Interview: Director Marshall Jones III and PIPELINE at Vanguard Theater

Vanguard Theater in Montclair is currently presenting Dominique Morriseau’s Pipeline through October 25th. The show is directed by Marshall Jones III.

In Pipeline, Nya, an inner-city public high school teacher, is committed to her students but desperate to give her only son Omari opportunities they’ll never have. When a controversial incident at his upstate private school threatens to get him expelled, Nya must confront his rage and her own choices as a parent. But will she be able to reach him before a world beyond her control pulls him away? With profound compassion and lyricism, Pipeline brings an urgent conversation powerfully to the fore. Morisseau pens a deeply moving story of a mother’s fight to give her son a future without turning her back on the community that made him who he is. 

We had the opportunity to interview Marshall Jones III who directs Pipeline at Vanguard Theater. He gave us fascinating insights about his career and the show.

As an admirer of the growth and development of the Vanguard Theater Company, Marshall is thrilled to direct Pipeline - his fourth time directing work by Dominique Morisseau. He is a professional theater producer / director/educator/artist/activist, whose primary love is directing plays. Last fall, Marshall directed an acclaimed production of the Pulitzer-Prize winning play Primary Trust at the Guthrie in Minneapolis, where it garnered #3 ranking in the Minnesota Star-Tribune’s 2025 Top Ten list.

Since 2002, for 21 years Marshall served as the Head of BA Theater at Rutgers until promoted to Associate Dean for Access at the Mason Gross School of the Arts.

He was the founder & director of the Rutgers Summer Acting Conservatory for High School Students (2003-2023) where over 750 eager HS students resided at the university for the month of July learning about the craft of acting.

Starting in 2007 and for the next 13 seasons, he was the Producing Artistic Director for the Tony® Award-winning Crossroads Theatre Company where he produced and directed several successful shows including Lift by best-selling author Walter Mosley (transferred to Off Broadway) and Repairing a Nation by Nikkole Salter which was televised by WNET.

Marshall has directed 2 off-Broadway productions, over 12 world premieres and countless productions at regional theater throughout the US. 

For 8 years (2010-2018) he was a Board Member of the Theater Communications Group (TCG), the national service organization for non-profit theaters, and now Marshall proudly serves as the president of the NJ Theatre Alliance. Marshall also serves on the Board of Trustees for the Tent Theater and the legendary Actors Fund Home in Englewood, NJ.  And he was a 2020 Inductee in the Rutgers University African-American Hall of Fame.

In addition to his undergraduate studies at Rutgers, he received his master’s from New York University in Arts Management.

What fascinates you about the art of directing?

There's nothing more thrilling than bringing a script to three-dimensional life. Interpretating the text in my brain and then collaborating with so many professionals that take what's in my head to place on stage - I can't describe it other than thrilling!

Tell us a little about your technique as a director.

Each time I direct, my main goal is to find ways to elevate the story.  This one was pretty easy because, at its essence, it represents 3 generations of theater training at Rutgers University.  A lot of the techniques I use as a director, I learned from my mentor at Rutgers - Joe Hart, who taught at RU for nearly 40 years.  His wife, Vicki, was also my acting teacher.  Well, it thrilled me to be able to cast their daughter in this show, who is not only a talented actress but a fabulous singer-song writer.  Additionally, we cast several of my former students, including 2 I've had the pleasure of knowing and teaching since high school.  I think this is especially poignant as we celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Mason Gross School of the Arts at Rutgers University.

What piece of advice can you lend to people wanting to enter the theatre profession.

Follow your passion. I believe that working in the theater is a calling. For some reason, we've been endowed with an all-consuming passion to tell stories.  Even if you eventually go into TV and movies, typically theater is the introduction, usually at school.  Well, video cameras on iPhones a youngster can be a mini-Spielberg, but theater provides a better introduction due to its structure - collaboration, teamwork, artistic development that's all focused on the goal of presenting a story in front of a live audience.  It's thrilling!

Your credits show great diversity in your career.  How has assuming multiple positions complemented your work?

Producing plays makes me a better director and directing plays makes me a better producer.  And doing both - producing and directing - makes me a better professor.  It's all complimentary. 

