Doubting with Madison Ford

Working hard at Doubt rehearsal.

Many know and love the beautiful Madison Ford's acting - with roles like Lady Capulet in Romeo and Juliet, Miss Chevely in An Ideal Husband, and most recently as Alice and Montjoy in Henry V. Madison is an Irene Ryan nominee, former fellow for the Utah Shakespeare Festival, and all around a force to be reckoned with. She is currently working on Second Studio's production of Doubt, and we wanted to get the inside scoop.

J: Where are you from, what grade are you in, what is your emphasis?
M: I am from Stansbury Park Utah, I am a Senior, and I am getting my BFA in Classical Acting.

J: What are you doing for Doubt?
M: I am the Assistant Director.

J: Is this the first Second Studio show you've been involved with?
M: This is the first Second Studio show I've been involved with not on the acting side.

J: What made you want to try Assistant Direct?
M: After taking the directing classes at SUU I found that I had a kind of aptitude for it and I wanted to explore that a little bit further. I wanted to explore it in a safer capacity than just jumping straight into directing something on my own. I figured I'd assistant direct, see how much I liked it there, and then maybe try next year for a Second Studio or the main-stage.

J: How is it working with Nate, as Director?
M: I love working with Nate. I'm learning a lot from him about setting expectations and then making sure your actors respect you enough to meet those expectations. Listening to him ask his actors questions to help them find their way into their own discoveries was something I always struggled with in classes. I would usually say "this is exactly what I need from you, you have no free range" because I just didn't know how to let them find their way.

J: What has been the most rewarding or challenging part of the process so far?
M: Our cast is only 4 people and 3 of those people are Freshman - they're all fabulous, we wouldn't have cast them if they weren't going to do well, but everyone comes into college with habits from High School that nobody tells them to stop. Finding those habits and helping them to overcome them has been the biggest challenge so far. The biggest reward for me personally was one night working with Karl on one of his sermons; he had been telling me he wasn't feeling it and that he wasn't finding his way into the character. After we worked on it a little bit he gave a performance that almost had me crying, it was beautiful.

Madison a Melinda Vaugn's understudy in Sherlock.

J: What would you like to be doing 10 years from now?
M: I want to be performing. As much as I've liked learning how to direct I am more into the performing side of the field. I'd like to be performing successfully with an actual place to base myself out of and not just be living out of a suitcase. I'd like to have a dog or cat. That's basically the goal in 10 years. I could get married, but I'd rather have a cat.

J: Any interesting facts about you
M: I've been stung by a jellyfish 3 times and I was kidnapped for about 15 minutes when I was 18 months old.

J: Any last words on Doubt?
M: Doubt is an incredible show that will take anybody who comes on a journey to discover their own thought processes. Hopefully by the end of the show everyone will leave with a different opinion of what actually happened and they'll be questioning not only if they were right in their certainties but also whether it was moral of them to feel right in their certainties. It's a beautiful piece of art that is going to make everyone just really confused in the best possible way

Doubt runs February 4-7 in the Blackbox in the Auditorium. It starts at 7:30 and costs $5.

For all those who can't get enough of this amazing woman, be sure to see A Streetcar Named Desire this April where Madison will play the iconic role of Stella Kowalski.