Today we’d like to introduce you to Justin Kalin.
Justin, please share your story with us. How did you get to where you are today?
I ended up here pretty much solely by dumb luck and strange fate; though anyone in my family may tell you otherwise. As a toddler, I staged my own fully choreographed lip-synch performances to every single song on Britney’s… Baby One More Time album. I went so far as to cut out tickets that had to be presented to me for admission into my room. So, anyone in that crowd is probably just surprised that I’m not directing musical theatre. Otherwise, I performed here and there when I was in middle school and loved every moment of it. As the performer in me continued to bud, my sexuality quickly made itself apparent to me and upended my ambitions. What was once a love of the stage quickly reshaped itself as an intense anxiety. I was as gay as the day was long (still am) and putting myself in front of an audience felt like a trap to be out, so I quickly laid that hobby to rest. It wasn’t until college that theatre reentered my orbit.
A few weeks into my freshmen year at Georgia College, a friend of mine asked me to go with her to an audition as moral support. I didn’t have anything pressing to do so I figured I could tag along. We ended up being pretty late unbeknownst to me; the stage manager came into the lobby and made the last call for anyone left who wanted to audition. Some other friends from my hall where also there and good-naturedly peer pressured me into giving it a shot.
“It’s college, try new things,” etc.
Fine.
I grabbed an audition form and the stage manager handed me aside from the table. It was Brad Pitt’s Fight Club monologue and I laughed in her face. I was then and am now, the opposite of Brad Pitt in every possible way but what was the worst that could happen? I took the stage, essentially blacked out, and the rest is history. I got cast in a few directing class projects by the upperclassman and by the end of that year, I called my parents and told them I wanted to pursue theatre instead of law. The phone call every parent dreams of.
With their blessing, I threw myself headfirst into a theatre. I performed, designed costumes, and directed every project I could get my hands on. My capstone project was directing a full-length play of my choosing, which ended up being Next Fall by Geoffrey Nauffts. The entire process was surreal and I knew I’d do whatever I needed to make this a career.
As if on cue, enter Freddie Ashley and Actors Express. I’d been aware of AE since my freshmen year when I’d found out some of our alum were working there as interns. I researched the theatre and was in awe of their programming; queer, gutsy, new work. It just clicked for me. From that point on, I zeroed in on making AE an artistic home. Freddie visited our campus, among many others in the South East, every year to recruit the new class of interns. For three years straight, I signed up for an audition time to meet with Freddie. In retrospect that was probably obnoxious, but it paid off. By the third meeting, I was actually a senior and eligible for consideration. The day before my graduation, I got the call from Freddie and quickly accepted.
The internship was insanity; in a single year I’d been introduced to the entirety of the professional Atlanta community, worked as an Assistant Director on three shows in the season, mounted full understudy performances, worked bar, built sets, delivered curtain speeches, took some incredible classes taught by local artists, co-directed an original work written for our intern class with my best friend and favorite collaborator Ibi Owolabi, and watched i-85 collapse on a show night.
Near the end of my internship, I met Jacob Demlow. We quickly became close and he introduced me to Paul Conroy and Out Front Theatre Company, a brand new queer theatre company they founded together. I quickly joined them, overtaking the front of house duties and developing new work whenever possible. In my first year, we launched the Spectrum Spotlight Series. From over 150 submissions, we selected three new plays to stage as readings for local audiences. We’re in midst of the second series now, which will be produced in February 2019. We’ve also expanded the series to include development lab opportunities for local artists, the first of which was Terry Guest’s At The Wake of A Dead Drag Queen, which was freaking BRILLIANT. Seriously, kick yourself if you missed that. I now oversee casting and all things literary for Out Front, which includes acting as the resident dramaturg for a majority of our productions. I’ve been lucky enough to stay with Actors Express too as the Casting Associate to Sheila Oliver.
