Nearly 20 years later, Minton is in the middle of a frantically busy year of theater and making plans to try his luck in New York City. He's directing "Hedwig and the Angry Inch" at Out North and preparing to take on the revival of "Rocky Horror Show" at Mad Myrna's. He just finished performing in Cyrano's two-man tour-de-force, "Red, White and Tuna," and is working on a puppet piece for the University of Alaska to be presented next spring.
He's juggling these and more with his late-night sketch comedy troupe, The Pogo stick Go-Go Dancer Company, and overseeing the monthly Poetry Parley, both at Out North.
Not bad for a guy who just received his bachelor's degree in theater from UAA in May.
"I think maybe I always needed to be the center of attention," Minton said in an interview with the Daily News.
Theater met that need early on. Another family story tells about how toddler Jon was playing in a sandbox. A woman asked his father what he was up to. "He's playing Othello," said the dad. "And Iago. And Desdemona."
Minton's father was forever priming the dramatic pump by getting him books on acting and play scripts, and taking him to see performances of Shakespeare.
Born in England to a military family, Minton managed to finish grade school in Anchorage and went on to Bartlett High School, where he was encouraged by drama and choir teacher Susan Wingrove.
"It was a great place to be a young artist," Minton said.
In his freshman year, he took the role of the disc jockey in "Grease."
"I was the only freshman with a titled character," he said. It was also the only titled character in the musical who didn't have to sing. "Which was a big help to the show," he adds.
As a senior he was cast with more serious roles in Cyrano's production of "The Laramie Project." The grim piece about the murder of a gay man in Wyoming and the community reaction to it was in line with his own growing interest in civil rights and social work.
"I started out at UAA intending to get a degree in social work," he said. But then he took an acting class and shortly after was cast in the major part of The Common Man in "A Man for All Seasons" at the university. More opportunities followed with the UAA theater department and student theater club, including the memorable production of "The Pillowman."
After a short struggle, Minton decided that if he was going to be paid poorly anyway, it might as well be for something he loved. He switched his major to theater.
"It was the best decision I ever made," he said.
Minton discovered "Hedwig" in his senior year of high school. "At first I wondered what all the fuss was about a play about Harry Potter's owl," he said. The owl shares a name with the transgendered East German singer, the victim of a botched sex-change operation, featured in the interactive (mostly) one-man musical.
On a whim, he rented the movie. "I watched it five times in one weekend," Minton said.
Last year he started pulling together the necessary components to do the show. He reserved the rights, arranged for dates at Out North. With the help of Steven Alvarez, he set up the band and arranged for Leonid Grinberg, his Frank-N-Furter in "Rocky Horror" -- and, more recently, Tommy in Mad Myrna's production of the rock opera -- to take the title role.
To prepare for the show, he listened to the music almost constantly, he said. "I'm reading it on almost a daily basis. It draws you in. The script is fascinating. It's musical theater in the traditional sense, with show tunes and a band. But it's also poetry, performance art, the kind of thing Out North does all the time. Scott (Turner Schofield, Out North's artistic director) has been enormously supportive."
The poetic aspect is particularly important, he said. Three years ago he founded the monthly Poetry Parley events, usually focusing on a single poet or theme with members of the public invited to participate in the readings.
"My love for poetry began in Kathryn Berkowitz's advanced placement literature class in my senior year of high school. She assigned me E.E. Cummings and I haven't been able to stay away from the stuff since."
There is, he said, an intrinsic connection between poetry and theater. "The finest Alaska playwright I've met is Arlitia Jones, and she's also a fine poet. You can hear it consistently with the strongest of her characters and in her dialogue."
He notes the same poetic affinity with his favorite playwrights, Arthur Miller, Edward Albee, David Mamet and, especially, Tony Kushner. One of his dreams would be to perform in or direct Kushner's "Angels in America."
When "Hedwig" winds up this month, Minton will busy himself with an August revival of the "Pogo Stick Go-Go" show, a series of comic sketches somewhat inspired by "Saturday Night Live," a sell-out since it debuted at Out North last summer. He is trying to figure out how to hand over the reins of that show and the Poetry Parley to someone else.
In October he will oversee the reprise of "Rocky Horror." It's the third time he's directed the show. Then, at the end of that month, it's off to New York.
He doesn't have many contacts there, he admitted. But he's hoping to connect with a company that has a teaching program. He has long been involved with Alaska Theatre of Youth, both as a performer and instructor. He directed its production of "The Merry Wives of Windsor" among other shows.
But, for the moment, "Hedwig" is where his heart is.
"It's one of the most personal productions I've ever worked on," he said. "Yes, that angry emotion is palpable in Hedwig, but there's so much more to her. She represents what every artist should aspire to create. She is art. It's one step closer to that goal of mine."
Mike Dunham at mdunham@adn.com or 257-4332.
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