Kimball Allen (born February 22, 1982)Kimball Allen – About. Facebook. is an American writer, journalist, playwright, and actor. He is the author of two autobiographical one-man plays: Secrets of a Gay Mormon Felon (2012) and Be Happy Be Mormon (2014). The latter premiered at Theatre Row in Manhattan on September 24 and 27, 2014, as part of the United Solo Theatre Festival. From 2015 to 2017 he hosted the recurring Triple Threat w/ Kimball Allen, a 90-minute variety talk show at The Triple Door in Seattle.
Secrets of a Gay Mormon Felon Secrets of a Gay Mormon Felon is an autobiographical one-man play written and performed by Allen. In it, he reenacts the circumstances of his life that led him from a Mormon childhood through a life of addiction and, eventually, arrest.Secrets of a Gay Mormon Felon. BroadwayWorld.com. July 5, 2013.Lee, Steve. "Secrets of a Gay Mormon Felon" . LGBT Weekly. July 5, 2013
Allen was born and grew up in Blackfoot, Idaho,Kimball Baden Allen – Bio. BroadwayWorld.com. a religious, conservative region, and he was one of eight children in an orthodox Mormon family. Even when he was small, his strict Mormon parents were concerned by what they perceived as unusual behavior and mannerisms on his part, and his mother preemptively warned him, "Boys don't kiss boys."Velazquez, Dagney. "Secrets of a Gay Mormon Felon adds spice to KC Fringe Fest". KC Stage. July 27, 2012.
At the age of 13, he was raped by an older man who befriended him at a mall.Allen, Kimball. "When Love Falls Short". The New York Times. January 9, 2013.Lumpp, Ray. "Secrets of a Gay Mormon Felon: An Interview with Kimball Allen". All Treatment. November 15, 2012. Part 1. To cope with this trauma, which he could not tell anyone about, he surreptitiously turned to alcohol, and eventually drugs. He began living a double life – a devout Mormon on the surface, and underneath a teen struggling with his sexual orientation, the rape trauma, and his growing addictions.
Allen's family moved to Utah, the most heavily Mormon state in the U.S., when he was in his junior year of high school.Allen, Kimball B. Secrets of a Gay Mormon Felon . 2012. p. 14. He came out to his parents as gay when he was 19. His parents responded that they couldn't support him in that capacity and that they were repulsed by him.Lumpp, Ray. "Secrets of a Gay Mormon Felon: An Interview with Kimball Allen". All Treatment. November 15, 2012. Part 2. According to Allen, coming out as gay in the Mormon community was "committing social suicide", and he has also written that "I grew up gay in a loving, supportive Mormon family. When I came out, that love and support disappeared."
In adulthood, his drug addictions spiraled further into cocaine, acid, and E, and eventually into a shopping addiction which led him to crave the high of larger and larger purchases. Given responsibility for a corporate credit card, he accidentally used it for a small expense of his own in 2010, and then started addictively embezzling the company's funds for luxuries via the card."Man turns himself in for embezzling in Palo Alto" . ABC 7 News. KGO-TV. April 15, 2011. The missing funds, totalling around $70,000,Koehn, Josh. "Embezzler Avoids Jail Time". Mercury News. May 2, 2011. were noticed in 2011, and Allen landed in jail awaiting trial. He went through detox in the jail cell,"Meet the Press: Kimball Allen" . New Queer on the Block. May 20, 2013. and out of desperation began journal writing to make sense of how he ended up in that situation.Caplan, Chris. "The Journey of a Gay Mormon Felon". In Hollywood Magazine. 2012.
After admitting to his crimes and making reparations, coming to terms with his addictions, and realizing he needed help, Allen continued his journaling during his recovery process. A coherent narrative eventually took shape, and the self-examination eventually became a script, with the additional help of many hours viewing home videos of himself as a child.
The completed play, Secrets of a Gay Mormon Felon, premiered in Kansas City in the summer of 2012.KC Fringe Festival Program, 2012. KCFringe.org. It has also run in HonoluluSecrets of a Gay Mormon Felon . Oahu Fringe. 2012.Oahu Fringe Performing Arts Festival 2012 Programme. OahuFringe.com.Fringe Schedule Online. Oahu Fringe Performing Arts Festival. November 2012. and San Diego."SECRETS OF A GAY MORMON FELON to Play San Diego Fringe Festival, 7/5-7". BroadwayWorld.com. June 12, 2013.Secrets of a Gay Mormon Felon . San Diego Fringe Festival. July 2013.
A KC Stage reviewer of the play wrote, "I was skeptical about how engaging an hour long, one-man play ... could be. Fortunately, playwright, actor, and subject matter Kimball Allen possesses the assets of colorful material in his life story, a gift for story-telling, and a charisma that drew in the audience from beginning to end. ... The audience is swept up in his story while also discovering parallels in their own lives, places where they have tried to live up to standards and rules that are unrealistic or unhealthy."
LA Splash wrote that "Through his play Secrets of a Gay Mormon Felon, fascinating Seattle playwright Kimball Allen has found unexpected relief in reenacting painful moments from his life and sharing their impact with his audience. ... He finds the comparisons to essayist and fellow non-fiction funny-man David Sedaris to be an honor but what he finds most rewarding is the connection he makes with the audience on stage."Armour, Casandra. "Secrets of a Gay Mormon Felon the Unexpected Play From Author Kimball Allen". LA Splash. October 9, 2012. Allen has stated, "I want everyone to leave with a different perspective, but to understand that children are fragile, and when you raise a child there is a domino effect."
