Anchorage Daily News

A word to the wise: Meet Danny Jones now. That way you'll be able to say you "knew him when."

Jones, 25, a promising young actor, recent University of Alaska Anchorage graduate and temporary resident of Cordova -- at least as long as the seiner he's working this summer is docked there -- is getting ready to head south to Florida State University's Asolo Conservatory for Actor Training. It's a gateway to a professional career that still seems a bit unreal to Jones.

"I'm going to be acting for a living," he said. "It's amazing. So amazing."

Jones (whose recent standout performances include "The Pillowman" and "We Bombed in New Haven" at UAA and "The Lieutenant of Inishmore" with Kokopelli Theatre Company) stumbled into acting as a creative outlet in high school. At UAA, Jones said, he was exposed to the academic side of acting -- the theory -- and he began to realize that it could be more than just a hobby.

"When I decided I wanted to do this as my career, I really started to take it seriously," he said. "(In college) no one's making you do anything. I really learned how to do it myself."

Jones began coaching sessions with Laure MacConnell and went on to win critical acclaim locally and in American College Theatre Festival competitions.

In addition to MacConnell, one of the teachers who's had the most impact on Jones is UAA professor Tom Skore, who says that, in addition to being talented, Jones is a really nice guy.

"He has a lot of humility," Skore said. "He is so open and he is so accepting."

It was Skore's influence that first got Jones thinking about opportunities for study beyond UAA.

"I just got a taste of it working with Tom and I just wanted more," he said.

Still, when Jones graduated from UAA in December, he was itching to get his career rolling.

"I wasn't even sure about graduate school at first," he said. "I kind of just wanted to go out to Chicago and start working, hit the boards, you know?"

Instead, he decided to attend a University/Resident Theatre Association cattle call. U/RTA holds annual open auditions that attract more than 1,200 hopeful actors, directors, playwrights and technicians. Actors have three minutes to audition before a panel of judges, after which graduate schools invite favorite candidates for interviews. Jones said most actors who make it through the preliminary round are granted six or seven interviews.

He got 15.

"(It was) kind of nerve-wracking," Jones said. "I had 20 minutes per interview and then five minutes in between to get to each one. I had to do my piece, like, 10 times."

The pandemonium paid off, though. A month later, Jones had offers from seven graduate schools and the Actors Theatre of Louisville.

After some deliberation, Jones settled on Florida State's conservatory, where he'll work his way up from understudy to the mainstage, with a five-week summer stint in London along the way. His third year will include an agent tour that will, hopefully, help Jones land professional representation.

"I can just act and understudy and work on class work," Jones said. "And the London trip -- that doesn't hurt either."

Another bonus: Brent Bateman, a UAA graduate and one of the homegrown actors Jones most admires, is preparing to begin his final year in the program. Skore said the program is a great opportunity for Jones to grow as an actor.

"They're going to cram a lot down his throat," Skore said. "I think the world is kind of his oyster."

Jones plans to act everywhere he can once he's done with graduate school. While he said he's open to the idea of doing film or television, live theater holds a special place in his heart.

"I know I'm going to do live theater probably as long as I live," Jones said. "It can become something so real and so on a different level. It's intoxicating."

No matter where acting takes him, though, Jones doesn't seem likely to forget where he came from.

"I think I'm better for living in Alaska," he said. "I think I'm way better for it, going into this industry. It's something special."

Maia Nolan lives and writes in Anchorage.

What the critics said about Danny Jones

From Daily News play reviews:

"Strong performances abound in 'The Scarecrow,' including ... Danny Jones' sympathetic Lord Feathertop, a transformed scarecrow who learns what it means to be human."

-- Catherine Stadem Nov. 24, 2003

"(Jones) demonstrated admirable range, swerving away from the multiple opportunities this character offers for malevolent scenery-chewing, instead delivering a man who operates in full awareness that politics and theater are cousins beneath the skin ... a hawk rather than a handsaw, sliding easily from high dudgeon to oily, suave persuasion. His Cromwell" (in "A Man for All Seasons") "drew the eye in any scene in which he took part."

-- Mark Baechtel, April 11, 2006

"It's hard to look away from Jones, who manages to be incredibly expressive without overacting or stealing scenes" in "The Lieutenant of Inishmore."

-- Maia Nolan, March 20, 2007

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