There's little doubt Jason Haws is Olympia's go-to guy for heady, hardcore theatrical emoting, the kind which requires him to dredge up childhood traumas and bawl like Anne Hathaway after a haircut. (Or who knows, maybe he's balancing his checkbook in there. He insists his method isn't immersive.) After a years-long string of five-hanky affairs like Rabbit Hole, Unexpected Tenderness, Seafarers and My Old Lady, all at Harlequin Productions, I suspected he had to be itching for a silly comedy. "I think I take it home more than I realize," he admits, grinning. "I think there's a part of any role you play that seeps into your personality ... It's so emotionally draining, and it's such a rollercoaster that you really have to give it your all."
After that bruising series of tragedies, Haws finally gets to switch things up next month, when he'll start work as Dexter Haven in Harlequin's production of a witty romantic comedy, The Philadelphia Story. (It's a part you may have seen performed by some schmuck named Cary Grant.) Last fall, Haws brought humor and swagger to the role of a lead-footed amphibian in Olympia Family Theater's production of Wind in the Willows, so it hasn't all been sobbing and spousal despair.
Born and raised in Colorado, Haws went to school in Oregon, then transferred to Evergreen. There he did two years of "renegade theater" while pursuing a liberal arts degree. He codirected a student production of Buried Child with Peter Kappler in Fall 1990, then spent eight years finishing a grad degree in education and commencing his teaching career. Kappler recruited him into a reading of Murder in the Cathedral as Harlequin renovated its new digs. "A year or two later, they put it on for real ... I got bit by the bug again, big time." After acting with Haws in Cathedral, director Scot Whitney cast him in The Tempest. These days, Haws is a fixture at Harlequin.
By day, he teaches middle school, specifically "language arts and social studies and whatever theater I can sneak in." His dedication to mentoring the next generation of actors is as laudable as his acting efforts. He's worked with Kathy Dorgan at CTE (Creative Theatre Experience), a summer youth program, since 2003. She teaches theater at Olympia High, which explains how he came to be cast as Gloucester in her production of King Lear earlier this month. He and Andy Gordon (who played Lear) did exemplary work in that show, though a stage full of teens around them displayed true chops as well. "What a joy to watch those kids try to figure this out," he sighs. "Some of them are just tearing it up." Haws and Megan Kappler, Peter's wife, were in Rabbit Hole with Dorgan in 2010. That show, about parents coping with the loss of their son, was among the finest pieces of theater I've seen since I started reviewing. I praised Haws' "consummate vulnerability and emotional control," then named him Oly's Best Actor in 2010. Put another way, our readers made an excellent choice.
I asked Haws the same question I ask every actor, namely: What's on your theater bucket list? "I'd love to play Iago," he answers immediately. (You and me both, Haws.) "I'm just open to doing things that challenge me." He's directed any number of students but looks forward to guiding a cast of adults someday. So which show? "I'm a little bit limited in that I'm constantly reading books my kids are reading," he laughs. "I don't know! Give me a script and I'll read it!"
LINK: Best of Olympia 2013
LINK: Best of Olympia 2012
LINK: Best of Olympia 2011
