Alan Bomar Jones shares his story

00:01 - Speaker 1 (Host)
70%. That's a great shooting percentage, but if you're talking about how many students regularly attend school, it's not good enough. I'm Doron Holmes, ud Men's Basketball Player, and I know that success starts with showing up every day. Did you know, if a student misses just one day of school every two weeks, by the end of the year they missed a whole month of learning. Too many students in Montgomery County are missing school this often Parents, students. Let's do better Every day in school matters. 

01:12 - Speaker 3 (Host)
Welcome to another episode of. 

01:13 - Alan Bomar Jones (Host)
Living the Dream. In this episode we will be sharing the story of Alan Bomar Jones, theater, television and film actor and also theater director, caught up with him at the Town Hall Theater in Centerville, ohio. Hope you enjoy. Hello, welcome to another episode of Living the Dream. I'm here today in the wonderful city of Centerville at the Town Hall Theater with Mr Alan O'Bowmaugh Jones. Many of you may know him from various roles he's played in films and it's also theater for all of your theater viewers or patrons out there, alan. Thank you, sir, for giving us an opportunity to come out and see your new office. 

02:24 - Speaker 3 (Host)
Yeah, you're right, it's a new office. I was telling you earlier. Well, 90 days I've been here. Now I'm the producing artistic director, which kind of has a double meaning, because I do make artistic decisions here with my staff about what we present, but at the same time I help produce what is being presented, which means I can help as far as marketing. I help on a technical aspect of it, I watch what the directors do and give them my opinion. It's great man. I'm living the dream, which is why I want this. 

02:58 - Alan Bomar Jones (Host)
Okay, I know prior we had tried to get together before and we ran into some issues. It was some technical issues, so this is our second go at it Now, as we started out before. How did you get started in the field of theater? 

03:18 - Speaker 3 (Host)
Roosevelt High School, 1973. I'm a junior in high school, not really a sports person. I don't want to go home and I would just be wandering the halls until they kicked us out of the school. And I'll never forget one day and I can't pin it down. But one day this guy came out of the auditorium and I was walking down how I said you come here. And so I walked up to him. He said go in there and sit out, I'll be right back. And he went around and started grabbing up a bunch of young people and bringing us in there because he had written a Christmas play. 

03:52
But nobody came to the auditions. So he handed me a script. He said you read the oldest son. So I started reading. He said good, you can read. He gave it to another person. So by that time he had half the cast. He said you guys are going to be in my play. He said we rehearse up to school. Can you stay up to school? He said obviously, because you're here now. So I said yeah, so we know we rehearse. 

04:15
We put it on stage and I'll tell you now, man, the moment I stood in line with all the other cast members and we took a bow in front of the entire school, because back then when you did stuff, they brought the entire school to see it. And after I did that and took a bow, I was hooked. I thought, wow, this is very cool, I really like this. And I think now that I've pondered on it, I think it was. Maybe that was something I needed as far as acceptance, and I felt very accepted by the whole school there. I was a nerd, I'm really smart, you know, read comic books, so I didn't have a lot of friends in our school and after I did this, people I mean we're talking jocks, even people stopped me in the hall and go man, you were good in that show and everything. You gave me all this attention and so I left there, went to the military and after that I went to Sinclair Community College and I've been chasing the dream. That was since. 

05:13 - Alan Bomar Jones (Host)
Okay, now your first time on stage. What about the butterflies? Because you know a lot of times people, you know, especially the nerds. They have to get in front of all those people and now you have to transport yourself head of yourself and to someone else. How was that that's? 

05:34 - Speaker 3 (Host)
a good question. I think I got rid of the butterflies of performing when I was little. My mother used to. When we would go to church and they would usually have dinner out to church, she would bring the record player and be a Jackie Wilson record and she I was in a suit, she would play the Jackie Wilson record and I would lip sync it for the, for the, for the, you know, the congregation, and they would oh, there's that and everything. So after doing that for a while, I never got nervous about performing. So, interesting enough, when I made it to high school and did that, I wasn't nervous at all. I felt very comfortable, you know, and I've always had this booming voice and that's one thing he liked. So he made sure he gave me the character that had a lot of lines, because he know that they could hear me, and so I never, never, got nervous, never. Yeah. 

