Crossroads names new Exec

See the press release that follows from Crossroads Theatre company regrading the appointment of a new executive director.


I don't have much comment because I don't know the man, but his arrival would seem a positive, needed step, as he has considerable theater management experience, something that Crossroads can put to good use.


Tony® Award winning Crossroads Theatre CompanyCelebrating 30 years of Artistic Excellence!

New Brunswick, NJ--Crossroads Theatre Company proudly announces the appointment of Marshall Jones III to the position of Executive Director effective immediately. Ricardo Khan will remain as Artistic Director and Richard A. Nurse who has held the position as Executive Director since 2004 will remain with Crossroads as a Board Member. Jones is currently a tenure-track theater professor at the prestigious Mason Gross School of the Arts at Rutgers University, New Brunswick, and will remain in that capacity while assuming the role at Crossroads Theatre Company.

Marshall Jones earned a BA in Theater Arts from Rutgers University and an MA in Arts Management from New York University. He has almost twenty-five years of experience in a wide variety of key executive positions at some of New York city's most reputable institutions including the world famous Apollo Theater where he was General Manager, Radio City Music Hall (Producer), Disney on Broadway's The Lion King, and Madison Square Garden (Company Manager). He is a Member of the New Brunswick Arts Council and has served on the New Brunswick Task Force for Arts Education. Marshall is a member of the Dramatists Guild and Theatre Communications Group and serves on the Alliance for Inclusion in the Arts and the Central New Jersey Chapter of the American Conference on Diversity. This past spring Marshall was instrumental in bringing the three day Coexistence Festival to New Brunswick which involved a partnership between Rutgers University, the Jane Voorhees Zimmerli Art Museum, the City of New Brunswick, and Johnson & Johnson. Marshall is married and lives in North Brunswick.

Clifford A. Virgin III, President of the Board of Trustees of Crossroads, welcomed Marshall to the Crossroads team stating that "Marshall brings to Crossroads a tremendous administrative depth in the arts, and his contribution to our organization will be invaluable." Virgin also thanked outgoing Executive Director Richard Nurse saying that "Over the last few years Dick's hard work and unselfishness on many levels has been the glue that has held this organization together. The Crossroads family is proud that you are a member and thank you for all you've done."

Crossroads Theatre Company co-founder and Artistic Director Ricardo Khan and a graduate of the Mason Gross School of the Arts said "As an alum of Mason Gross from the early days and as a Rutgers graduate, I am always proud when I see the achievements of my fellow grads. Marshall Jones joining the Crossroads Executive Staff gives me special pride. But most importantly, Crossroads has been given a very important professional lift with Marshall Jones as its new Executive Director, and I am looking forward to partnering with Marshall who I deeply respect and appreciate as a theatre professional and a friend."

John McEwen, Executive Director of the New Jersey Theatre Alliance, is likewise enthusiastic about the professional association stating "I think Marshall's knowledge of the theater--his business knowledge as well as his artistic expertise--will go a long way in moving Crossroads forward and his strength and Rick's strength will make for an ideal team to move Crossroads into its next chapter."

Since its founding in 1978, Crossroads Theatre Company has produced over one hundred works, many of which were premiere productions by the world's leading African and African American artists. Crossroads' world premieres include: The Colored Museum, which originated at Crossroads in 1986 and was then seen by millions on national public television when it was produced for WNETs "Great Performances," and Spunk, both by Tony Award@ winner George C. Wolfe.

Additional Crossroads world premieres include: The Love Space Demands, Ntozake Shange's choreo­poem; Black Eagles by Leslie Lee, an historic chronicle of the Tuskegee Airmen of World War II; Sheila's Day, the cultural collaboration of six South African and six African American women written by Sarafina! creator Mbongeni Ngema that toured the United States, Britain and South Africa; Ruby Dee's stage adaptation of the novel The Disappearance; Vernel Bagneris' musical, And Further'Mo; former U.S. Poet Laureate Rita Dove's first play The Darker Face of the Earth; the award-winning Lost Creek Township by Charlotte A. Gibson; It Ain’t Nothin’ But the Blues which went on to Broadway, Ella Fitzgerald: First Lady of Song and History of the Word.