Men on the Scene: Jeffery Kin

Managing Artistic Director Jeffery Kin is the backstage dynamo at the Players Centre for Performing Arts who has earned community theater a respected seat among the area’s professional companies. Kin is a versatile artist with numerous awards to his credit. Although he is deft at turning the spotlight on others, Kin has won many awards as an actor and director. He also has written award-winning plays and founded ETC, The Eclectic Theatre, which produces the one minute play festival that has raised more than $100,000 for cancer research over the years.Now Kin is turning his talents—and the hard-driving work ethic born of an Ohio farm upbringing—to help shape the future of the Players Centre as it makes its planned move eastward to a new theater complex near Fruitville Road and I-75. “I do appreciate the accolades I’ve received, and even though I’m an actor at heart and like the attention, I try to put other people and the theater first,” he says. “In this position, I’ve never said ‘thank you’ more.” Theater seems to have been an inborn part of Kin’s life. His first role as Rumpelstiltskin in the first grade led to an acting career in New York and elsewhere. It ultimately brought him to Sarasota in 1991. Although he never saw himself becoming an artistic director, it is a role he has embraced. And as the Players Centre celebrates its 90th season, Kin envisions a redefined role for the theater. “I want to entertain people and make their lives better,” he says. “We will always be a community theater at heart, but we’ll also be wrapping our arms around other arts groups and artists by giving them a home.”