{{{http://www.startribune.co...50336.html
Relevant excerpt:

[Dawn Renee Jones] came to the Twin Cities with filmmaker partner Craig Rice in 1983, working in film and video. She worked on Prince's "Purple Rain" video; Rice served as his tour manager.

Full article:
Theater founder Jones a studious institution builder
Rohan Preston Star Tribune
Published Jul 14, 2002

Some institutions have blindly passionate founders, leapers who didn't look. Dawn Renee Jones fuses passion with pragmatism.}}}

She began Alchemy Theater incrementally. After winning a leadership grant from the St. Paul Companies in 1997 -- which gave her 18 months of study time -- she canvassed artists to find out if there was a need for more outlets for black plays.

The theater company was born in summer 1999. Since then, Alchemy, whose annual budget has grown to $100,000 in three years, has been doing staged readings in south Minneapolis, building a base of Sunday-afternoon theater lovers who often stay after to talk about the plays. She also has assembled a seven-member board of directors and eight community advisers.

"She's a person of strong vision and a great energy to manifest that vision," said Sally Foy Dixon, former director of the Bush Foundation's artist fellowship program. "I marvel at her and the selections she makes -- oh, God, I've wept at any number of those readings."

Alchemy community adviser Diane Norman, a former board member who has worked in theater and dance management as well as advertising, said Jones knows how to include others in the theater's vision.

"The readings are amazing -- like a community festival or open house," she said. "She was really trying to engage her community -- which is not my community -- to organically fill a big hole."

Alchemy is producing the inaugural Black Arts Ball, which on Monday honors five Minnesota arts figures -- including Broadway director Marion McClinton, actor Danny Clark and arts benefactor Archie Givens, Jr. -- as part of its "foundation-building."

The event is not a fundraiser but a celebration of local achievement.

"We can't move forward unless we have an idea of where we are," Jones said.

The ball, with music by DJ Ray Richards, also will honor storyteller Mattie Clark and community theater founder Robert Sample. Actor Carl Lumbly, a Macalester College graduate who performed with the Brave New Workshop and now is a regular on the ABC-TV series "Alias," will give the keynote address. Local stage light T. Mychael Rambo will emcee.

"It's a ball, in the sense that we're gonna have a ball," Jones said. "There is so much to conserve here, to showcase here, but with the demographic changes coming in the Twin Cities -- all the new citizens -- we found that there wasn't a sense of the great history here. We want to record that, to share that, to bring it out."

From Prince to Penumbra

A Chicago native, Jones began her performance career under the tutelage of Phil Cohran, a legendary griot, and actress Catherine Slade. Both teachers were associated with the avant-jazz collective the Association for the Advance of Creative Musicians, founded by Muhal Richard Abrams. Jones became an AACM dancer.

"I learned from Muhal how to make an organization feel like family -- organic, welcoming," Jones said.

She moved to New York in the mid-1970s to work as a producer for the ABC news program "Like It Is." While in the Big Apple, she observed, as a patron, how Joseph Papp ran the Public Theatre.

"It was open -- they had a similar philosophy to AACM but with a lot more money," she said. "I thought that if I ever could build a company, it would be on those models, with shared vision."

She came to the Twin Cities with filmmaker partner Craig Rice in 1983, working in film and video. She worked on Prince's "Purple Rain" video; Rice served as his tour manager.

In the intervening years, she has held a grab bag of jobs, including editing Midwest Jazz Magazine and spending nine years at Arts Midwest.

Her local stage credits include such companies as Pillsbury House, Mixed Blood and Penumbra Theatre.

"She has directed here and acted here," said Lou Bellamy, artistic director at Penumbra. "Dawn is very gifted."

With Alchemy, she has brought in top-caliber artists, including actors Gavin Lawrence, Stephen Yoakam and Shawn Judge as well as budding high school thespians.

"What's beautiful for us is that she's nurturing young actors -- she's smart and dedicated," Judge said.

"I've had opportunities to try roles I wouldn't ordinarily get," she continued. "Dawn gives us a place to experiment. And the actors get paid -- we're valued."

Alchemy is planning to do a full season "in the very near future," Jones said. "In the meantime, we are going to continue our galvanizing event to honor the history of the local black arts community. That's what the Black Arts Ball is about."

-- Rohan Preston is at rpreston@startribune.com .

© Copyright 2002 Star Tribune. All rights reserved.

How dis she work on his Purple Rain video?

There was no Purple Rain video as such. It was taken directly from the film.