SECOND TO NUN CHERRY JONES' `DOUBT' SISTER BECOMES A NATIONAL LIGHTNING ROD.

Byline: Evan Henerson Theater Writer

The process of transforming actress Cherry Jones into a dogged nun in 1960s Bronx parochial school -- of getting her back in the habit, if you will -- is a multistep endeavor.

There's the character-building work Jones has already done, of course, playing Sister Aloysius in John Patrick Shanley's ``Doubt'' from November 2005 to January 2006 at the Manhattan Theatre Club and, later, on Broadway. And, following a six-month break, there's the reinvestigation of Aloysius as Jones opens ``Doubt's'' national tour tonight at the Ahmanson Theatre.

Every night, eight performances a week, Jones also undergoes a physical transformation, layering up, strapping on her vestments to morph from a congenial 49-year-old actress from Paris, Tenn., to a bulldog-ish principal with a serious bee in her bonnet over the suspected misbehavior of a priest.

Yes, that bonnet is indeed part of the transformation.

``It's a ritual I enjoy, getting dressed as a nun, and there are quite a few steps,'' says Jones, as she proceeds to rattle them off: undergarments, overgarments, belt, capelet, cross, bonnet, spectacles and lace-up boots.

``I dress myself,'' says Jones, who, as a two-time Tony Award-winning star on the road, would be entitled to a dresser. ``Because, as Sister Aloysius, it would be kind of absurd to let anyone help.''

It's a dinner break a couple of hours before Jones is set to take the stage for ``Doubt's'' second preview. We're in her dressing room, the same room Jones used nearly a decade earlier when she played the Ahmanson in ``The Heiress,'' on her last national tour.

< Gussying up her habit

The habit is hanging in a closet behind her. Jones, dressed in casual black, brings over the Sister of Charity cross.

``It's a very impressive piece. The beads have a nice weight to them,'' she says. ``At first, when we saw sort of a mock-up of them, it didn't seem to me that the beads were long enough. As an actress, it became important to me.

``Nuns don't get any beautiful, colorful vestments. They don't get to be peacocks like the priests do,'' she adds. ``All they get are these nice long beads. So I wanted mine to be impressive.''

Sartorial vanity, even the slightest trace of it, is not necessarily a quality one would associate with Jones' character. By the actress' own admission, Sister Aloysius is a woman audiences either love -- or love to hate.

That the actress' roles typically don't contain quite so much ambiguity is part of what made director Doug Hughes target Jones for the part.

Since ``The Heiress,'' her stage credits include the conflicted Salvation Army worker in ``Major Barbara,'' the strong-

willed Irishwoman Josie Walls in Eugene O'Neill's ``A Moon for the Misbegotten'' and a singing Mary McCarthy in Nora Ephron's ``Imaginary Friends.''

``Her unquenchable humanity and willingness to connect with others, I thought, would cut very well against the relentlessness and almost frighteningly dogmatic style of the character John had written,'' says Hughes, who had previously directed Jones in an adaptation of Michael Cunningham's ``Flesh and Blood.'' ``I think it came out very nicely.''

``Sometimes I have this Greer Garson complex, where I want all my characters to be loved and understood as the noble creatures they are,'' says Jones. ``And it's important that you have some of that in Aloysius if the audience is going to be pulled back and forth with the argument.''

Working in the interests of protecting her students -- or so she claims, -- Sister Aloysius accuses the popular Father Flynn (played by Chris McGarry) of having an improper relationship with a young male student. The sister's evidence is circumstantial, her conviction anything but.

< A most crucial line

``I had to give myself a very specific back story that makes her absolutely on red alert when she sees what she sees,'' says Jones. ``And Shanley doesn't give Aloysius some huge monologue about what she saw. He gives her one sentence. I have to take that one sentence and be as persuasive with that one sentence as she can possibly be. I had to make sure my back story was passionate enoughthat it sets her on high alert.

``I would share that back story,'' she adds, ``but it would tilt it too much.''

``Doubt,'' which won the Tony Award for best play and the 2005 Pulitzer Prize for drama, was the hot-button and hot-ticket play of 2005. Jones recalls arriving at the theater in the midst of blizzards and finding a cancellation line 60 people deep for a 300-seat theater.

Post-show audience talk-backs would focus on Shanley's text and the often incendiary questions the playwright raises. Did he or didn't he? Is she a warrior or a gorgon? And who do you think you are for having that opinion?

What Jones has heard runs the gamut. Some say they wish Aloysius had been their instructor, while one woman in the front row at the Walter Kerr Theatre uttered, ``May she burn in hell,'' following the nun's final, curtain-closing line.

``People were on fire,'' says Jones. ``I remember the audience getting into kerfuffles with each other. There's sort of a `click' moment where you feel the entire audience claim the play as theirs because it's about their thoughts, their ideas, their opinions. The actors are really just there to serve them and serve the play.''

< Have role, will travel

Jones, who won her second Tony for ``Doubt'' last year, stays with the national tour for six months, concluding after a stop in Providence, R.I.

It's rare for a nonmusical play to tour these days; even more unusual for an award-winning original star of such a play to hit the road. (The West Coast premiere of ``Doubt,'' starring Linda Hunt, played the Pasadena Playhouse in March 2005, just as the New York production was moving to Broadway.)

After notching more than 400 performances, Jones took the assignment gladly. The compensation, she says, is generous (``I'm going to make more money doing this than I've made in my life''), and after two continuous years going play-to-play in New York, she was jazzed to bring ``Doubt'' to non-Broadway audiences.

``I want young people to see it. I wantpeople to argue about the ideas of this play,'' says Jones. ``We're at a point where we're so polarized. It's great if this play gets people of opposing views to sit down and talk and listen to one another.''

``Doubt'' does not pass through Jones' home state of Tennessee, but a group of her friends will be taking the train from Kentucky to Chicago to catch her performance after the new year.

And for the first time in nearly 15 years, Jones will be able to go home to Paris for Christmas.

``Because of the subject matter, they have a hard time selling (`Doubt') around Christmas,'' says Jones. ``So we get a nice little Christmas break.''

Evan Henerson, [phone]

evan.henerson(at)dailynews.com

DOUBT

Where: Ahmanson Theatre, 135 N. Grand Ave., Los Angeles.

When: 8 p.m. Tuesday through Friday, 2 and 8 p.m. Saturday, 2 and 7:30 p.m. Sunday; through Oct. 29.

Tickets: $25 to $80. [phone]. www.taperahmanson.com.

CAPTION(S):

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Photo:

(color) Putting on the habit has become, well, just that for Cherry Jones, who is taking her Sister Aloysius character from Broadway's ``Doubt'' on tour.

David Sprague/Staff Photographer