In brief: John, 25, is relatively new on Atlanta’s professional theater scene, but he’s making a name and a career for himself with roles at the Alliance Theatre and Synchronicity Theatre. Odds are you’ll see more of him, if he stays in town. Through April 7, he’s in the Civil War drama The Whipping Man at the Alliance’s Hertz Stage. Details, tickets HERE.
Hometown: Stone Mountain.
Lives now: Atlanta’s Edgewood neighborhood.
Where you’ve seen him: The current The Whipping Man, in which he plays a former slave named John, who has a particular talent for liberating goods left at abandoned plantation houses. He’s also done A Christmas Carol (ensemble, Dick Wilkins and Tom Watkins understudies) at the Alliance as well as a fierce portrayal of an outlaw tag artist in We Fight We Die by Tim Guillot, a 2012 Alliance/Kendeda National Graduate Playwriting Competition finalist. At Synchronicity, he’s doubled as Bob Bradley (the dad) and the Reverend in two seasons of the musical The Best Christmas Pageant Ever. Kennesaw State University audiences saw him as ex-baseball player Troy Maxon in August Wilson’s Fences.
His Kennedy Center honor: Was one of four national acting fellows recognized by the Kennedy Center’s American College Theater Festival in 2011. While in Washington, he was the only student among a cast of professionals reading a new one-act titled Down by the Highwayside by Lupe Flores (see it/him on #New Play TV). He also took part in the reading of a new play — not festival-connected — by writer, performer and recording artist Carl Hancock Rux.
First time onstage: Middle school. About sixth grade. In something about a lion and a mouse. He played the lion.
Why theater: “I honestly just love telling stories. I believe I’ve been affected in a million different ways by watching stories being told. I feel like there’s a special thing about a theatrical space. There’s this transcendent thing about it. You connect on a soul level. I really can’t see myself doing anything else.”
Dream role(s): Mr. Black or Burrs in The Wild Party (the Andrew Lippa musical). Troy in Fences. Every iconic August Wilson character there is. Hamlet, Othello. The Scottsboro Boys. And Chekhov. “I’ve never done Chekhov. I just want to do everything.”
Goals: “Honestly, to go wherever there’s work. I love Atlanta, but I would like to leave Atlanta at some point, just because I’ve never seen anything else.” He mentions Chicago, especially Steppenwolf, the theatrical home of such actors as Joan Allen, Gary Sinise, Laurie Metcalf and John Malkovich. And New York, if that happens.
Last word: “I find that putting a life together in the theater is like stitching patchwork. Unless you’re lucky enough to have some kind of big break, and you have enough money to support yourself for an extended period of time, you go where the work is.”
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Kathy Janich, Encore Atlanta’s managing editor, has been seeing, editing, writing about and working in the performing arts for most of her life. Full disclosure: She’s affiliated with Synchronicity Theatre, mentioned above. Please email her at [email protected].