06:27 - Alan Bomar Jones (Host)
Okay, Now, one of the things that Alan does also, and that is you, besides being theater director, producer and playwright an actor you also wear another hat, and that is hat as a mentor and instructor. 

06:48 - Speaker 3 (Host)
Mentor and instructor. Yes, yes, I teach private lessons for, for young people who are interested in pursuing this, and at the same time, when I'm not on the stage, I teach in I. Well, right now I'm a sub. I taught for 25 years and so when I'm not doing that now I'm subbing, because I sort of retired from teaching, you could say, but subbing brought me back into it. So, yeah, that's my teaching part, and I teach gym, I teach drama, I teach English. Sometimes I'll teach you any subject that you know I'm called upon, but that is sort of my other side of my life as a teacher. Yeah, okay. 

07:29 - Alan Bomar Jones (Host)
Now, as far as being a mentor, now you are a mentor. We have mentioned mentoring as far as with some other actors, far as from the area as well. 

07:39 - Speaker 3 (Host)
Yeah, I think I'm. Right now it's about two or three people that I mentor. They're young people who are doing theater right now and now that they found out that I'm doing movies, they want to venture into that. I have another young man now who, when I say young man, he's in his 30s, so he's, but to me he's a young man, he's starting into it and he's really coming to me to mentoring him into getting into film and doing some television work and that's great and I'm really trying to help him out. 

08:10
But the one thing that I really look into when I'm mentoring someone because every five minutes somebody can call and say mentor me, mentor me is how serious are you with what you want to do? Secondly, are you taking my advice? Because you can spend your wheels trying to mentor someone. It's just not doing what's necessary and at that point then I would just say I no longer can help you because I don't think that you're serious enough. And those are the two key things that I really am concerned with. Is this something you really want to do? Do you take my advice? Because obviously, if it works for me, it's going to work for you. I just don't have the time to spend on mentoring someone who doesn't really want to do this. 

08:55 - Alan Bomar Jones (Host)
So you probably run into quite a number of people who probably say I want an act. I feel that I was born to be an actor, Right, my next movie I'm going to be in the movies right now. What do you tell those people? That's a good one. 

09:16 - Speaker 3 (Host)
Yeah, oh, I think I want to act. That's what what I tell people who tell me that is. I said you can't because anyone really can act. But start auditioning, get on the stage, start putting yourself in positions to where you have to do the craft. Yes, you can go to college. I certainly would suggest that I went to St Clair Community College. I have an associate degree in drama. I certainly would suggest that. But on the other hand, when there's someone who, let's say, works for a living and then I can't go to school and work and try to do shows, I say get to community theater, audition for community theater and work. The best teacher of this particular business is doing. You know, you can't learn acting by sitting and reading. You can't learn acting by listening to someone. You got to get out there and get on stage and put yourself in those situations and that's generally what I say is okay. Find a community theater in your area and start auditioning. Then come back and see me. 

10:15 - Alan Bomar Jones (Host)
All right, because that is one of those things that you just mentioned, and that kind of takes me back to what I heard someone said before, and that is nobody can do the pushups, can do those pushups for you, you have to do those yourself. 

10:31 - Speaker 3 (Host)
You're right, you have to do the pushups yourself. Sure, you know I could sit there and do them for you, and then you'd lay your eyes and say thank you. But then what have you got out of it? Nothing, nothing at all. 

10:40 - Alan Bomar Jones (Host)
Now I've observed your movies. I'm a big fan too, but when I look at your performances, you look so relaxed. How do you, how do you overcome the, the discomfort because you're playing someone that's totally often against your character? I figure, how do you, how do you overcome that? 

