At the Theatre Company: Ruined, To Kill A Mockingbird, The Taming of the Shrew, A Christmas Carol. Broadway: Julius Caesar, Romeo & Juliet. Roundabout: Little Children Dream of God. Folger Shakespeare Library: Julius Caesar. Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey: The Learned Ladies. National Theatre Conservatory: Richard III, Charley’s Aunt, Fahrenheit 451, Topdog/Underdog, The Good Woman of Setzuan, Nicholas Nickleby, Our Town. Cabaret Theatre: Glengarry Glen Ross, Six Degrees of Separation, Suzan Lori Parks’ 365 Days/365 Plays. Livingston Theatre Company: Ragtime, Once On This Island. Television: “30 Rock,” “Conviction.” Film: Winter’s Tale, And So It Goes.
Training: MFA, National Theatre Conservatory, DCPA.

MEET MAURICE JONES
Orlando in As You Like It​

What was the role that changed your life? Not so much the role that changed my life, but rather the show, would have to be the 2011 production of Ruined that I was honored to be in here at the Denver Center. Directed by Seret Scott and starring the incomparable Kim Staunton, Lynn Nottage’s Pulitzer Prize-winnig play was the first true and tangible evidence that I had ever experienced about how important and socially enlightening theatre could really be. It was nothing less than a high honor to be a part of the telling of that story. There were audience members who had no idea that such radical and violent injustice was happening in the world. I met countless patrons after the show who, with tears flooding their eyes, would come to me and simply say, “I had no idea.” That afforded a the privileged opportunity one can sometimes have as an actor. That is to say in reply, “And now you know.” And that’s my job as an actor. (Photo: Kim Staunton in ‘Ruined.”‘ Photo by Terry Shapiro.)

Ideal scene partner: It might have to be James Earl Jones circa 1987 in August Wilson’s Fences. There is a video online you can watch of his performance as Troy with Courtney B. Vance playing his son, Cory. I watch it perhaps once a week to marvel at what pure power on stage looks like. I would be beyond terrified to do that scene with that man, but that’s also what excites me about it!

What do you hope the audience gets out of As You Like it? I truly hope audiences leave uplifted and entertained. It’s a fast-paced story of madcap cross dressing, body slamming, guitar playing, forest dwelling, back stabbing, poetry writing, heart professing love! Requited and otherwise.

Maurice Jones, who plays Orlando, reads at the first rehearsal for ‘As You Like It.’ Photo by John Moore.

More ‘Meet the Cast’ profiles:
Molly Brennan, Red Queen and others, Lookingglass Alice
Maurice Jones, Orlando in As You Like It