In all this work, I’ve been fortunate enough to make new connections with other artists and organizations around town. This past summer, Hannah Lake, Carly McMinn, Joey Davila, and myself founded the Atlanta AppCo Series, working to offer new artists further opportunities to develop their skills as performers and playwrights. I’ve also been fortunate enough to work with great minds like Amber Bradshaw of Working Title Playwrights. She has been a phenomenal mentor and friend. Suffice to say, I’m deeply indebted to dumb luck and strange fate because they have brought me to a truly thrilling place in a thriving city with incredible organizations.
We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
It’s been far from easy but I guess that’s what makes the payoff all the sweeter. I developed myself as a theatre artist later than many of my peers, so I constantly worked as if I had some enormous goal to prove. In doing so, I rarely said no to projects. Starting in college, I’d take a huge course load, perform in a mainstage, design the following, maintain an active presence in our chapter of Alpha Psi Omega (seek a life useful y’all). and generally, run myself into the ground in the name of being the best artist I could be. I sacrificed a lot of sleep and was generally indifferent to my own mental health.
This mentality followed into my year as an intern; we worked a full work week to pay bills to turn around and work another 40 hour work week in the theatre. We laughed, we cried, we drank enormous sums of alcohol in gay bars across the city. I wouldn’t trade that year for the world but as a young artist in the city, you’re constantly seeking opportunities to break into the general consciousness and prove yourself to the existing leadership for their affirmation but more importantly, for opportunities for work. So, we aren’t in the habit of saying no, even to scraps. It’s only been in the last year that I’ve learned to balance my working life and my personal life. I can allow myself to pass on certain projects in order to dedicate myself to others. It took some trial and error but I eventually learned that I could sacrifice opportunities if it meant I was focusing on quality over quantity. Also, getting more than four hours of sleep is luxurious and I encourage all of you who are not partaking in it to try it. You’ll like it.
In terms of working for a new small non-profit company, it’s essentially nothing but challenges. Though we draw clear lines and responsibilities at Out Front, it’s always a team effort to make anything happen. We’re small and scrappy but we love what we do and we love the audiences we serve. So, we may not have the most money or the fanciest technology available to us (yet) but we challenge ourselves to make the most of what we do have for our audiences so they can be a part of our growth. It takes patience but if you love what you do like our staff does, the challenges are never insurmountable.
We’d love to hear more about your business.
Out Front Theatre Company exists to tell stories by, for, and about the LGBTQIA+ community (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer, Intergender, Allied). We serve Atlanta audiences but have been fortunate enough to hosts patrons from across the southeast region. We work to tell our history, share new stories from exciting new artists, and create impactful, quality theatrical productions. Beyond that, we also host other local queer organizations like Voices of Note and Out on Film. We want to be more than just a theatre; we strive to be a fixture of our community by creating a performing art space bigger than our own interests. All of which focus on the stories and experiences of our community for everyone to experience together.
What were you like growing up?
I was a ridiculous child. I loved pop music, Kimberly the pink power ranger, and singing along to Torn by Natalie Imbruglia on every car ride. I also thought if I could sing louder than Cher that must’ve meant I sounded like her too. So, sang Cher I did. I was a voracious reader and very studious; hardly missed a day of school. Total teacher’s pet. I was blind as a bat but didn’t know it till the first grade so most from my children remember me being clumsy and not particularly coordinated. I walked into things frequently. I did love playing neighborhood sports though. I’m told I had a great baseball swing; “there was no fear” my father says. I think it’s because I couldn’t see the ball. I had an impressive, albeit secret, a collection of Bratz dolls. I created elaborate and harrowing storylines for them. They endured a lot of melodrama. I binged watched horror films. October was the best month because AMC played them 24/7. I was blonde and ambitious and somewhat gangly. I never met a dog I didn’t like. Still haven’t.
Contact Info:
- Address: 999 Brady Ave NW,
Atlanta, GA 30318 - Website: outfronttheatre.com
- Phone: (404) 448-2755
- Email: info@outfronttheatre.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/outfronttheatre/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/outfronttheatre/
Image Credit:
Saturn Blue Productions, Georgia College and State University, Hannah Lake Photography, Tyler Ogburn Photography
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