Performance Studies/ Acting IV, Fall 1990

Mary Sue Jones left the Dallas Theater Center in 1983 and joined the College of Santa Fe as artist in residence. She taught and directed at the Greer Garson Theater Center becoming a full time faculty member at the College of Santa Fe in 1988. The first subseries, Teaching and Directing, contains class notes, student theses, reviews of College productions, and notes on faculty and college administration. Besides her own theater work, Mary Sue continued to manage the rights to Preston's plays and to promote his memory and the production of his works. In this series, there are clippings about Preston as well as material on the Dallas Theater Center Endowment Fund set up in his memory.

Mary Sue Jones met Paul Baker as a student at Baylor University, and she went on to work closely with him as a member of his core group of artist-teachers until his forced retirement from the Dallas Theater Center in 1982. Afterwards, she continued to keep in touch with her mentor, inviting him to Santa Fe to oversee a production of Preston Jones' The Last Meeting of the Knights of the White Magnolia in 1985, while at the same time organizing a tribute to him. She also took a prominent part in the 1990 Paul Baker festival in Waco, "Second Harvest." The second subseries, Paul Baker Festival Files, contains newspaper clippings, programs, and letters, much of which focuses on Baker's career and theatrical influence.

The next subseries, Script and Production Files, contains Mary Sue's collection of scripts, articles and research material on stage productions. Many of the scripts are annotated with remarks on interpretation and stage directions. A good number of these plays were performed at the Dallas Theater Center. They are arranged alphabetically by title.

The final subseries, entitled Personal, presents aspects of Mary Sue's life from her birth in Carthage, Missouri, through her marriage to and divorce from the sculptor Roy Barto Fridge, her life with Preston at the Dallas Theater Center, her widowhood in Santa Fe, to her death in 1992. Present are her baby book, school records, divorce papers, awards, photographs, letters, clippings, and notices on her death. Her clippings files contain information on matters that were of particular interest to her, such as gardening, the Dallas Theater Center, Preston Jones, home decoration, birds and wildlife, etc.