Name: Trevor Durham
Age: 19
Major: English Literature
Relationship Status: Taken
Her Campus (HC): Tell us about yourself?
Trevor Durham (TD): I’m an English literature student here at Florida State University. A couple weeks ago, I found out that one of my plays was selected to do an off-Broadway run at the end of February. Right now I’m trying to find a way to produce, direct, market and do everything needed to take my piece to New York City. We’re trying to raise the funds. We need $5,000 required to move the project up there and we currently have $2110.
HC: Can you explain what it means to be off-Broadway?
TD: Off-Broadway is usually where a piece is in the final steps before it goes on Broadway. Broadway is about 13-14 theatres specifically that have about 500- thousands of seats, where off-Broadway typically is about 100-500 seats. If a show is performed off-Broadway and is enjoyed, a producer will find it and move it to one of the very few Broadway stages for a much longer run.
HC: That’s exciting! Tell us a little bit about the play?
TD: It’s called Masks and we will be doing some shows here at Florida State. It’s a very funny piece for the most part and turns a bit sadder. It deals with the friendship, mentorship and general relationship between two men who encounter each other while they’re in a store. It’s about two characters that start to learn through each other what the reliability of identity is and what it means to be your own person and the touch mortality that life brings with it.
HC: Where did the inspiration for the piece come?
TD: I was reading a novel called The Beekeeper’s Apprentice and there was a scene where a character walks into a room full of masks and wondered what it would be like to sell identities to people.
HC: How are you feeling about your play and what was it like to find out about this new success?
TD: It was New Years Day and I woke up to an email finding out that my play had been selected to be part of this festival in New York. I immediately called all my contacts and got a tech team working and I knew we didn’t have much time to do this. The last time I did a project like this, we had 6 months instead of a month and a half. I’m really stressed all the time. I have interviews and meetings with people and having to deal with finding spaces for us to work with and set pieces for us build or borrow. We have rehearsal every night from now until February. The official production team including myself is 4 people. Myself, my assistant who keeps track of our scheduling, and we have two actors.
HC: That’s very small. The play itself is only two people?
TD: Yes, it’s a very simplistic piece, there’s no crazy set pieces or special effects. It’s really heavy on the relationship between the two characters and the words they have and ideas they’re trying to express.
Trevor Durham (third from the Left) with his assistant Vanessa Contreras and two actors Andres Robledo and Jeffrey Mandel
HC: What do you hope viewers take from your play?
TD: I hope they leave it with this bittersweet feeling at the end that also life brings itself with it. The ‘sad it’s over but glad that it happened’. I really hope it helps them question how they form their own personal relationships and how they define themselves because there is an air of superficial reality in our world today. People can easily slide through if they notice it.
HC: You said there would be some showings at Florida State? When can we expect those?
TD: If we are successful in funding for New York City then we will be doing the production preview runs February 19th, 20th, and 21st, which are the days before we pack up into a van and move to New York. For Florida State students we are looking to give a very minimal or free cost because you guys are the ones that are going to support us in getting there.
HC: Where do you see yourself five years from now? What are your goals and ambitions?
TD: I want to write. I don’t know if I want that to be exclusively plays, but I’ve written a couple plays, a couple novels, and short fiction. I write everything I can. The piece I’m working on now is another play; it’s a much grander scale. It’s something akin to William Shakespeare’s Richard III and with the thematic pieces of Samuel Beckett’s Waiting for Godot. It’s interesting; I’m trying to write in iambic pentameter just to see if I can. It’s a very fun project but challenging. That’s the type of things I like to work with.
HC: Is there anything else you want our readers to know?
TD: Definitely that they can hit me up if they want a custom made t-shirt. They are free to donate, and if they can’t financially I totally understand, but they can spread it around to their friends and family to see if they can find anyone because this is me trying to live out the dream.
If you would like to donate to the production of Masks, click here. | Trevor Durham, td14@my.fsu.edu