11:06 - Speaker 3 (Host)
Well, that's a good question because let me make it very clear Acting on stage and theater and acting in film and TV are two different styles. They're still acting, don't get me wrong, but they're two different styles. For instance, when you're doing theater, you have to imagine a person that's sitting in the last row in the back seat. They've got to be able to not only see what you're doing but hear what you're doing. So you're projecting your voice, you're maybe being a little more animated than necessary, and that's good. But then when you get to the camera and this is my first experience on there, forget I was doing. It was like a little independent film for a college student in Wright State and I'm acting, and I'm acting like I'm on stage. You know I'm big and moving all the place. 

11:53
And he stopped and said hang on. So, first of all, your world is about right here. Ok, he said that's the camera, that's just. That's as far as you can go, he said. So you need to stop all the movie. He said you need to really just relax and focus and just be yourself. Don't try to give me a character to be the character Now. You have to be the character on stage, but in front of the camera. It captures everything your eyes, your expression, you, the sensations that come from you emotionally. So you have to tone it all down. And I kept doing take after take. He said, ok, give me less OK, ok too much, just give me less OK. 

12:30
And eventually, just like I told people about theater, if you keep doing it, if you keep finding projects and keep working with different directors, you'll understand what it takes to do film and TV and it's really different than what you do on theater. And to go back to your question, because I had had so many years I mean we're talking years since I was in high school of theater that I was never nervous in front of people to perform. So when I just have a camera sitting in front of me and a director and a guy with a boom mic, that's an even smaller audience. It allows you even more time to relax. So you know it's just. 

13:08
And another thing that helps you relax is knowing your stuff. You got to know your lines, you got to know your intentions, you got to know your character. When you have all that, then you end up getting relaxed performance. But if you're sitting there and you're trying to remember your next line and, believe me, the camera doesn't lie. They see it in your eyes that you're thinking, not acting. You're thinking about your next line, and so all of that, having all that together, makes it really easy to relax. 

13:38 - Alan Bomar Jones (Host)
Oh, that's great. Yeah, right there. Now, how much time do you spend for reading Now in between auditions, do you just read certain books, biographies, what helps you prepare? 

13:57 - Speaker 3 (Host)
Well, it depends. If I have a project, then yeah, I'm going to read that script and I'm going to study the script and I'm going to really do. I do more writing anything, and that's writing down ideas. I get from the script Ideas of what I want to do with my character, and if I'm not performing, like right now I'm I'm an artistic director of the theater I end up reading a lot of plays because I have to make decisions excuse me on what the staff is going to read in the next six months that we can decide on next season. 

14:29
So I'm doing a lot of reading that way, which is great because now it gets me more familiar with shows I was never familiar with. So it's increasing my knowledge of theater, performance, plays. But for the most part I, when it comes to reading scripts and studying, I do that on demand. If there's something that comes up in addition to something and they say, OK, we want you to do it, Then I'll start studying and reading them. Other than that, as an administrator here, I'm reading plays, reading bios. You know things like that, yeah. 

15:03 - Alan Bomar Jones (Host)
OK, so would that be something you would advise someone who's looking to pursue this craft? 

15:12 - Speaker 3 (Host)
Yeah, if you, particularly if you're pursuing theater, you got to know a lot of plays. There's nothing worse than to go into an audition for a play you know nothing about. You know, and don't fool yourself. It is not unusual for the director to say so what do you think of the play? And you can try to be asked your way around it. But then the questions become even more interesting. So what character are you interested in? What do you think about the character? Yeah, that's, that's very possible, particularly when you get to the call back. And let me explain that. 

15:42
We have the audition and I may be 40, 50 people auditioning for the play and maybe half of them for your part. The director says, ok, I'm marrying it down to these five people for that part, these five people. Then you come to what's called a call back. That's when you get the chance to handle the script and look at the lines and you read it opposite of another actor. Then the director decides that he's going to pick a few people that he's going to interview and talk to just to make sure that they're getting the right person, and that's when they may ask a lot of questions about the piece that they're doing or about your work and how it relates to what you're doing or why you want to do the part. So don't don't shoot yourself in the foot. Be familiar with the material and I know, sometimes when there's movies and TV shows you can't get those scripts. But then go watch the director's work. 

