That family includes father Rick
Kelly-Sordelet, one of the country’s
preeminent fight directors and an
instructor at the Yale School of
Drama; mother Kathleen, who teach-
es acting at Kean University; older
brother Christian, who runs an action
movement company, Sordelet Inc.,
with his dad; and older sister Kaelan,
a director and screenwriter.
They’re extremely close, and
there’s a lot of cross-pollination in the
family’s creative work; for example,
Christian and Kaelan are finishing a
screenplay about a New York City
drug bust, and Rick and Collin
team-teach stage combat at Montclair
State and Kean Universities.
Some of Collin’s earlier memories
are of his parents choreographing
fights. Instead of being scared by
them, he was enchanted, and became
determined to “create illusions,” too.
“As a child, Collin was always
playing a character based on his
favorite book, cartoon or movie at the
time,” recalls Kathleen. “During the
‘Spiderman’ phase — probably from
about 4 to 8-ish — he became an
expert climber. He made his way to
the highest place in the room, wheth-
er that was the top of the refrigerator
or climbing a door frame to get as
close as he could to the ceiling. He
mastered the monkey run after seeing
Planet of the Apes. He did it every-
where, and he was fast.”
When his siblings attended
Montclair High School, Collin starred
in their student films. He took every
opportunity to perform in school,
playing Aladdin in fourth grade;
at MHS, he was Corney Collins in
Hairspray, Mr. Darcy in an adapta-
tion of Pride and Prejudice, Berowne
in Love’s Labour’s Lost and Bobby
Strong in Urinetown. Paper Mill’s
Patrick Parker recalls seeing the latter
performance, and considering it a star
turn. “It confirmed what I thought
all along — he has the ‘it’ factor,” he
says. “His performance was on a level
way beyond his years and his peers.”
“BEING IN SUCH A WONDERFUL
PRODUCTION IS A MASTER CLASS IN HOW
TO BECOME A BETTER PERSON AND ARTIST.”
COLLIN KELLY-SORDELET
BROTHERS Collin Kelly-Sordelet
(on the staircase) plays eldest
sibling JJ Carney. Sean Delaney,
right, plays Michael.
MONTCLAIR MAGAZINE MAY 2019
33