After a 28-year hiatus, Sandian rediscovers his love of acting

Dan Ware doesn’t like to talk about himself. But he doesn’t mind being in the spotlight, although not in the way you might think.

“I’ve never met a microphone I didn’t like,” Dan, a communications specialist at Sandia, said.

This makes sense when you meet him. He speaks loudly and clearly. He’s not yelling, but if you shared a wall with him, you’d know when he was talking. He has this ability to project that seems natural, as if he could give a speech before a crowd — no notes, no projector, no problem.

Dan belongs on stage, which works out because that’s where he feels most at home.

The stage

He was first introduced to the stage and acting in high school, where he was a theater kid and performed in several musicals, including “Paint Your Wagon,” “West Side Story” and “Oklahoma.” In college, Dan took a handful of acting classes, but nothing serious.

“It wasn’t my career trajectory, just something I did for fun,” he said.

After college, Dan started his career, got married and started a family. As he explains, he got busy with the “real-world stuff.”

Dan wasn’t acting anymore, but he was still very much on a stage. In his work as a communications professional, he often found himself before a crowd, sometimes with a microphone, disseminating information and updates to local media and the public.

Eleven years of his career were spent working for the New Mexico Forestry Division, where he did many things, but perhaps most notably, he kept New Mexicans updated during several catastrophic wildfire seasons. Between 2003 and 2014, while in this role, the state experienced nine of the most destructive wildfires in recorded history. Dan’s metaphorical stage at this time often positioned him standing with a raging fire behind him.

Act one

“In 2014, I left state forestry to take a job in Farmington at BHP Billiton New Mexico Coal,” Dan said. “I would live there during the week and come home to Albuquerque on the weekends, but there wasn’t a whole lot to do in Farmington, so my weeknights were pretty boring.”

It had been 28 years since Dan had been in a play, but he saw an audition for an upcoming show, tried out and got the part.

Back in the spotlight, Dan remembered how much he loved acting.

“I caught the bug,” he said.

And the rest is history.

Dan starred in three plays while living in Farmington before moving back to Albuquerque. Back home, he auditioned for a play at the Adobe Theater. Again, he got the part and found a new community.

“The Adobe Theater is true community theater,” Dan said. “We’re not a theater troupe; we’re not professionals. Productions are open to anyone who wants to try their hand at being in a play. Anyone can audition. We’re run by and for the community.”

On top of acting, Dan sits on the Adobe Theater Board of Directors.

“Being part of this community and helping run a community theater gives me a lot of self-gratification,” he said. “We’re all volunteers. We don’t do this for money, but collectively we help this place run — from cleaning the bathrooms to stocking the concessions, helping build sets and deciding which plays to do. It’s been really rewarding.”

It’s a close-knit community that Dan has not only helped maintain but also build.

“In 2022, the same year I started at Sandia, I was in a stage play based on the board game Clue. It was put on by a now-defunct theater group,” Dan said. “We were in this super run-down theater. There were holes in the ceiling, it was hot and the air conditioner didn’t work. It was just problem after problem. But it was also one of the most fun plays I’ve ever done because, as a cast, we had to come together and get through all these hiccups, and it brought us closer as a group.”

Dan brought several of the actors from that play into the fold at the Adobe.

Dan’s passion

In the last seven years, Dan has acted in nine stage plays and several audio productions. He and his wife also host and produce the show Radio Theater on KUNM FM.

“In my day-to-day life, I’m pretty introverted,” he said. “But acting lets me be someone else. I can be a character on stage that allows me to do things and say things that I would not typically do or say. It lets me explore other characterizations. It’s fun.”

Dan said working full-time and acting isn’t without its stressors. But at the end of the day, it’s a passion he doesn’t want to lose again.

“I took a long break from acting between 1988 and 2015,” Dan said. “During that time, I didn’t think about what was missing because I was busy living life, working, raising kids and supporting my kids’ passions. My son plays soccer, so it was just soccer all the time — practice, games, tournaments — and I loved all of it, but soccer was his passion, not necessarily mine. Once I started acting again, I realized there was a piece of my life that had been missing all those years; I rediscovered my passion.”

Dan lived an entire life before he got back in touch with the spotlight, and once he did, he remembered how much he loved it.

“I think people have to look at their lives and take stock of the things that really give them self-satisfaction, whether that be gardening, theater, mountain biking, etc. We all have things we like to do, but what are the things we love?” Dan said. “Think of the things you want to do more of, not out of obligation, but because you truly enjoy them. For me, it’s theater; the more I do it, the more I want to do it. That’s passion.”