Child's play

The youthful face of the movement to save community theater in Tulsa

Without knowing him, you might not think that a kid like Jack Allen, a 17-year-old with shaggy dark hair in a Darth Vader shirt, would be behind a successful social movement.

When I interviewed Allen, he seemed nervous despite being a veteran of the stage. He can already list two dozen shows on his resume. Allen is a poet and actor, and he stages, manages, and runs lights and sound for theatre productions like this year’s award-winning “School for Lies” and “Time Stands Still” at the Henthorne PAC. At Henthorne, he volunteers as a counselor-in-training at summer camps for students interested in the performing arts.

He’s also an engineering student at Tulsa Community College, and he’s written three plays, each of which has been produced. He wrote and acted for the Arts and Humanities Council of Tulsa’s Playlist, competed in slam poetry with Louder than a Bomb, and participated in Living Arts Youth Speak, a spoken-word program. Allen has directed two plays. Earlier this summer, he was an integral part of the organized protests of the proposed cuts to public funding for the performing arts.

TTV: Tell us about the recent protest.

JA: It all started when I was running the light board for “The Somewhat True Tale of Robinhood.” That was a Clark production at Henthorne. It was opening night, the first week of May. It was a great opening night, a really funny show. The audience members and everyone else started going outside, and we noticed this news truck. We asked why they were photographing the building. They were like, “Oh, Henthorne is probably getting the ax. It’s in the mayor’s budget.”

Whenever you’re in a play, there is this energy that you get on opening night that’s wonderful. I think the reasons the protests, these rallies you saw, worked was because we decided to collectively mobilize at that point, right after the show.

The next day, I decided to go rally in front of City Hall. I thought I would just get four or five people to hold signs for an hour, but 30 or 40 people showed up. That was better than anything I could have imagined to get the City’s attention. You could hear us blocks away.

The following five or six weeks we rallied before the City Council meetings and then went to the meetings. We got people to speak to the councilors every week. I know they were sick of us by the end, but it worked.

TTV: Let’s say Mayor Bartlett is sitting right here. What would you say to him?

JA: I don’t have that much to say to him. I’ve seen him around a few times. I think everything is cool between all of us and the mayor. I would tell him I’m glad the theatre is gonna stay open.

TTV: How did you get started in theatre?

JA: I’ve been acting since I was 11 years old, and I have been in a lot of youth theatre and community theatre productions around Tulsa. I just got done with a play called “She Kills Monsters” with American Theatre Company, and it closed on Saturday. I’ve performed at Henthorne Performing Arts Center, Sapulpa Community Theatre, American Theatre Company, Theatre Tulsa, and Nightingale Theatre. I’m a member of the Pop-up Players Improv—we’re a good improv group, I guess. We are based out of the Comedy Parlor.

TTV: What’s going on in Tulsa’s comedy scene?

JA: The Comedy Parlor. I guess that’s Tulsa’s main thing since most of the improv groups I’ve seen moved over there. There is a lot of stand-up over there as well.

TTV: Do you think the growing popularity of comedy is aiding local performing arts?

JA: I think there are a lot of people who go back and forth between theatre and improv, even stand-up. I think there is a lot of advertising of comedy in theaters and vise-versa. If somebody comes to an improv show to talk to me, I’ll probably tell them about another project, like theatre. I’m hoping it’s mutually beneficial.

TTV: Why do you think youth theatre is important?

JA: There are a lot of students who really don’t have anywhere else to go because not everyone is a jock and a lot of them don’t have any arts programs at school. Their life kind of sucks for them at school. A lot of kids rely on these programs the City puts on, and other stuff as well—other youth theatre programs. They love them. It exposes them to the arts, which schools are neglecting. It’s the first thing to go in the curriculum when it comes to funding.

Really, I think it feeds into the rest of the artistic community because a lot of these youth will go on to do other things, other theatre. Maybe some will become professional actors. Maybe they will become famous. People will say, “Hey, it’s that famous person from Tulsa. He got his start at Henthorne, yay!”

Editor’s note: This interview has been condensed and edited.