What are some of the challenges of directing Dominique Morisseau's Pipeline?

The biggest challenge is the short rehearsal time.  It's amazing what this cast has done in the short time we have had.

Why are you so impressed with Morisseau's work?

First off, she's Wilsonian in that she writes about everyday people.  And secondly her characters are extremely complex, and the layer of that complexity reveal as her play evolves.  And finally, she takes on important themes about racial and social justice. So, in Pipeline she examines the challenges facing our educational system like the school to prison pipeline, where a mother's son attending a prestigious private high school could join that pipeline.  But there are other issues she explores tangentially such as the rage of black men, mental health, absentee fatherhood, challenges of co-parenting, overworked urban teachers and more.  

Can you tell us a little about the cast and creative team for Pipeline?

The cast is stellar which is why we were able to get the show up in a short time period. Our lead, Doreen Oliver, is familiar to Vanguard audiences as she starred last season in What the Constitution Means to Me?  She brings such vulnerability as well as internal strength to the character of Nya.  Doreen is a born leading lady - she's not shy of taking center stage!  I love it!  Playing our young high school lovers are Ja'Quan Spann and Keivana Wallace. I cast Ja'Quan in a reading last spring, and I was impressed with the range of his emotional depth but also his babyface.  That's how I envisioned Omari - with a babyface yet all of this rage boiling inside.  In Jasmine, we needed an emotional poet.  So Keivana offered all of that immediately in her audition.  And it's been a pleasure watching Keivana's version of Jasmine just blossom.  She's the emotional ying to Omari's yang.  And these young actors complement each other very well.  Jamal Guy is younger than the script calls for, but I like him being younger than Nya.  That's all I'll say, but Jamal brings a commanding presence to the character of Dun.  As Nya's ex, Lazarus Simmons has to have rage too, but it's more contained.  And finally, there's Rebecca Hart as Laurie, Nya's fellow teacher at the school.  She's a pistol - no, she's a machine gun.  It's personally pleasing to cast Rebecca as her father and mother - Joe & Vicki Hart - were my mentors at Rutgers.  Rebecca was the only one who came to mind for this role. 

Why do you think that Pipeline is ideal for current times?

Oh, great question. 10 years later, the play is still relevant.  The recent NY Times article by Nicole Hannah-Jones looks at urban education from a different perspective, but they're different sides of the same coin - how can we effectively education black and brown children.  And we can't assume that great schools solve the problem because cultural identity can get lost.  The dismantling of the nation's Department of Education also makes the play relevant because that office collects important data that educators rely on - not to mention distributing billions to schools throughout the country, administering financial aid, and protecting the rights of disadvantage students.

Do you have any future plans that you'd like to share?

Well, I'll be working with my colleagues at Rutgers to celebrate 50 years of the Mason Gross School of the Arts on Sunday, December 13th.  And it's very early in the process for something that I'm working on.  Writers generally don't like to speak about project this early but what the heck!  I'm in the preliminary stage of developing a musical called TOM.  If you're familiar with Percival Everett's brilliant Pulitzer Prize-winning novel JAMES, I've done something similar to the lead character of "Uncle Tom's Cabin" - yes, that Uncle Tom. Today's perception of Uncle Tom is not what was originally written.  We present Tom as a complex three-dimensional character so he has agency and his story is centered.  That's not the case in the book.  More to come about that as my partner (Kevin Farrell, brilliant composer) and I continue to develop him.

Anything else, absolutely anything you want BWW NJ readers to know.

Support professional theater in New Jersey!  In this tech-saturated world we live in, see a play and have real people sitting next to you.  I proudly serve as the president of the NJ Theatre Alliance where we have 41 member theaters. 41! And they are all shapes and sizes, but I'd especially make an appeal to attend shows at the smaller theaters.  They need support, plus they do quality work.  And, of course, we must applaud media outlets like BWW NJ for promoting our field. 

Vanguard Theater is located  180 Bloomfield Avenue, Montclair, NJ 07042.  For tickets to Pipeline and upcoming shows, please visit Vanguard Theater | Challenging Narratives Through Theater and call 862.205.3525.

Photo credit: D'Ambrose Boyd