Francine Reyonlds Speaks to the Rotary Club of North Jackso

Francine Thomas Reynolds, Artistic Director for New Stage Theatre, Mississippi's only professional theatre spoke to the Rotary Club of North Jackson at its September 2, 2014 meeting. MS. Reynolds is a Michigan native. The topic of her presentation was the cultural impact of New Stage, which offers educational activities in the form of camps and touring shows for elementary, middle and high school students in addition to its more widely known main stage presentations. Ms. Reynolds is shown below,  during her presentation.

FRANCINE REYNOLDS has worked as a professional actress and director for more than 23 years. She has been the artistic director at New Stage Theatre since 2006. Last season she directed The Great Gatsby, Mahalia: A Gospel Musical and Hairspray. This season she has directed The Grapes of Wrath. She directed Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, which received the 2009 Best Play Award from the Jackson Free Press, Boeing Boeing and Breaking Up is Hard to Do.  She has recently appeared as Polly in Other Desert Cities, Lucille in Dividing the Estate and as Edna Earle in Eudora Welty's The Ponder Heart. She has directed a variety of shows including Lombardi, Joseph and The Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, A Soldier's Play, Sherlock Holmes: The Final Adventure, A Christmas Carol, Gee's Bend, A Raisin in the Sun and I Love You, You're Perfect, Now Change. Reynolds has enjoyed adjudicating and serving as commentator for the Mississippi High School Drama Festivals, Poetry Outloud, Southeastern Theatre Conference auditions and Mississippi's English Speaking Union Shakespeare Competition. She recently was selected for the Mississippi Leadership Class of 2014. Before becoming artistic director, Reynolds worked as a locations casting director on several films and commercials shot in Mississippi. She cast Ballast, which won directing and cinematography awards at the 2008 Sundance Film Festival. Originally from the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, Reynolds enjoys living in Jackson with her husband, Chuck.