Concordia alumna wins Tony Award

Concordia alumna Christine Jones has won a Tony Award for 'Best Scenic Design of a Musical' for her work on the Broadway hit American Idiot.

The announcement was made at the awards ceremony on June 13, 2010. (Other winners on the night included Denzel Washington, Catherine Zeta-Jones and Scarlett Johannson. See more on the Tony Awards website.)

American Idiot is a punk-rock musical based on the Grammy Award-winning album by the band Green Day.

Jones graduated from Concordia in 1989 with a BFA in Design for the Theatre. In 2007, she was nominated for a Tony Award for her design work for the hit Broadway play, Spring Awakening.

Jones' other recent work includes design for a stage adaptation of the Neil Gaiman book Coraline and her own project Theatre for One. She describes this latest project as "the world's smallest performing arts center."

The production features a portable theatre space designed for one performer and one audience member. Looking not unlike a confessional booth, the performance space creates an intimate theatrical experience for both the performer and the audience, and transforms a traditionally public event into a private moment.

Theatre for One was installed in the heart of Times Square during a ten-day residency in May 2010. Jones has also designed sets for the Houston Grand Opera, the New York City Opera, and the Minnesota and Denver opera companies. She continues to support and encourage Concordia theatre students, leading master classes at the university and regularly offering advice and direction.

In 2009, Jones was the recipient of an Award of Distinction from the Faculty of Fine Arts at Concordia.

Source: Faculty of Fine Arts.