Detailed Bio

A More Detailed Description of the Life of Jim Barrow

Jim in his first community theatre production of OYP's How to Eat Like a Child. (Photo credit: Kent Hannon)

Jim (in green vest) prepares to do a kick line in OYP's production of How to Eat Like a Child. (Photo credit: Kent Hannon)

Jim as Harlem in Athens Creative Theatre's production of Life With Father (Photo credit: Unknown)

Jim Barrow was born in 1991 and had his stage debut in 1996 in a school talent show (reciting Captain Hook's lines from the first scene he appears in Disney's animated film Peter Pan). He made his community theatre debut that same year appearing in Oconee Youth Playhouse's production of How To Eat Like A Child And Other Lessons In Not Being A Grownup. The next year, he had his first speaking role in their production of The Wizard of Oz as the Mayor of Munchkinland. When he was 9 years old, Jim landed his first major role in the Town and Gown (the oldest continually operated, entirely volunteer community theatre in Georgia) production of To Kill A Mockingbird, playing Dill. From there, Jim went on to play Harlem in Life With Father, Sid & Muff Potter in The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, Angie the Ox in Guys and Dolls, Doody in Grease, and Bottom in A Midsummer Night's Dream. By the time he had graduated high school, Jim had been seen in over 21 community and high-school productions in addition to singing in the Georgia Children's Chorus for 8 years.

In addition to acting while in high school, Jim joined the Athens First Baptist Adult Choir his freshman year and was an occasional soloist. He was a member of the Beta Club for 3 years, starting with his sophomore year, and served as the Secretary for 1 year and President for 1 year. He joined the Arts! Oglethorpe Board of Directors his sophomore year and served for 3 years as the Student Representative. In his senior year, Jim joined the yearbook/newspaper staff and served as the honors editor for the yearbook and produced the Athlete of the Week column for The Oglethorpe Echo. In addition to everything else his senior year, Jim joined the Academic Bowl and School Chorus. He was voted Most Involved and Most Likely to Succeed by the other members of the graduating 2009 class. Upon graduation, Jim was in the top 5% of his class and had been accepted to the University of Georgia. All throughout high school, Jim attended the Perfectly Polished: The Etiquette School and served as a high school staff member in addition to working part-time at the Athens YMCA and volunteering at the Athens Food Bank.

Jim decided to attend the University of Georgia and pursue a double major in Theatre and Political Science. While at the University, Jim was fortunate enough to play a variety of roles which included Judge/Ensemble in Chicago (directed by Tony Award winner, Chet Walker), Don Pedro in Much Ado About Nothing, Cogsworth in Beauty and the Beast, Gideon in Seven Brides for Seven Brothers, and Tom Mula's one-man show Jacob Marley's Christmas Carol. While in college, Jim was a member of the Delta Epsilon Iota Academic Honor Society. He worked on the Publicity Committee for the Department of Theatre during the 2011 Fall Semester and stage managed the University's production of All My Sons which went up in November 2011. For the 2011-2012 academic year, Jim served as the Theatre Department Representative on the Dean's Student Advisory Committee and then served as the stage manager for the Department's Maymester Study Abroad trip to Cortona, Italy where an abridged production of Much Ado About Nothing was performed. During the summer of 2012, Jim was fortunate enough to work with the Friends of the Groom Christian Theatre Troupe when they worked at the St. John United Methodist Choir Camp where Jim was also working. In the summer of 2013, Jim was fortunate to spend 4 weeks at the Folger Shakespeare Library where he and two other students created an original show entitled You Must Awake Your Faith: 9 Scenes of Shakespeare. In this show Jim covered several different types of roles Queen Margaret from Richard III to Claudio from Measure for Measure to Lord Capulet from Romeo and Juliet to Leontes from The Winter's Tale to Petruchio from The Taming of the Dude (a gender reversed version of Taming of the Shrew, adapted by Fran Teague). That same summer, for three weeks, Jim studied Shakespeare under Dr. Elisabeth Dutton at the University of Oxford.

Most recently, Jim made his professional stage debut, performing the role of Nathan Radley and serving as fight captain for Rose of Athens' production of To Kill A Mockingbird.

All throughout his college career, Jim would entertain students and community members each Halloween season by leading a ghost tour of UGA's North Campus for the UGA Student Alumni Association and Athens Clarke Heritage Foundation. While doing this, Jim stayed involved in the Athens First Baptist Adult Choir and managed to be employed by the University of Georgia. From October 2009 to May 2012, Jim was employed as a student assistant in the Main Library's Shelving Department. In June of 2012, Jim transferred to the Hargerett Rare Books Library where he worked in the Imaging Lab.

Jim considers himself very fortunate so far in his life but knows that the greater adventure, in theatre and life, is out there, just waiting for him. And if you've gotten this far, congratulations! You deserve a hand; even his mother didn't feel like reading this much about Jim.