Samantha Jones
Founding Partner - Dora Mae Productions


Samantha Jones






Representation:
                                

Stage/Film/TV:  Susan Wright
Ann Wright Representatives - 212.764.6770     


Commercials:  Tracy Goldblum
Abrams Artists - 646.486.4600


Voiceovers:  Linda Weaver
Access Talent - 212.331.9600



Contact Samantha for information on
Solo Work, Directing and Improvisation.



The Real Samantha Jones Website


Samantha Jones' professional acting career began in 3rd grade playing a street urchin in The Trinity Players' production of A Christmas Carol.  She was hooked.  Her early creative life included four years of professional training at Neighborhood Playhouse, then an additional four years at the highly competitive High School of the Performing Arts in NYC.  The ABC Special, What You Need to Know, introduced her to film acting followed by Steve Alpert Productions' Manhattan Monday which aired as in-flight entertainment across America.   Through all this, she worked backstage mostly on sound alongside her two sisters on her Mother's plays which were variously produced by New Voice, The Mint and on the emerging Theatre Row.  The stage kept calling her.  She originated the roles of Hildy in John Ford Noonan's Green Mountain Fever and Susan Smoke in Debbie Jones' Jeremy Rudge.

 

Jones found the beginnings of her serious work at SUNY New Paltz and it was comedy.  She produced and performed in Midnight Theatre - a weekly venue she expanded campus-wide that encouraged creative, original work.   When she returned to New York, she threw herself into the standup comedy scene and found herself placing in the Toyota Comedy Festival right out of the gate.  She improvised the original role of Lucretia Crabtree under the direction of Darin DePaul for the newly founded Jekyll & Hyde Clubs.   She then created and performed her first solo show, I'm in Charge of the Coats, at Here Arts Center and that was an idea that had been coming for a long time.  This is when her best friend from high school, Julie Zinkewicz, invited her into Living Room Live  - a weekly sketch comedy show uptown at the Parlor.  Here she worked with her sisters creating sketches and solo characters almost on demand week after week and performed with the company to packed houses.  Her original characters:  The Pretty Dancer, So and So, and The Ren' Fair Worker along with her improvised sketches for Jack Black's Acceptable TV have received thousands of views on YouTube. 

 

Always the driver of her own collaborative work, directing was an inevitable result. Jones established, directed and performed in 7 sketch comedy groups.  The Mugshots was improvisational sketch for the Columbia Crowd; The Personality Inventory brought together comics Jones had worked with and gave space for all the characters that kept coming out of her head; Please Stand By was a 30's radio show - intentionally gone wrong.  Jones took up the guitar with Crazy PotatoE - a Folk Goth' Sister-Brother Comedy band.  Her work as a solo performer resulted in four one-woman shows which have been selected for prestigious festivals such as SolaNova.  She developed and directed Penny Pollak's No Traveler in New York for the Frigid Festival, in Scotland for Edinburgh Fringe and in Canada for The Winnipeg Fringe Festival.   In New York, Jones has become the go-to director and acting coach for solo performance and Backstage named her improv class "Best in New York 2012".  Returning to legitimate theatre, Jones directed Horror Play by Jeannine Jones for the NYC Sticky Festival and Game Point by Julia Gytri at the Manhattan Repertory Theatre. 

 

Jones was the right person to produce the low-budget production of the play, The Breezeway, at The American Theatre for Actors in New York; the feature film, The Last Christmas Party (shot in New York); and the book, Tales of Wonder from the Garden State, which is a finalist in the USA Best Books of 2011.  She has written prolifically for Amuze:  Raw Art Now; Wino:  One woman's Quest for the Finer Things; The Real Samantha Jones; www.yesand.com and www.independantartists.com.

 

Along her way, Jones served as SAG representative for The New York Coalition of Professional Women in Arts and Media, became a member of Alpha Psi Omega, SAG/AFTRA and Equity and is a founding partner of Dora Mae Productions. Volunteer work includes City Harvest, Artists for the Cure, Gilda's Club and Legacies.  Additionally, she has worked with students on improvisational sketch for the holiday shows at the Center School, a NYC public middle school.  Jones is the grateful recipient of the highly-esteemed Gold Award given by the Girl Scouts of America.

 

As a director as well as a performer, Jones' vision is to bring real stories to life on the stage.  Her multi-faceted approach mines individual experience for universal truth.  She knows that personal stories developed within improvisation have the weight and spontaneity to make audiences laugh out loud - with the performers and at themselves.  Jones is all about PLAY.  She believes the lost art of childhood is improvisation.  The joy of imagination explodes across the stage when Jones is in charrge. 






Dora Mae Jones
Dora Mae Jones
(3/1/91-9/6/01)

Dora was the real star of Dora Mae Productions. She lived on the Upper West Side for 10 years. She enjoyed long walks in the Ramble, warm naps in the sun, good company, and squeaky toys with faces! She is deeply missed and will always be our muse.



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