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This poem was given to me in a card on my birthday by my mother shortly after coming out. I read it and from that day it couldn't be pulled from my mind; I even have the opening line tattooed on my wrist. This poem is the easiest look into who I am as a director, designer, artist, and person. It is fun, it is bubbly, it is about honoring your truth and emotions, it is about being alive and experiencing life, and it is pink.
I wanted to be a Meteorologist and a Pastry Chef growing up. So when middle school comes around I take earth science and try to take Home Ec. Turns out that class was full but the school went ahead and put me in the "Theater 1" class; Maybe it was a fluke, a happy accident, divine intervention, or fate but it was like lighting fire to a forest of creativity and emotion. I was a fish in water, a pig in mud. I took every opportunity I could to experience and learn theater; Four years of Acting classes as well as technical design classes in high school. Done. Theater summer camps where I could learn makeup, playwriting, and directing. Of course. Trips to festivals, involved in every club and team that was related, a part of every production that would let me in, all just for my love of theater. During my teen years I learned my love for costuming, directing, and theater as a whole as an art; It made me feel creative, skilled, and proud of myself.
Jeremy at age 15/16, backstage during High school Productions
After Highschool I knew I didn't want to jump right into college; Life was exciting and full of so many beautiful things that I wanted to experience. What I did learn quickly was the need I had for a creative outlet. So, I took what I knew about performing, costumes, and makeup threw it all together, and Toni A. Ward, The Broadest Broad on Broadway, was born. Drag became my new theater and I ran with it. I spent years as Toni: Creating, traveling, performing, and experiencing some of the best and worst parts of nightlife.It was an outlet for me to do what I loved while trying to figure out what I wanted to do with the next part of my life.
When I did go back to school I started with Northern Virginia Community College (NVCC). My first semester there was dull, taking Gen Ed. classes but the next semester, for the first time on that campus, a small acting class was offered. Of course, I took it, it was an inevitable option. I became close with the professor, and together we worked for two years to build an actual theater department; Classes, an improv club, and most important to me: Shows. It wasn't much because there was no budget, a small black box theater, and the only direction/production/technical individuals were the professor and me. But we did it! Were there shows where I was had to run a lightboard and soundboard by myself while also calling projection cues? Sure. Were there many jokes about me, the stage manager and co-director, needing to send an email to prop, costume, and scenic designers knowing full well I was all of them? Absolutely. Would I trade the experience for anything in the world? Never. My time with this theater department taught me so much and left me with so many wonderful memories. Being able to build a department from the ground up and have it touch so many other artists will forever be one of my favorite accomplishments.
Jeremy and the cast of Four Weddings and an Elvis
Jeremy and the cast of The Laramie Project
Jeremy and Cast backstage after a showcase
After NVCC, I transferred to George Mason University's School of Theater, earning a Theater BA in Performance and Technical Design with an Event Technical Production. Of course, I threw myself into everything I could: Designing costumes for mainstages, writing plays and directing them for festivals, spending time in the costume shop working with my hands and even running projections for the School of Music's Opera. There I found my true passions of Costume Design and Directing. I graduated in the Spring of 2023 and continued my education by pursuing a MFA in Design focusing on Costumes at Virginia Tech
Jeremy and the cast of Seven Years Time
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