. ArtsPraxis, 9 (2). (2022)
Editorial: Look for the Helpers. ArtsPraxis, 9 (1). (2022)
Editorial: Communing with the Ancestors. ArtsPraxis, 8 (2). (2021)
Editorial: Into the Traumaverse. ArtsPraxis, 8 (1), i-xviii. (2021)
Editorial: I Can’t Breathe. ArtsPraxis, 7 (2a), i-xix and 7 (2b), i-xix. (2020)
Editorial: No End and No Beginning. ArtsPraxis, 7 (1), i-v. (2020)
Editorial: On Mindfulness. ArtsPraxis, 6 (2), i-v. (2019)
Editorial: A New Colossus. ArtsPraxis, 6 (1), ii-v. (2019)
Editorial. ArtsPraxis, 4 (1), ii-iv. (2017)
Editorial. ArtsPraxis, 3, ii-v. (2016)
Reviews:
Drama Research Methods. Edited by Peter Duffy, Christine Hatton, and Richard Sallis. Published in Research in Drama Education: The Journal of Applied Theatre and Performance, (2021)
Into the Story 2: More Stories! More Drama! By Carole Miller and Juliana Saxton. Published in Journal of Applied Arts and Health, 8 (1). Intellect. (2017)
Dissertation:
Teacher Resource Guides for Theatre Productions:
Making Gay History: Before Stonewall, directed by Joe Salvatore (2020)
Radium Girls, directed by David Montgomery (2019)
The Good Soul of Szechuan, directed by Nan Smithner (2019)
Peter and the Starcatcher, directed by Amy Cordileone (2018)
Of a Certain Age, directed by Joe Salvatore (2018)
Hear Them Roar: The Fight for Women’s Rights, directed by Nan Smithner (2017)
Two Weeks with the Queen, directed by Philip Taylor (2017)
The Miracle Worker, directed by David Montgomery (2016)
Brief Encounter, directed by Amy Cordileone (2016)
Tales of the Lost Formicans, directed by Nan Smithner (2015)
Little Shop of Horrors, directed by David Montgomery (2014)
School for Scandal, directed by Nan Smithner (2014)
Meta, directed by Amy Cordileone (2013)
The Crucible, directed by Philip Taylor (2013)
Salvation Road, directed by David Montgomery (2012)
Yikes!, directed by Tony Graham (2012)
Sonya Flew, directed by Nan Smithner (2010)
Woyzeck, directed by Philip Taylor (2009)
Honors, Awards and Affiliations
- Board Member and Chair-Elect, American Alliance for Theatre & Education
- Member, New York City Arts-in-Education Roundtable
- Member, TYA USA
- California Commission on Teacher Credentialing, For Renewal September 2027
• Clear Single Subject Teaching Credential in English, Preschool – Grade 12 and Adults
• Authorization to Teach English Language Learners - Kappa Delta Pi, International Honor Society in Education, 2012-2014
- Graduate Fellow, NYU Steinhardt, 2009-20012
- National Endowment for the Humanities Research Fellowship, 2008
- NBC/Universal Inspirational Educator Award, 2006
- The Outstanding Student Consortium, 2003-2004
