CALLOWAY, John-Paul

[John-Paul Calloway]

JOHN-PAUL CALLOWAY

FULL NAME: John-Paul Calloway.
NICKNAMES: JP.
AGE: thirty-one.
SEXUALITY: straight.
STATUS: single
GROUP: citizen
GRADE: N/A.
MAJOR: N/A
JOB OCCUPATION: Actor.

HAIR: Brown, long enough to run his fingers through and with a natural curl. Usually kind of messy and just left where it falls in the morning..
EYES: blue.
SCARS/BIRTHMARKS: A few little ones from over the years, but none that have the epic tale he would like.
TATTOOS: He has a tribal cross on his right shoulder blade.
PIERCINGS: N/A
PLAY-BY: Christian Borle!

LIKES: enthusiasm, good humour, laidback days, dress rehearsals, espressos, train journeys, cabins in the woods, hiking, campfires, play-scripts, novels, scarves, autumn, playing piano, old journals, handwritten notes/letters, comfy clothes, butterscotch pudding, dogs, classic gangster movies, BLT sandwiches, jalapeño peppers, chipotle sauce on pretty much everything, pranks, fruit cake.
DISLIKES: [font color="000000killing bugs when he can set them free, clowns, bowties, getting caught in the rain, hospital side rooms, too much salt on food, dust, reality TV shows, fancy shaving balms, solitaire on his laptop (but he gets addicted), auto-correct, feeling cold, laryngitis, vodka, small spaces, cinnamon flavouring, software updates, gossip magazines, rumours, unnecessary complications, delays.
FEARS: loneliness, being forgotten, clowns.
SECRETS: He taught because he was scared that if he didn’t then he’d never have a stable job and no one will take him seriously. In reality, he misses acting and being on the stage; it’s where his passion truly lies, even if he does enjoy teaching.!
PERSONALITY: JP is the guy who sits in the break room with a sarcastic response on the tip of his tongue for everyone around him or a witty comment to make about the latest memo that they all received that morning. He has a dry sense of humour, but it’s one of the first things that people notice about him. He also uses that wit as a defensive tool to keep people from finding the chinks in his armour and picking away at them. He can play the role well enough, but in reality, JP actually has a lot of self-doubt about most of his traits. Sometimes he worries that his only talent lies in acting and nowhere else, including his regular everyday people skills. This usually means he’ll make a lot of sarcastic jokes and digs about himself, all of which come from old school yard taunts or comments that have been made to him over the years. He’s not a big talker about things like that, but he’s a great listener who will play the shoulder to cry on for anyone else so long as he doesn’t have to talk about his own issues or problems. He’s a kind guy who seems to have more confidence and trust for other people than he does for himself, and he can be quite stubborn in seeing himself differently. He does have a big heart, which, after his last break up, he’s keeping closely guarded. He can be hurt easily, thanks to the harsh torments of his past, and so doesn’t always have the smoothest time with cupid’s guidance. He has vices like everyone else and usually gives into them when he’s scared of something in his life, which is usually someone getting close to him. His emotions are strong and yet they are also his downfall. He’s enthusiastic and passionate but sometimes this can irritate people as well as impress them and if someone criticises anything or anyone JP loves then he has been known to lose his cool. He’s not the aggressive type normally, but under those circumstances he will rise to the challenge of a fight and it can take a lot from someone to talk him down! Generally, he’s a good guy who is trying to do the right things in life, but he’s afraid of a lot, too.

MOTHER: Arielle Harmony Calloway (Nee Barber), 50.
FATHER: Luke Marley Calloway, 57.
SIBLINGS: N/A.
OTHERS: Kate Victoria Martin, 29, ex-girlfriend.
PETS: English Setter called Roxy.
HOMETOWN: Southwest Harbor, Maine
HISTORY: Arielle was still in high school when she discovered that she was pregnant. The father was several years older than she was and one of the local bad boys who had vowed to “change his ways” the second that she told him of their baby. She was head over heels in love and the couple had a quick wedding and moved into a cheap apartment over a dodgy liquor store after Arielle’s parents basically told her that she was ruining her own life and the life of her unborn child by running around the town with Luke. John-Paul was born into a world where things were supposed to be perfect, but everything was an illusion. The only job Luke could get was in a factory a few towns over and it was on the graveyard shift, which meant that during the day it was up to Arielle to earn more money as a cleaner for one of the local businesses and a few of the wealthier residents of Southwest Harbor who had the bigger houses. So, really, JP was left in the care of a sleeping parent at all times and they’d only wake up when he cried and once he fell silent, they’d crawl back into bed.

By the time JP was six, Arielle and Luke were barely speaking to each other and the spark that had attracted her to him in the first place had vanished. All of her old friends were falling in love, chasing their dreams and really enjoying their youth and Arielle resented everything for stealing that chance from her. Luke was bored of playing husband and father, too, and most of the time JP was left to his own devices to keep himself entertained. He had to learn to look after himself if he wanted anything doing and would cover his ears and hide in his wardrobe if his parents started arguing. He was eight when Luke finally walked out on them, leaving nothing but a trail of dust as he left town. Arielle seemed to stop caring so much then, and as JP got older, she took more time to try and reclaim her youth. JP had more “uncles” in his life than he cared to think about.

