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JORY SPEAKS
Jon Jory has directed more than 1,000 plays in theater companies all over the country. This Friday, March 7, he will be directing Les Liaisons Dangereuses at the Greer Garson Theater.
For 31 years, Jon Jory shaped Actors Theater of Louisville, Ky., into one of the finest regional theater companies in the country. “I love Louisville,” Jory says. “I didn’t leave because I didn’t love it.”
Two cast members in Liaisons, Matt McMillan and Shelby Gray, were recruited to Santa Fe University of Art and Design’s Performing Arts Department from the same Louisville performing arts high school.
McMillan recalls the first encounter he had with Jory when auditioning for college scouts.“I remember going over to him and he stood up and shook my hand,” McMillan says. “He said, “You will learn a lot from me.””
During his brief interview with Jackalope, Jory spoke about college basketball during the Denny Crum years, a time in sports any self-respecting Louisville Cardinals fan should be well aware of and then the types of people who not only kept him in Kentucky for so long, but also drew him to New Mexico.
Before coming to Santa Fe, Jory taught theater at the University of Washington, a place he described as “rainy.” Four years ago, he and his wife Marcia moved to Santa Fe to teach at the Santa Fe University of Art and Design, where they are both current staff members for the theater department.
“There’s a lot of interesting people in Santa Fe,” Jory says. He spoke fondly of the environment places like SFUAD offer and how every aspect of the arts, “are just 75 yards away.”
Dangerous Liaisons, a novel-turned play and film, has been adapted and revived over the story’s more than 200- year lifetime. Set in 1950s France, Liaisons’ style is a Rococo Revival with themes that are “not hard to understand from a contemporary point of view,” Jory says.
“It’s about a one-time couple who have turned love into a cruel game,” he says, with a bit of a smirk on his face. “It’s funny, did I mention?”
Faculty Jon Jory is pleased to present his rendition of Dangerous Liaisons next week at the Greer Garson Theatre. Photo by Luke Montavon
Jackalope Magazine is the student magazine of Santa Fe University of Art and Design. Building on the interdisciplinary nature of our education, we aim to showcase the talent of our university and character of our city.
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Oct01
Tencha Avila
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Dear Mr. Jory,
I am a playwright and anticipate a move to Santa Fe in the spring of 2015. I have been reading about you and your work and magnanimous contribution to the development of Humana and the Actor’s Studio in Louisville. I write to you because I would like to work with you, mentor with you and mentor students in play writing as a volunteer at this new and promising Santa Fe University of Art and Design.
MFA,Theatre (Specializing in play writing) 1995 Ohio University, Athens, Ohio.
2010 — Off-Broadway production of “El Beso del Adios” at Repertorio Espanol.
2012 — Semi-finalist, “No Number Home” at the Eugene O’Neill Playwrights Conference.
2009-8 — Finalist at the Met Life Nuestra Voces National Competition with “No Number Home” and “Angie’s Fire.”