By Hannah Junco
Fierce, chameleon-like and attention-grabbing, actor and singer Imran Hylton has impressed audiences with his versatility of characters, from militant straight to gaudy drag.
Hylton discovered an interest in performing at age 12 thanks to drama club. Since then, his passion has led him to perform with various theatrical companies including Loxen Productions, Robert Russell Theater and Miami New Drama. He has worked with Area Stage Company (ASC) for nearly two years, and in that short time has caught the eye of theatergoers in Miami.
His second production with ASC was in the musical “Annie,” where he garnered attention for playing the impatient and child-hating orphanage manager Miss Hannigan. He originally auditioned for Rooster, Miss Hannigan’s brother, but was asked to take on the female role at his callback.
And it wasn’t just the unusual cross-dressing for the Miss Hannigan character that made Hylton’s performance such a highlight – it was the way he portrayed her very soul.
“I didn’t want the character to be gender-specific or fall into a caricature that mocks women,” said Hylton. “She just hated kids, not because she is evil, but because she was robbed of what she wanted to be as a woman.”
He immersed himself in the character to show the audience that he was not just a drag Miss Hannigan – rather, he was “a person playing Miss Hannigan’s truth.”
Hylton strongly believes that to understand a character, one must go to the source material. Thus, the first step of his creative process after landing a role is an immediate read of the text.
“I don’t like watching source material, seeing how other actors play a role,” he explained. “I like getting the text, the source material, and making my own analysis of it.”
The college experience
The young actor owes his versatility to the diverse acting opportunities he had at New World School of the Arts (NWSA) college, which he describes as one of the most incredible experiences of his life. There, he was not only able to study lead and ensemble roles, but also how to choreograph and direct.
Hylton described the school’s philosophy as “if you don’t want to do this, then do not come to this school.” He went from the lowest level of dance to the highest level in just a semester because he understood that the achievement wouldn’t take talent alone.
“Less than 5% of it is talent – it is all about what you bring and how badly you want it,” he said.
Hylton’s most challenging role to date was an NWSA assignment for a class on modern realism, the movement of theater following Shakespeare and prior to its modern era. The task: to play a love scene from “Three Sisters,” written in 1900 by Anton Chekhov. His character, Tuzenbach, a masculine army lieutenant who is in love with Irina, was initially difficult for Hylton to relate to.
“It wasn’t so much figuring him out, but I could never really connect or relate to his ‘masculinity’ and his infatuation with Irina,” he explained.
Hylton says that his dedicated work on the character made the performance “a rewarding experience as not only an actor, but a person.”
Within & beyond queer worlds
The heterosexuality of Tuzenbach in “Three Sisters” was a challenge because of the hypermasculine character Hylton was playing, although “playing straight” is not usually hard for him. He explained that if he plays a romantic scene with a differing gender orientation, it doesn’t matter because what he acts is the passion of the scene.
“Passion is something that anyone relates to. I don’t think it’s about playing straight,” he said. “It’s about playing the truth of the scenario. The idea of love or passion in a romantic way is a truth for anyone despite their sexual orientation. For example, I’m someone a little more feminine, flamboyant, over the top, but the human physicality is a huge grey scale. When it comes down to playing roles that are not of my sexual orientation, I do not think there is much of a switch.”
Hylton wrote, directed and starred in a one-man show entitled “Thanks for Coming,” where he plays Andy Knox, a drag queen of five years who is winning his 10th drag pageant. When his biological mother in the play, whom he hasn’t seen in six years, appears in the crowd at his acceptance speech, the speech and the show take a turn where he confronts his past with his present self.
“Writing that character allowed me to tap into my life and my story and pull from there, which is hard because humans repress things,” he said. “I am creative, I am feminine, and drag was something that saved my life.”
Although Hylton is fluent in musical theater as well as plays, he describes the former as his “guilty pleasure.”
His favorite roles have been those he relates to most, including and especially Mereb from “Aida,” his favorite musical.
“In a way, Mereb was like me where he got along with lots of people,” said Hylton. “He was a Nubian who got along with Egyptians, and he knew exactly what to say and how to get on their good sides.”
The actor’s most recent role in “Beauty and the Beast,” playing at the Adrienne Arsht Center through Sunday, has caused quite a sensation. Taking “Be Our Guest” to the next level, this immersive musical staging takes place around and on top of long tables where the audience is seated. The intimacy of the performance gives the audience a close-up of the actors, including Hylton, who effortlessly switched between playing both Belle’s father, Maurice, and the extravagant female wardrobe. He describes the experience as “rewarding.”
“Playing these two characters, I discovered something new every time I performed. Every time you do what you love, treat it as if it’s the last time you’re ever going to do it.”
Goals & message
Hylton says his goal is to produce great work that reaches big audiences and that patrons leave having had their thoughts and beliefs provoked.
“My dreams are constantly changing,” said Hylton, sharing that two of them remain constant: He dreams of one day having a family and of teaching young actors.
“I love teaching kids and seeing young actors grow,” he said. “I want to give back; I want to teach. This is my ultimate dream.”
Hylton added that although people of color have always been marginalized in theater, he believes things are changing. His message for young artists of color is that “it’s not easy, and no one is going to hand it to you, but there is more than enough room for you.
“The world doesn’t look just like you! The world comes in so many different colors and shapes, and it’s so beautiful seeing them represented on screen or stage.”
