Recent H-F grad earns 3rd best actress nomination
When Ava Jones was nominated for the third time as the best high school actress in Illinois, it came as no surprise to her acting coach, Erica Schuller, who considers the recent graduate of Homewood-Flossmoor High School a star in the making.
“As an actress, you can’t take your eyes off of her,” Schuller said. “When she’s on stage, she’s the one you want to look at and she kind of comes to life when she’s performing.”
Judges in the Broadway in Chicago Illinois High School Musical Theatre Awards were impressed with Jones’ talents too recently nominating her as Illinois’ best high school actress for the third straight year. Because of the pandemic, there won’t be a second competition this year to decide who will compete in the final round in New York.
But she ended up in New York anyway, quarantining there before beginning studies at New York University in Vocal Performance and Communications.
Jones competed against hundreds of other students in schools across
Illinois and was nominated for her performance last fall as Donna Sheridan in a production of “Mamma Mia!” by H-F’s theater department.
To be nominated, Jones submitted pictures of herself in the production, a video clip of her singing, and an essay about her character development and how the role affected her.
Schuller said Jones was also notable as a vocalist, with a “very mature sound for her age.” She gives her work focus, commitment and discipline, something not all teens can muster, she said.
Jones, who started acting at about 9 years, said she used to become nervous when going on stage but now the excitement drives her. She enjoyed the character she played in “Mama Mia!”
“For me I guess Donna Sheridan was a very free-spirited character,” said Jones. “She is older, an adult who has been through a lot of trouble, but I feel like she is just a free spirit and just super fun and like child at heart.
“I guess just taping into that was very fun for me,” Jones said.
Jones acted in the HomewoodFlossmoor
Summer Theatre program as a preteen. She was also on the Homewood-Flossmoor Speech Team, Viking Choir and Viking Ensemble vocal groups, as well as co-president of the school’s chapter of the International Thespian Society.
Jill Bonavia-Galligani, theatre director at H-F, said she was awed by Jones’ talent as a vocalist and actress, noting while Jones was a delightful person, she was able to play both kind and mean characters, such as in a production of “She Kills Monsters.”
“She was mean, awful — she was fabulous!, said Bonavia-Galligani. “She plays a nun, mothers, you name it.”
It’s not just Jones’ talent that moves Bonavia-Galligani, but also her perseverance.
“She’ll have more lines than anyone else in the show and will be the first to be memorized,” said BonaviaGalligani. “In between scenes, we would have to move set pieces and Ava would be moving the set even though she was in every single thing.”