After the 1906 San Francisco earthquake and fire she was sent to act as a secretary for her brother-in-law, but "put the books in such condition that a new set was started".

[4] After graduating from the Convent of the Presentation school Bright decided to pursue a stage career, in part because "it seemed to me the best paying profession that a woman could enter...because it pays better than book-keeping, stenography, selling ribbons, or delivering ice cream sodas to after-theater parties".

Bright approached Nance O'Neil's management at the Liberty Playhouse in Oakland, California for work and was cast as a "super" at $5 per week.

[5] She progressed to speaking roles and toured in various stock productions throughout California, living in San Francisco.

A potential role with Henry W. Savage beckoned on the East Coast, so in April 1910 Ione Bright moved to New York.

[20] Mirror soon experienced financial difficulties, resulting in legal actions and departures of actors and production crew.

[28] This was followed by Suspended Sentence in 1922–23, with Bright taking over from actress Phyllis Alden and then staying with the production through a brief tour ending in New York.

[35] In 1936, Ione Bright was cast as First Lady of Canterbury[4][36] in the WPA Federal Theatre Project production of T.S.

[39] In 1930, Ione Bright was listed as living in a boarding house on the Upper West Side of Manhattan.