entertainment
“ WHATEVER YOUTHINK , THE CAMERA WILL SEE .” COLLIN KELLY-SORDELET
INSET : COURTESY OF TOBY OLIVER
Most kids would shy away from watching their parents in the act of fighting , but Collin Kelly- Sordelet always knew that they were working at the craft offight choreography , and was enchanted by it .
He is the youngest of three children born to Kathleen Kelly and Rick Sordelet , who is hailed bymany as America ’ s preeminent fight director . “ My parents met atRutgers in the acting program , and Iwas aware of acting at ayoung age ,” he says . “ I watched them create illusions with fight choreography and thought ‘ I want to create illusions . Iwant to create something that will illicit this response .’”
Kelly-Sordelet acted in acouple of shows at the Essex Youth Theater , and exercised his performance skills at Hillside , Glenfield and Montclair High schools , performing regularly in the School of Visual and Performing Arts . “ SVPA gave me such confidence as an artist and aman ,” he says . “ It gave me avoice .”
He attended Paper Mill Playhouse summer conservatories , and was tempted to skip college to become a working actor , but his mother urged him to apply toJuilliard .
His auditions were successful and soon followed by others : He joined the final pre-Broadway workshop for The Last Ship , the musical with lyrics and music bySting based on the musician ’ s experiences growing up near Newcastle , England . At the same time , Kelly-Sordelet was acting in SVPA ’ s production of Hairspray .“ It was just funny , with Sting in the daytime , and MHS at night for rehearsal ,” he says . “ I was in the room with Sting getting personal voice lessons from him , then going and performing with all my friends at school .”
Now , though , he had a decision to make : The Last Ship was bound for Broadway , and if he hoped to be in that version , he would have to leave Juilliard . “ The idea for my character
came from the workshop , but they still auditioned every young actor for it ,” he says . When he won the role for asecond time , he opted to take it .
“ You do eight shows a week , and everything revolves around it ,” he recalls .“ I was living at home [ in Montclair ] at the time . Around the holidays , the traffic was so bad . I was in the car with my family and had
COLLIN KELLY- SORDELET
23 , MONTCLAIR RESIDENT CKSORDELET @ CKSORDELET
WILDLING Kelly-Sordelet ’ s most recent film is ahorrorfantasy story . to sprint 15 to 20 blocks to make it for the curtain . The stage managers were not happy that day .”
The teen did more than 100 performances as Gideon , a man who returns to his small town after 15 years for his father ’ s funeral , as well as Gideon ’ s son , Tom Dawson . Brenda Pepper , the SVPA advisor and director , says that it was thrilling for the MHS Performing Arts team to attend the show . When its run was over there was a “ grieving period ,” says Kelly-Sordelet , but he responded to it by auditioning constantly , meeting with casting directors , and taking on-camera training classes . His preparation won him a two-episode role in Hulu ’ s The Path , aswell as arole alongside Liv Tyler inthe film Wildling , released this year . His most recent film , Radium Girls , premiered atthe Tribeca Film Festival in the spring .
“ I love theater , because there ’ s nothing like working with alive audience ,” he says . “ But the intimacy with the camera ... It ’ sthe greatest lie detector . Whatever you think , the camera will see .”
He also credits the Montclair schools with giving him aleg up in the acting world . “ It was such an opportunity to be 9or10 , and be exposed to having asolo infront of alive audience ,” he says .“ Even in middle school when you ’ re awkward , it ’ s good to have that outlet .”
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MONTCLAIR MAGAZINE BACK TOSCHOOL 2018
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