Playwright turns producer to get to stage

• By ROBIN MILLER
• Arts writer
• Published: Nov 2, 2008 - UPDATED: 12:05 a.m.

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In the end, it’s only one man’s opinion.

Of course, that’s easier to say than to remember, at least in the beginning, for the words stung at first. No, it was worse.

It was almost like taking a stab through the heart, and the guy doing the stabbing didn’t wait for Dui Jarrod to turn and walk away.

There was no backstabbing here. The guy said what he had to say face-to-face.

“And he said, ‘Son, do you know anything about writing a play?’ ” Jarrod said. “Then he said his sister worked for Federal Express and that he could get me a job there.”

Now, when one person dismisses another’s art, the artist usually takes it hard. The artist is daring to share a piece of himself with the world, something that originates from his very soul.

At least, that’s the case with Jarrod.

He majored in communications while at LSU and learned how to write plays just as he’s learned most everything else in life — by teaching himself.

It’s how he learned tumbling to become an LSU cheerleader. Jarrod’s family in Pine Bluff, Ark., didn’t have money for gymnastics instruction.

“So I taught myself,” Jarrod said. “I had my mom tape what I was doing, and I watched it and dissected it.”

He’s silent for a moment, smiling. At 28, he looks every bit the part of student in this classroom inside Southern University’s Frank Hayden Fine Arts Building. He’s just met with the school’s theater majors, handing them a message that they don’t have to wait for someone to give them a chance.

“Take it,” he said. “Because no one is going to do it for you.”

Jarrod learned this the hard way.