At school he made average grades, but didn’t exactly make the most popular vote. The other children teased and bullied him for his life. Little ears overheard little rumours and JP grew up hearing the latest slander from the lips of his classmates who would use the rumours, be them truth or lies, to put the young boy down. Still, he remained independent, taking care of himself, making sure his homework was done and doing the chores that he could manage around the house at the time. Things never really changed. Luke would roll into town every couple of months and take him off somewhere for a day or two, but the father-son bond was flimsy at best. In many ways, as much as JP loved his parents, he also blamed them for the schoolyard taunts. It was hard to understand back then, but he knew that he shouldn’t have had to cook his own dinner when he was still a child or learn how use half of the household appliances when he ought to have been playing with toys.

Despite all of this, JP was a good kid. He took care of himself, tried his best and did what he could to make his life better. He joined the AV club in high school and made a few friends, but most of the kids still had harsh words and crude comments to say to him in the hallways. Drama, acting, singing…none of that even dawned on him until his senior year when he was in the school hall before the auditions for that year’s school production. He found a copy of the script resting on a chair and opened it, curious. He didn’t think anyone was around to see him as he began reading from the page, but the teacher in charge of it all had slipped in and had been surprised by him. He asked JP about his acting and why he had never auditioned before, refusing to listen when JP tried to shrug it off and claim disinterest. He ended up taking the lead role and shocking quite a few people with his hidden talent that he didn’t even know he had.

The one thing he couldn’t deny was how great it had felt to be up there each day in rehearsals, learning lines and pushing through to improve and master the singing parts that he didn’t think he’d be any good at, but the teacher kept saying that he was “an uncut diamond” and just had to hone his talents.
Arielle and Luke responded very differently. She was proud and actually tried to make more of an effort with JP whereas Luke thought the whole singing, acting and dancing routine was prissy and a terrible choice for his already meek son. Still, JP finally found something that he loved in life and it was that experience that pushed him through to college with the desire to study drama and theatre.

It was in college, during his junior year, that he met Kate Martin, a dance student who was a freshman and taking part in one of the big musical productions that the school was performing at the start of the spring semester. They fell in love over the course of several bad dates, rehearsals, an after show party and JP eventually making a complete idiot out of himself in the courtyard one afternoon when he tried to tell her how he felt but ended up falling over and in the ER with a concussion. She supported him completely when he graduated and chased a couple of small roles and cheesy advertisement jobs. When JP felt like he had made a mistake, she was the one who picked him up, dusted him off and put a script back into his hand. It was fantastic, and they moved in together after Kate’s graduation.

They were happy for another four years. Kate danced on stages while JP performed and then they returned to their New York apartment for take-out and time to themselves. It was only an ankle problem that cut Kate’s career short and pushed her into the 9-5 office position. She took the stability while JP chased scripts and auditions across the country. He went some time without parts or only had a handful of days on a studio set, but they were happy and it just made him appreciate it more when he landed the stage work or the recurring roles that kept the money coming in for just a little bit longer. Kate wanted more after six years of being together and JP wanted to give her all of that. The only problem came when he realised the price he would have to pay for it all. Kate didn’t just want a ring on her finger, a house and a family. She wanted the guarantee that it would be perfect, that it would last. She had heard the tale of JP’s estranged parents and she didn’t want to end up like them. He agreed with it all, promising her everything until she pointed out that her wages were not enough to guarantee that. Kate wanted JP to call it a day on his acting and find another job, something that wouldn’t hit the road for six months or only last for a handful of weeks. He loved her and he wanted to say that he would do it, but the words didn’t come out. Acting was his dream come true and to give it all up…he loved Kate, but he didn’t know if he could do it.

He tried, but he quit the first office job and got fired from the second because he couldn’t stay focused. The arguments began and the cracks began to show. He knew that Kate had concerns and her argument made sense, but he just couldn’t drop his dream like that. Eventually, a few months later, they split. They couldn’t take the fighting, the arguing and Kate realised that she couldn’t take JP away from acting, which wasn’t good enough for her.

JP moved out of the apartment, but not New York. He got back into acting with small roles and old contacts, but the break up lingered in the back of his mind and he wondered if Kate had a point. There were no guarantees so long as he was acting and he didn’t want to be alone forever. When he was twenty-nine, he found a compromise he could handle; a teaching position at NYU.

The next few years passed without anything out of the ordinary happening. He taught, acted in a few gigs on the side, retired home most nights to his apartment that he shared with a hairy roommate he called Roxy. He still misses the thrill of just acting all the time, but he doesn’t want to lose anyone else in the same way that he lost Kate. He thought about reconciling with her, but a mutual friend told him that she had found some guy who worked in the same building as she did. So, JP just got on with life and seems to still be doing just that.

YOUR ALIAS: KIM.
RULE WORDS: kidnappedbykim.
WHERE YOU FOUND US: In the night sky.
SAMPLE:

Pssh!

[kim]