16:34
What did Francis Ford Coppola do last year, two years ago? Look at his work. You can see the style he has. Or watch the TV show that you're auditioning for. I just I got a call to audition for Chicago PD. Well, that was maybe a week or so ago. I've watched four episodes of Chicago PD since then. I want to know what their style is like, you know, so I can deliver an audition that's worthwhile if I get a call back, you know. So, yeah, you got some really great. It's got some good questions. 

17:06 - Alan Bomar Jones (Host)
Well, I was just if I can just kind of add one to that. Yeah, one of the things that I enjoy far as from the medium of DVDs is they used to always have that behind the scenes they're making up so you would actually see far as the process that were being undertook, far as in order to create that magic on screen. Yeah, right there. So if you go to the library they still have DVDs, so check those out. Yeah, tell us about some of the obstacles you faced during your course of your career. 

17:45 - Speaker 3 (Host)
Yeah Well, my first obstacle occurred in college and and I really need to explain this because I don't want it to be misunderstood I went to college in the 70s and in the 70s you know we're coming post-60s, you know fighting for freedom people, you know being hippies and loose. And then we reached the 70s and America's trying to get their act together but at the same time, we're trying to be a country that's attempting to reach out to awful opportunities. So I go to college, I'm a drama student, I'm in drama and plays are coming up and of course, you know, I don't know the way of the world right now. I came from the military right into drama when we had auditions. Of course I wanted one of the bigger parts, you know, but it makes sense to me, and I found that I was either getting small parts or ensemble. At first I took that as a slap in the face, racially. I thought, oh, they just don't want a black man to do this part or whatever. And then I'll never forget, there was one show that came out and I really wanted to be the producer. 

18:54
Now, let's face it, you know, I'm 24, 25 years old, I didn't have the chops to be an upper class producer. You know musical, but I thought I could and they gave me the gay hairdresser. Well, at first I got offended. I'm like what? And who walks down the hall? But my department chair and he hears me moaning. He goes Alan, what are you doing? That's a good part. He has a solo. He spends more time with the lead actors than anybody else. You're gonna get a lot of stage time. He gave you that part because he thought you were a good actor. He said if he would have given that part to someone who's gay, who knows how far he would have gone with it. But you're not and you're going to give in an exact amount that they wanted, and you know. Then I learned that it's not necessarily the part, it is what you can bring to the entire piece. And so after that I tried not to ever feel like any rejection I got was racially motivated. It's just that I needed to continue to grow as an actor. 

19:59
The one thing that helped me the most, gregory, is my voice. You know they hear my voice and they're like ooh, you know, I hope you can see, oh, ooh, we should give them this part. And I continued to develop that I started going to forensics tournaments and then I would win awards and it forced me to better my language, to work on my book voice, so that that was something that nobody could take from me, no matter who they were, and it helped me in a lot of ways. And a couple other obstacles I ran into was when I started doing community theater outside of college. There was a lot of jealousy that went on there with individuals who thought I thought I was hot stuff because I had a degree. Well, it wasn't necessarily that more than I know what I'm talking about. I'm not sure you know what you're talking about, so let me enlighten you a little bit, and people can be offended by that. So I ran into that obstacle the trained actor versus the untrained actor, any other obstacles? Well, yeah, I found it very limiting for me in the day narrative work. 

21:07
I was a resident artist for the human race. I've been with them from wow I'm approaching 30 years, I would believe and at first there were a lot of parts I wanted that I couldn't have, that they gave to someone else and I felt like I deserved this or deserved that. And then one day Kevin Moore said to me and I'll never forget it he said Alan, you are a talented young man, you need to venture out and experience other theaters. We'll always be here, you'll always be one of our resident artists, we'll always use you. And that kind of set me straight and I was like OK, and as soon as I breastfed out Gregory, all the opportunities were out there. I just had to find it. 

