Today we’d like to introduce you to Allen Porterie.
Hi Allen, so excited to have you with us today. What can you tell us about your story?
I was the child who would serenade the bathroom mirror in a t-shirt wig and towel dress combo one moment, then give an impromptu sermon in the living room a few moments later. When asked what I wanted to be when I grew up, I wanted to say, “Everything!” but I typically gave a standard answer like teacher instead. When not giving a vocal performance, I was leading my stuffed animals as a teacher, judge, CEO, or choir director in my room. (Can you tell I was an only child for the first five years of my life?) All this to say, I can very well entertain myself and I have been performing since childhood. Theater officially entered my life in middle school when my teacher Jessica Zervakos recognized the performer underneath the shy, nerdy demeanor I presented in school at the time and encouraged me to audition for my first play—Charlotte’s Web. Through this experience, I learned that I could channel my creative energy into telling stories from the perspectives of people (and animals) from all walks of life.
The theater bug had bitten me and I did not want to stop! I continued studying theater in high school, where I got to perform in plays and musicals each year. Theater became the outlet for my poised academic self during the school day. Theater offered me a space to connect the mind, body, and soul in a way the classroom did not. The moment that sealed the deal for me came my junior year of high school. Our department was putting on a production of High School Musical and my best friend and I were living our best lives playing Chad and Taylor. Little did we know, our performances were strong enough to get recognized by the Dallas Summer Musicals High School Musical Theater Awards. My friend and I were both nominated for Supporting Actress/Actor awards, respectively. I vividly remember receiving congratulatory messages from my classmates and having no clue what for. I’ll never forget the excitement that buzzed through me upon realizing that I could be celebrated for doing what I loved. It was a moment of purpose alignment—a recurring theme in my life.
Another of these moments came when I received an email that I would be admitted to Cornell University. I quite literally applied to Cornell on the last day the application was due only because they reached out to me earlier in the week. I was not looking at Ivy League schools much at all at the time but was grateful to receive an invitation. I packed my bags and left Forney, TX for Ithaca, NY that fall and the rest is history. Whenever I wasn’t trudging through snow or spending time studying, I was in the theater until 11 PM almost every semester. One of my favorite performance opportunities was playing Hamlet during my sophomore year at Cornell. This role called on me to show an emotional range that I had only dreamt of. It was the first time I squarely understood the power of public performance. I continued branching out into other forms of performance, including dance, short films, sermon contests, church choir, queer nightlife, and modeling. I began to see how young Allen was telling me all along that I really could be everything I wanted to be.
I graduated from Cornell University in May of 2020 and returned home to Forney, TX for a year. During this time, I started doing commercials and modeling professionally. I was also invited to do a few virtual staged readings of plays during quarantine, including Rachel Lynett’s brilliant, Yale Prize-winning play “Apologies to Lorraine Hansberry (You Too, August Wilson).” By January of 2021, I also co-founded a virtual theater company with my friend Jason Laws called Labelless Black Box. Our company produced 6 shows during 2021, all of which featured new and original screenplays written, directed, and performed by members of the company.
The most important work I did upon returning to Forney in 2020 was volunteering with Sharing the Love Foundation. This organization singlehandedly propelled me into the leader I am today. Through Sharing the Love Foundation, teenagers are given the opportunity to organize and participate in community service projects in Kaufman County. As an alumnus of the program, I was excited to jump back into providing a helping hand amidst a time of uncertainty. I assisted Sharing the Love Foundation’s CEO, Marian Stewart, in establishing a community garden aimed at feeding senior citizens and others in need in Forney. The garden is thriving in its second season thanks to the efforts of community members of all generations coming together. Visit sharingthelove.org to learn more!
As of 2021, I am an Austin-based professional actor and Performance as Public Practice MA/PhD student at UT Austin. I signed with Collier Talent in February 2022, and I am currently playing an Angel in a production of Kinky Boots at Uptown Players in Dallas. I am so grateful to the universe and the God inside both you and me for the opportunity of new adventures each day.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
The most challenging part of the journey for me has been reminding myself that it is possible. The actor’s journey is one that asks humans to face rejection on a revolving door and keep walking. Luckily, there always seems to be a light in the depth of these moments. These moments of pause have also instilled the importance of creating my own work instead of waiting for others to call on me. I like to think of the audition room as if we are all back on the playground—I walk up to a group and ask if my games and energy can work well with theirs, and if the answer is no, I continue creating new games as I make my way over to the next group.
Beyond the standard rejection of this profession, another obstacle for me has been maintaining the balance of the academic and artistic sides of myself. As I stated before, the classroom has not often been the space of mind, body, and soul alignment for me. As a graduate student, it has become paramount for me to keep exercising my performance muscles to feel centered. We’ll see how this juggling act continues to play out in the future!
Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
I am an actor, singer, writer, director, and researcher based in Austin, TX.
Everything I do centers on providing folks a space to practice healing and self-acceptance. As a director, actor, and writer, I am intent on telling stories of Black queer experiences because there is so much at stake for our stories to be told. Black queer children deserve to see themselves as dynamic and multi-dimensional. Black queer folks deserve to see themselves represented inside and out of the bedroom. My goal through my work is to reflect the many elements that affect our lives and the precarity that can surround our lives too. I remain open and curious to what depths can be explored through filmic and staged representations of Black queer lived experiences. As I continue to branch out of the Bible Belt South, I plan to tell stories not only of American Blackness but to also retrace the lineage of Black queerness globally.
As a researcher, I am interested in Black queer men’s performances of sex acts in gay adult film and in theatre as modes of liberation and identity-making. As a Mellon Mays Undergraduate Fellow at Cornell University, I devised a research project centering on renderings of Black boyhood on Broadway. I am also a proud cast member and co-founder of Labelless Black Box—a digital platform for Black artists to explore being human through monthly premieres of short films and short plays. I also serve as President of the alumni chapter of Sharing the Love Foundation, a non-profit organization that encourages youth to get involved in community service and leadership.
I am currently pursuing a Master of Arts degree in Performance as Public Practice at The University of Texas at Austin.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.allenporterie.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/artsy.allen/
- Other: www.LabellessBlackBox.com
Image Credits
Amanda Julia Steinback, Brent Weber, Rachel Philipson, Black Kreaux Photography
