DUANE
Duane's take
Here's the story as the official marker tells it, and friend, this one deserves to be told right. Somewhere in Polk County, Texas, a child was born in 1911. The marker doesn't make a fuss about the town or the circumstances — it just plants a flag and says: this is the birthplace of Margo Jones.
And then it proceeds to list the kind of accomplishments that make you set down your coffee and pay attention. By the time the world caught up with her, Margo Jones was already movin'. She won Broadway acclaim directing The Glass Menagerie — you know the one.
And if you think that's where the story peaks, well, you'd be wrong. Because Margo Jones didn't just want a seat at Broadway's table. She wanted to flip the table entirely, in the most constructive way possible.
She led the move to decentralize American theatre. That was her mission, and she pursued it like a woman who knew exactly how much time she had and intended to use every minute. Out in Dallas, she established something that had never existed before in this country in quite that form — a professional, resident, repertory theatre-in-the-round.
The first of its kind. And she didn't just build it and walk away. She wrote the book on its technique.
Literally wrote the book. Fifty-eight new plays. She premiered fifty-eight new plays.
Now sit with that number for a second. Fifty-eight voices given a stage, given a chance, given a future. Among the people she discovered — Tennessee Williams.
William Inge. And others the marker leaves unnamed but doesn't let you forget existed. The inscription calls her a dedicated artistic humanist, and it reaches for something beyond the résumé when it says she provided channels through which the spiritual qualities of creative people could be communicated.
That's not press-release language. That's someone trying to describe a force of nature with the limited tools of the English alphabet. Margo Jones was born in 1911.
She died in 1955. Polk County put this marker up in 1967, which means the world had already had twelve years to reckon with the size of what it had lost — and decided a marker was the least it could do. Some people are from a place.
And some places are forever from a person. Polk County, Texas — birthplace of Margo Jones.
What the marker says
(1911-1955) World-famed genius of drama. Won Broadway acclaim directing "The Glass Menagerie." Led move to decentralize American theatre. Established, in Dallas, theatre-in-the-round (first professional, resident, repertory theatre of its kind) and wrote book on its technique. Premiered 58 new plays. Discovered Tennessee Williams, William Inge and others. A dedicated "artistic humanist," she provided channels through which the spiritual qualities of creative people could be communicated. (1967)