21:43
Another thing that I learned very early, and I'm very fortunate, is that go for what fits you. Yeah, you think you're not gonna. You can do any and everything. That's good and that's true. But you will get cast in more parts when you go after what fits you, when you go after how people see you. When you do that and it's particularly big in film and TV you'll work nonstop. But for the most part I avoided getting myself in situations where I was rejected due to my attitude, my personality, my color or any of that, and I know it sounds fake, but for the most part I've had a pretty successful career because of those things. 

22:29 - Alan Bomar Jones (Host)
Right, okay. 

22:31 - Speaker 3 (Host)
I think I answered your question. 

22:33 - Alan Bomar Jones (Host)
Oh, you did, you did. That was spot on, okay, okay, okay, Now you've shared with us, farrish, your obstacles, farrish, during your journey. Yeah, right now, tell us about Farrish, your plans for the theater. 

22:51 - Speaker 3 (Host)
Oh, thank you. Well, town Hall Theater is a theater that I actually got my training in as a director for a children's theater. Oh, so this is kind of like a fool's set. It's a fool, yeah. Yeah, I started out because I was a union actor. I really couldn't act on their stage, but every now and then they would offer me an independent artist contract. And I did Zorro, I think. I did a tour for them called the K, and so I was able to do bits and pieces. But then the director at the time, the artistic director, asked me if I was interested in directing. I said sure, and I started directing children's theater and it was very successful here. 

23:33
I worked with a lot of kids. As a matter of fact, one of the people I just hired is someone I directed as a young man. So I started getting my chops here at Town Hall Theater directing plays and eventually, just like I had to do with acting, I moved on and started directing for other individuals and other places. But Mark never forgot how good of a director I was and how much I demand from young people. I never approached a project with kids Gregory, saying, oh, it's just a kid's show, they're just kids. No, no, no, no, no. They are not going to grow, they're not going to learn, they're not going to get better. You have to treat them as if they're doing it to move on to something else. So I always demand the best acting from the kids. I always gave them challenges and I am very proud to say that the majority of my plays that audiences saw, I always got the compliment of how good the acting was. Because I just didn't accept that I gave the kids a challenge and kids would step up to the challenge and, as a result, they would come to my auditions because they knew that when I was directing them, that I was going to treat them like a professional, I would work them like they were serious and they would do a good performance. 

24:50
So yeah, it all started here with my children's theater and I will never forget 90 days actually was in the summer when Mark contacted me and said I wonder if you'd be interested in being artistic director. And I was like what? And so we sat down at Bob Evans and had breakfast and talked about it and I was honest. I said well, you do realize that you're asking a black man to be an artistic director in Cineville, ohio at a children's theater and he said so what's that got to do with him, sorry? And you see some words, stuff. Yeah, exactly, wow, it was a little funny. 

25:38
You guys just sometimes think about them and they would just start thinking about carefully, keeping the לפian mind. When you're surrounded by people that treat you as a human being, as an American, and not as a racial person, sky's the limit. So for him to put me in this position, it says volumes about how he felt about me. I so bad wanna say cut, cut, but no, I think the viewers need to see that, regardless of what one director told me that I will never work for him again men do cry and that's okay. We are emotional individuals too. It just takes us a long time to let go. 

26:26 - Alan Bomar Jones (Host)
But you're passionate about what you do. I am, and that's the sincerity right there. Now you're gonna give us tour. 

26:34 - Speaker 3 (Host)
Yes, you have to go give them a tour. Yes, so does that mean we're gonna stop and go do the tour? How do you wanna do this? 

26:42 - Alan Bomar Jones (Host)
Well, let's do a little bit of a tour, then we'll come back and we'll pick this back up again. That's okay with you guys. I appreciate Alan taking the time because he is a busy, busy man and taking the time out for us to do this interview. I greatly appreciate it right here. And not only that, but I think our viewers will get a lot farish from this right here, because this is where we learn right there. 

