{"id":12769,"date":"2015-12-02T17:30:45","date_gmt":"2015-12-02T22:30:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=12769"},"modified":"2015-12-16T15:15:13","modified_gmt":"2015-12-16T20:15:13","slug":"battling-through-the-butterflies-actress-stuart-jones-keeps-coming-back-for-more","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/battling-through-the-butterflies-actress-stuart-jones-keeps-coming-back-for-more\/","title":{"rendered":"Battling through the butterflies, actress Stuart-Jones keeps coming back for more"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Brock Weir<\/strong><\/p>\n

She had to fight her way through the butterflies in her stomach, her nerves, and an overall adrenaline rush, but once she broke through that barrier, an actress was born. <\/p>\n

And so was a strong relationship between Zara Stuart-Jones and Theatre Aurora. <\/p>\n

Ms. Stuart-Jones, who opens in the lead role of Annie this Thursday in the Theatre\u2019s production of Mansel Robinson\u2019s play \u201cThe Heart as it Lived\u201d, was bitten by the acting bug at the Henderson Drive theatre over 30 years ago.<\/p>\n

At that time, her 11-year-old daughter already got her feet wet as a member of the local company, but acting wasn\u2019t a gene she inherited from her mother. As one production was mounted, however, Ms. Stuart-Jones and her husband were asked to become involved behind the scenes.<\/p>\n

\u201cNeither my husband nor I had ever done anything like that before,\u201d says the long-time Aurora resident. \u201cBut, he was willing to go out and give it a go. My husband acted in a couple of shows, I worked backstage and had no interest in going on stage at all, and then I was convinced to come out to audition for \u2018This Evening\u2019s Performance.\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201cI wasn\u2019t terribly interested, but I thought I would audition with no commitment and I was offered the part of the ing\u00e9nue. At this time I was about 44, and I played the part of a 24 year old, so that was interesting!\u201d<\/p>\n

Now 73, Ms. Stuart-Jones is sinking her teeth into another juicy leading part, something she says is all too rare for actors in her age bracket. <\/p>\n

Set mainly in 1996, \u201cThe Heart as it Lives\u201d follows Annie, who is described as a \u201ccranky, puritanical spinster who never questioned the status quo\u201d until her world is upended by the arrival of Zak, the grandson of her estranged sister. His arrival leads Annie to reflect back on the events surrounding 1935\u2019s Regina Riots and the consequences of very important decisions made during a very heady time in the country\u2019s history. <\/p>\n

\u201cWhat keeps me coming back is the chance to play a good role, the social part of the theatre company, keeping in contact with old friends, and making new ones,\u201d says Ms. Stuart-Jones. \u201cOnce I read the play, I realised her emotions were totally committed to her dead boyfriend and have been for the last 60 years. I wasn\u2019t entirely sure about the \u2018puritanical\u2019 though. She is strict, was a strict teacher in the handling of students, and those ideas are still carrying on through the way she talks to Zak. She doesn\u2019t stand any nonsense, expects a good response to discipline, and is probably disappointed in the responses she gets.\u201d<\/p>\n

The historical events informing Annie\u2019s life were certainly before Ms. Stuart-Jones\u2019 time, but getting under the character\u2019s skin offered her a chance to learn about a time period in Canadian history she knew little to nothing about, and how someone in Annie\u2019s situation might have reacted to the events unfolding around her.<\/p>\n

From her initial steps on the stage at Theatre Aurora, she has played many roles, with one of her favourites taking the lead role of Diana in Neil Simon\u2019s \u201cCalifornia Suite.\u201d It was a role that required considerable emotional gymnastics, but an exercise she said was particularly rewarding. In fact, she found her first ever experience on the stage to be a rewarding one as well and it is a feeling that keeps her always coming back for more.<\/p>\n

\u201cI just love the whole process from getting a script in my hand, reading it, marking up the part, and interacting with the other characters,\u201d she says. \u201cIt is about working on the character development and just seeing the whole thing come together. I find it a remarkable process.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Heart as it Lived opens at Theatre Aurora this Thursday, December 3, and runs at select dates and times through Saturday, December 12. For more information, visit www.theatreaurora.com or call 905-727-3669.<\/p>\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

She had to fight her way through the butterflies in her stomach, her nerves, and an overall adrenaline rush, but once she broke through that barrier, an actress was born.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":12730,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[26],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12769","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-archive"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-3jX","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-09-15 14:24:42","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/2015-12-03-07.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12769","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12769"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12769\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12730"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12769"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12769"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12769"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}