biography
CURRENT PROJECTS: Understudying Proteus and Valentine in The Two Gentleman of Verona at San Francisco Shakespeare Festival , play reading of Auto-Da-Fe by Tennessee Williams at Boxcar Theatre on Monday, August 16.
“Art loves chance. He who errs willingly is the artist.” – Aristotle
As an actor, it’s my job to go out onstage and not be afraid to make mistakes. In taking chances, that is how one discovers and creates a character. I love taking chances – in rehearsal, on stage, in the classroom, and in the recording studio. I’m a professional actor, director, musician, singer, songwriter and teaching artist. I love my job.
I took a chance when I moved back to the Bay Area in 2007 to work for California Theatre Center, a company I had been a student with as a teenager. I was afraid I would be missing out on opportunities in Los Angeles, but it turned out to be one of the best decisions I made. In the last three years, I have grown tremendously, worked with some of the best companies in the country, and continued to write, perform and release my own music.
Regional Theatre
Credits include Jaques Des Boys, Sir Oliver Martext, Musician and Lord in As You Like It at San Jose Repertory Theatre, artistic director Rick Lombardo’s inaugural production nominated this year for 6 Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle Awards; and Chester, Lewis Payne, John Hay and others in Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Paula Vogel’s A Civil War Christmas at TheatreWorks directed by Robert Kelley. I had less than two weeks to learn how to play violin for this production. Thanks to my training as a cellist, I managed to do it by opening night!
Bay Area Professional Theatre
Credits include Simon Bliss in Hay Fever by Noel Coward at The Pear Avenue Theatre directed by the wonderful Jeanie Forte Smith, who introduced me to theatre when I was a young elementary school student; and Scripps in the Bay Area Premiere of The History Boys by Alan Bennett at New Conservatory Theatre Center directed Ed Decker. Robert Hurwitt praised my performance as “magnetic” in the San Francisco chronicle.
California Theatre Center
As a resident performer and educator at CTC, I have created and performed more than 16 roles for their School Series and Summer Rep programs. For their school series, credits include Mr. Roberts in Once Upon A Bedtime, Beast in Beauty and the Beast, Albert Moyo in Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day (West Coast Tour), Sam in The Ransom of Red Chief, Emperor in The Nightingale, Mouse/Cat/Baby Bear in Goodnight Moon, Prince in Cinderella (West Coast Tour), Huck Finn in The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, Hans in The Elves and the Shoemaker (Northwest Tour), Brer Fox in Tales of Brer Rabbit, Time Traveler in The Time Machine and Dog/Djinn/Man/Stranger in Just So Stories. For Summer Rep, my credits include Faber in Liberty Inn, Cornelius Hackl in The Matchmaker, Adam in Rough Crossing and Algernon in The Importance of Being Earnest. In addition, as a teenager I toured with CTC to New Zealand, Fiji and the Cook Islands with in The Legend of Sleepy Hollow.
Music and Songwriting
A multi-instrumentalist, I play guitar, piano, cello, violin, ukulele, banjo, and harmonica. I have performed original music in venues all over Los Angeles, including Room 5, Tangier, Falcon, B.B. King’s Blues Club, The Mint and The Joint. In 2007 I released my third CD of original songs, Chasing Hurricanes, on iTunes, Amazon.com and CDBaby.com. I have been working on a new CD over the last year and plan to release it soon. I continue to play live music gigs whenever I can, most recently at San Jose Rep’s Patron Lounge. You can also check out my music at myspace.com/jonathanshue.
Teaching
I teach and direct extensively for several companies in the Bay Area. Through California Theater Center’s school outreach and summer conservatory programs, I have directed adaptations of A Midsummer Night’s Dream, The Comedy of Errors, The Imaginary Invalid, The King of the Golden River, The Brementown Musicians, Blather, Blarney and Balderdash and Romeo and Winifred and teach classes in voice, movement and acting.
As a teaching artist with San Francisco Shakespeare Festival’s Bay Area Shakespeare Camp, I have introduced students to the life and work of Shakespeare and directed adaptations of Twelfth Night and Henry VI Part I. For their Midnight Shakespeare Program, I directed an adaptation of The Two Gentleman of Verona for at-risk youth in San Jose.
As a teaching artist with Starting Arts, I have gone into public school classrooms in Sunnyvale and introduced the concepts of playmaking, improvisation, physical and vocal expression, music and the life of a professional actor.
I have worked with local schools as a substitute teacher and visiting teaching artist. Recently I completed work on The Odyssey at Monta Vista High School in Cupertino. In this unique rehearsal process, I created a collaborative environment where the students and I composed music together for their production. In addition, I wrote and recorded music to be used in the production.
Education and Training
In 2005, I graduated from University of California, Los Angeles with a degree in Theatre, Film and Television and studied abroad for one year at the University of Birmingham, England Drama Department. While in college, I played Orestes in Elektra Fragments, Pemplefort in Only Ten Minutes to Buffalo and the Earl of Rochester in Playhouse Creatures. I received training from Bella Merlin, a Stanislavski scholar and London West End actress, Delia Salvi and Scott Sedita.
After graduating, I started Three Chairs Theatre Company with some of my classmates and produced and acted in a world premiere production, TAPE 39, at EdgeFest LA in 2005.