Anyone can change.
That’s the message that playwright Denise Jones shares in her prize-winning play, “Beyond the Door.”
Jones is definitely an example of that. After struggling with addiction, incarceration and trauma, the Lansing resident, who grew up on Chicago’s West Side, turned her life around and is now an author and producer and owns her own commercial cleaning company. She also mentors others through nonprofit organizations.
A 2024 production of “Beyond the Door,” had sold-out performances and won three BroadwayWorld Chicago Awards, including Best Play.
The drama is being produced again at 7 p.m. Aug. 21, and 1 p.m. and 7 p.m. Aug. 22 at New Life Covenant Church, 3400 W. Division St., Chicago. Tickets are $35 at beyondthedoorplay.com. Jones is producing the play independently, covering all the expenses herself.
The play is based on Jones’ 2010 memoir, “Who Said It Couldn’t Be Done?: A Diamond From the Rough.”
Jones said that she chose to share her story by writing the book because “I’m still seeing a whole lot of need in the world. That’s what sparked the opportunity for me to be able to tell this story and hopefully that someone will be able to grab hold to a seed of hope as I did.”
The author admitted that writing the book was difficult for her.
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“It added a lot of other pressure of suicide, even though I had been going through that off and on,” she said. “I always wondered why was I the way I was? How did I get here? How can I get out of it?”
It turned out that the process of writing the book was therapeutic for Jones. “That’s what helped me to be who I am today,” she explained.
Jones said her mother had gotten her life together six years before Jones did.
“I was sitting in her garage smoking crack cocaine and shooting heroin and I felt myself going down for the last time,” she recalled. Jones decided that if something could happen to change her mother’s life, “hopefully, it can do the same for me.”
That’s when Jones finally reached out for help.
Jones declared that she found it easy to change “once I took ownership of my condition.”
She decided to turn her memoir into a play because, “I began to ask God, ‘Lord, what other ways can I convey a message to the audience that I want to get this story out to?’”
Winning the BroadwayWorld awards convinced Jones that the message she hoped to send was getting out to the audience she hoped to reach.
Restaging the play on Chicago’s West Side means a lot to Jones. “My desire and passion was always to take the story back to where it was birthed,” she explained.
The play has been embraced by recovery organizations and faith communities.
Julisa Marcel is both the director and the creator of a new adaptation of “Beyond the Door.” Her adaptation focuses on the “generational aspect of the story,” she said. “So, you’ll find out more about Denise’s grandmother and her mother and how all of their lives play a role in where she ended up.”
While she was working on the adaptation, Marcel decided that she wanted to direct the show.
“I took a lot of time diving into the story itself and I found it to be a really meaningful, really powerful story,” Marcel said. “Along with the connection that I made with Denise, it felt like a special opportunity for me to be able to work with someone who has been through what she’s been through and comes out on the other side.”
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Marcel is convinced that this is a play that needed to be produced.
“I think part of what helps people experience freedom from their difficult lives and challenges, is being able to speak about it,” Marcel explained. “I really think anyone from just about any walk of life will be able to find something to relate to in this story.”
Myrna Petlicki is a freelance reporter.