Ecumenica Journal called Secrets of a Gay Mormon Felon "a mix of deeply personal confession and performance art". It went on to note that Allen's new theater work written after this play continues to explore "controversial topics and taboos within his former religion and his personal life".Beasley, Heather. "Interview with Kimball Allen". Ecumenica: Journal of Theatre and Performance. Fall 2013 .
Be Happy Be Mormon Allen's second one-man play, the one-hour Be Happy Be Mormon, premiered at Theatre Row in Manhattan on September 24, 2014, as part of the United Solo Theatre Festival, and due to the sold-out premiere it had a second performance on September 27. It previewed on September 4 and 5, 2014 in Seattle."BE HAPPY BE MORMON Gets Second Performance at United Solo Fest". BroadwayWorld. September 10, 2014.Be Happy Be Mormon . United Solo Theatre Festival."Kimball Allen to Debut One-Man Show BE HAPPY BE MORMON at NYC's United Solo Festival, 9/24; Gets Seattle Preview 9/4". BroadwayWorld. June 10, 2014. It is described as "A voyeuristic look into the childhood of a Bambi-loving vegetarian, ballet slipper-wearing, Diet Coke-drinking gay Mormon Boy Scout." The play relates his upbringing "as a fabulous black sheep" in a Mormon family he doesn't relate to, through "colorful narration, private home movies, songs, dance and the occasional acrobatics". He has stated that the inspiration for the show came when he read a lengthy letter his mother wrote before he was born, anticipating his birth and also his life and hoped-for achievements in the Mormon faith – achievements which he never fulfilled because of his true nature."Kimball B. Allen & Emma Hassett of Be Happy Be Mormon". Go See a Show!. September 26, 2014.
In August 2014 Allen, who is an ex-Mormon,Interview about Be Happy Be Mormon . RepRadio.org. September 15, 2014. (one hour audio) presented excerpts from and commentary on Be Happy Be Mormon, plus a question and answer session, at the 2014 Sunstone Symposium, an annual gathering of Mormons, scholars, and others interested in the diversity and richness of Mormon thought and experience."Playwright Kimball B. Allen to Speak at Sunstone Symposium, 8/2". BroadwayWorld. July 30, 2014.Audio Files from the 2014 Salt Lake Symposium: Session 354: BE HAPPY, BE MORMON: A Best-Selling Off-Broadway Performance (Kimball Allen, Mitch Mayne). Sunstone Symposium. 2014. (Session 354; audio is below session title.)2014 Sunstone Symposium Program. Sunstone Symposium. 2014. p. 41, No. 354.
Triple Threat w/ Kimball Allen On April 3, 2015, Allen presented and hosted Triple Threat w/ Kimball Allen, a 90-minute variety talk show, at The Triple Door in Seattle. The lineup included a wide variety of local Seattle performers, entertainers, and celebrities, including author and activist Dan Savage and the Seattle Men's Chorus.Baume, Matt. "Kimball Allen's 'Triple Threat' is a Talent Show with Actual Talent ... Including Mr. Savage & Mama Tits". Seattle Gay Scene. April 4, 2015. Reviewing the show in the West Seattle Herald, Amanda Knox wrote that "Allen was as much a grateful host as a gleeful groupie, ever-ready and willing to make his party as much fun for his guest talent as for the audience."Knox, Amanda. "The Do's and Don'ts of Kimball Allen's live talk/variety show 'Triple Threat' at the Triple Door, featuring ArtWest's Mathew Wright and Chelsea Le Valley" . West Seattle Herald. April 5, 2015. Matt Baume in Seattle Gay Scene wrote "It's like a talent show, but with actual talent. From his hosting station behind a desk, Kimball rotates through a grab bag of local performers like a star-studded episode of The Tonight Show." Both Knox and Baume said they looked forward to future installments of the stage show.
The second Triple Threat w/ Kimball Allen was on August 28, 2015. The lineup of celebrities, entertainers, comedians, and musical performers included rock-music radio personality Marco Collins, and Daniel Blue, frontman of local Washington band Motopony. Seattle Gay Scene described Allen as "Seattle's very own version of Johnny Carson". The third installment of Triple Threat took place on March 31, 2016, and was headlined by Emmy-winning actor and comedian Leslie Jordan.Dutton, Earle. "Leslie Jordan Is Back In Seattle With Triple Threat". Equality 365. March 25, 2016.
In 2017, in light of the current U.S. presidency, the producers added a more activist slant to the show, and the decision was also made to thenceforth donate all proceeds of each show to a non-profit.Uitti, Jake. "Kimball Allen's Ode To Seattle" . Jetspace. July 14, 2017. The lineup of the March 2017 show included a spokesperson for Planned Parenthood in addition to Seattle comedians and musicians, and all proceeds from the show went to Planned Parenthood.Baume, Matt. "Triple Threat with Kimball Allen" . The Stranger. March 13, 2017."The 61 Best Things To Do in Seattle This Week: March 13–19, 2017". The Stranger. March 13, 2017. The July 2017 show included filmmaker Wes Hurley and "boylesque" performer Waxie Moon, and all proceeds went to the Vanderpump Dog Foundation."Triple Threat with Kimball Allen" . The Stranger. July 6, 2017.
Additional writings, performances, and activism Allen has written an opinion piece for the New York Times. In the article, he talks about "the negative effects religion can have, particularly when the individual doesn't fit into the dogmatic mold", and the spiral of addictions his unresolved resentment and anger led him to. He also discusses the familial, social, community, and religious repercussions of his coming out, which forever affected his ability to interact freely with his Mormon community.