NEDERLAND — A knee injury may have grounded Jennifer Jones from dance but it helped her find her calling in theater.

Jones, a Nederland High School senior, was a student of dance for more than a decade when she suffered a knee injury in her freshman year but found a new love — theater.

“That’s when I found out I love being on stage,” Jones said.

Jones has recently played the lead role in Eurydice and just found out she is cast as Eliza Doolittle in the school’s upcoming production of My Fair Lady. Acting, she said, gives her a chance to explore humanity while creating characters.

The talented student also excels in the fine arts through band where she plays the French horn and choir in addition to taking all advanced placement classes with the exception of math. But the math is already advanced — calculus.

“She is such a talented band and choir student that both Mr. Rose and Mrs. Kloes agreed to split her honors band double block class that meets every day to one day in band and the other in choir for the last three years,” Carmen Pickard, senior class counselor, said. “Neither one was willing to lose her as a student in their program so they compromised for a win-win situation. She is a very strong academic student enrolled in a majority of AP classes throughout her high school career.”

Besides the fine arts Jones is also involved in University Interscholastic League Prose competition. Prose involves oral interpretation done in two parts. For one part Jones chose to focus on Jaycee Dugard who was kidnapped at the age of 11 and bore two children during her 18 years of captivity.

“It took a lot to get comfortable with myself,” Jones said, adding she had to portray ‘giving birth at age 14’ without moving from the waist down.

The second part of the competition she focuses on Orange is the New Black.

“Some think it would be risqué but I made it G rated, pulled from the book with a few nuances from the TV show,” she said.

Jones keeps a busy schedule and that’s fine with her. She is at school until around 5:30 p.m. Mondays and Tuesdays, until 6 p.m. Thursday and Friday and stays late on Wednesdays for prose practice.

She’s also in the top 15 percent of her class and a member of Terrific Nederland Teens who spread the word to be alcohol-free, drug-free and awareness of bullying.

Jones uses her phone and numerous planners to keep track of her busy schedule.

“But theater is my favorite of the fine arts,” she said. “It’s so interesting and I’m really big into history.”

Jones credits a theater camp at Texas A&M Corpus Christi as the reason for choosing the university for her future. She plans to major in theater and minor in history.

Part of her motivation is her push to try new things. She doesn’t want to settle for mediocre, she said, and doesn’t want to look back at her life and wish she had tried out for a pat in a play or other ventures.

Jennifer Jones is the daughter of Ronnie Jones and Cindy Jones.

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