The Catastrophic Theatre to Present TREVOR by Nick Jones Next Month

The Catastrophic Theatre presents Trevor by Nick Jones, running February 10th - March 4th, 2017 at The MATCH, 3400 Main Street, with performances on Thursday, Friday and Saturday at 8 pm.

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Starring Kyle Sturdivant and Carolyn Johnson, with Elizabeth Marshall Black, Ronnie Blaine, JeAnne Harris, Jeff Miller and Charlie Scott. Directed by Tamarie Cooper.

Inspired by the true story of a woman attacked by a 200-pound pet chimpanzee, Trevor finds pathos, poignancy and, perhaps surprisingly, riotous humor by seeing the world through the animal's eyes. The play is also a biting satire of show business since Trevor, the chimpanzee, once starred on stage and screen (including a commercial with '80s icon Morgan Fairchild) and now overestimates how much the human world might be clamoring for his comeback. Trevor is a startlingly original comic creation: a moody jerk of an ape who's lovable mostly because he's so misunderstood but who can also be alternately ominous and heartbreaking. We all misunderstand the world around us in various ways, and the world often misunderstands us. Trevor goes beyond the simple humor of "monkeys don't understand-haha!" and offers real insight into the ways we all get confused in life: about love, about success, about what matters.

By making a humanized animal the center of the play, Nick Jones-a writer for the hit Netflix series Orange is the New Black-raises fascinating questions about what it means to be human, how much of ourselves we need to continually repress in order to live among other people, and what mortality means to us. In the relationship between Trevor and his "mom," Sandra, we experience the pure and potentially devastating love that a person can feel for an animal and vice versa. Trevor manages a unique balancing act between the comedy of miscommunication and self-delusion on the one hand and the tension created by a frustrated and potentially dangerous animal living among humans on the other. The result is something quite uncommon: a laugh-out-loud comedy that is also genuinely suspenseful and deeply sad.

Directed by The Catastrophic Theatre's associate director Tamarie Cooper, Trevor features Catastrophic veteran Kyle Sturdivant in the title role, Houston favorite Carolyn Johnson as Trevor's "mom" Sandra, plus Jeff Miller, Charlie Scott, JeAnne Harris, Ronnie Blaine, and Elizabeth Marshall Black as Morgan Fairchild.

As with every Catastrophic Theatre production all tickets are available on a sliding scale according to what each audience member can afford. As it has been for years now, everyone is welcome regardless of ability to pay and no one will be turned away for lack of funds.

Playwright Nick Jones is a performer and writer for theater, television and film. His most recent play is the critically acclaimed Trevor. His previous play The Coward was produced at Lincoln Center/LTC3, where it was nominated for 4 Lortel Awards (winning two) and is now being made into a motion picture. His show Jollyship the Whiz-Bang at Ars Nova, a puppet rock musical about pirates, also received an extended critically acclaimed run, and was subsequently revived for the Under the Radar Festival at The Public Theater.

Other plays include: Salome of the Moon (PPAS Performing Arts High School), The Wundelsteipen (the Flea), Little Building (Galapagos Art Space), Straight Up Vampire: A History of Vampires in Colonial Pennsylvania as Performed to the Music of Paula Abdul (Philladelphia Fringe Festival, Joe's Pub), The Nosemaker's Apprentice (The Brick, with Rachel Shukert), The Sporting Life (Studio 42 at the Vineyard Theater, also with Shukert), and The Colonists, a puppet work for children.

Mr. Jones was born and raised in Anchorage, Alaska. He earned his Literature/Creative Writing BA from Bard College and a Lila Acheson Wallace Playwriting degree from Juilliard, where he was a two-time winner of the Lecomte du Nouy Prize. He has received theater commissions from Lincoln Center, Ars Nova, The Old Globe, Manhattan Theater Club, The Huntington Theatre Company, Center Theater Group, and South Coast Repertory.

Mr. Jones currently lives in Los Angeles, where he is a writer and co-producer for the critically-acclaimed Netflix series Orange is the New Black, which has garnered numerous accolades, including Writer's Guild Award, Golden Globe, and Emmy nominations. More at nickjonesland.com.

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For more information about the production, visit catastrophictheatre.com. For tickets and venue information, visit matchouston.org or call The MATCH's box office at 713-521-4533. Tickets to all performances are: Pay-What-You-Can • We Suggest $35 • More If You Have It • Less If You Don't.

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