27:15 - Speaker 3 (Host)
It's important to know that you can live your dreams. The only thing that's stopping you is here. If you allow them to stop you anyway and I'm saying them because I don't wanna label anybody but if you allow them, whether it's people, whether it's a culture, whether it's a business to stop you, then you have no one to blame. But if you just take that obstacle and just step over and go on to the next, eventually you're gonna climb those steps and you'll be at the top of whatever you want. I wanna take this moment to mention because if we come back I may forget there's several movies that you can see my work in. Can I mention them? 

27:54
Oh, yes, go ahead by all means. The latest one, which came out in 2019, is extremely wicked, shockingly evil and vile. With Zac Efron, I play the Utah judge. It's a story of Ted Bundy and it's not a vicious slasher film kind of a movie. I think you'll like the direction that it comes from. Then there's whiteboard Rick, based on an actual individual who was arrested by the FBI for drug dealing and he was 19, and he got life in prison. I play a crooked cop in it. I'm not in very many scenes, but it's a very important character. Then there's criminal activities that came out in 2014 with John Travolta. I play an FBI agent in that. And then another 2019 movie is called Native Son and I play a detective in that. So it appears that they find me. Did I say that I play a judge in? Extremely wicked, yeah okay. 

28:59
They cast me as a judge's, detective's and cop's, so I must have that authoritative look, but check them out, I don't know. 

29:29 - Alan Bomar Jones (Host)
Welcome back. Thank you, Alan Fars, for the tour. 

29:33 - Speaker 3 (Host)
No problem. 

29:34 - Alan Bomar Jones (Host)
And it's an amazing place. I'm looking forward to coming out and catching a play or spreading the word. Okay, That'd be good. Okay, Now first with the plays. Are they open to the public? 

29:49 - Speaker 3 (Host)
Yes, they're open to the public. You call our box office 937-433-8957, and you can not only get a list of what we've got going, but you can order tickets that way. And I love it because, if you remember, years ago, when they had children's theater, they used to be adults doing the theater for kids, but now we've got kids doing theater for kids, which is wonderful, wonderful part of it. So I really love that about it Family-oriented. 

30:19
Yes, family-oriented theater. We try to do some of the off-Broadway not Broadway kind of titles, like we did Frozen, and so we've got Junior Claus coming up on December 6th through the 21st or 22nd, and so now you wanna start looking to get tickets. To do that, you can call 433. 8957 to talk to a box office person, christy, and she'll set you up with some tickets. And the thing I love about it is that if you remember years ago when we were growing up, theater for kids was done by adults. Well, now we've got theater performed by kids for kids and that's always a great thing and you know it's a great recruiting tool. You'd be amazed at how many kids have come to see shows here to now on stage. 

31:10 - Gregory Tucker (Host)
All right, all right. Our next Academy Award winner yeah. 

31:15 - Speaker 3 (Host)
Town Hall Theater right here on 27th North Main Street in Centerville, Ohio. Yeah. 

31:21 - Gregory Tucker (Host)
Well, this has been a awesome day for us and thank you for taking the time and sharing with us all this knowledge. Thank, you. 

31:32 - Alan Bomar Jones (Guest)
It's been great. It's always wonderful to share what I consider from my life a success story and I want to encourage anybody out there that if you want to get involved in acting, if you're interested in seeing what the business is about, you know, feel free to contact me. Email me at alanbomarjones@gmail.com and he's probably gonna put it on the screen so you can see that alanbomarjones.com and I'd be glad to point you in the right direction, okay, and what we always like to say at the end. 

32:05 - Gregory Tucker (Host)
First of all, thank you, thank you and you and everyone else out there and the difference between those who dream and those who actually take action is having a goal, having a plan and commitment. You have to be committed to whatever it is that you want to pursue and remember this that when you're writing the story of your life, be sure you're holding the pen Till the next time. Live your dream, and we want to hear your story. If you found this program inspirational as well as informative, please be sure to subscribe so you can stay updated as we continue to share stories of individuals who turn their vision into reality. Also, be sure to check out our YouTube channel. Like us on Facebook and Instagram, give us feedback on Twitter or connect with me on LinkedIn. If you are interested in sharing your story, check out our website nightbeatmedia.tv. That's one word. 

33:17 - (Commercial)
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