Trevor Durham's MELBIN THE ACCIDENTAL THIRD Premieres in Tallahassee

The world premiere of Trevor Durham's newest play, MELBIN THE ACCIDENTAL THIRD, will be produced this February at Godby High School in Tallahassee, Fla. Written as a modern Shakespeare tragedy, MELBIN deals with race, class warfare, and police brutality. Does love, sex, death, and race mix?

MELBIN THE ACCIDENTAL THIRD is a play written and directed by Off-Broadway playwright Trevor Durham. With the aid of Royal Shakespeare dramaturg Sarah Stewart, it is a modern production written in classic verse, but using modern vernacular. It is a volatile piece, touching on themes of racism, class warfare, and police brutality. Melbin is a force of nature that needs to happen, at this point. It has a lot to say that must be said, now more than ever.

Rather than pursue the assistance of professional stage hands, Durham reached out to the Tallahassee community and has been working with high school students who have an active passion for theater and a firmly supportive outlook on the hard messages behind Melbin, regardless of their experience in theatre.

"I tell the students, 'I do not care if you're done this before. I don't care if you have no training. What I want is students who care about these problems and want to stand with me to fixing them. I want to train you professionally, have you on-board a massive production where you can learn how to operate anything you've ever dreamed of. If you want to work, I want to teach you how.'"

These high schools are located in areas with a high rate of low-income families, with little to no funding for the arts. A myriad of paid interns have been hired in order to give the students hands-on experience on a professional production, aligning with the purpose of the project. "I'm starting in a community without strong theatre, helping it grow, and then hoping to expand the project."

Durham would like to bring his volatile piece to new venues and cities, but finds Tallahassee to be a vital starting point. "Tallahassee has been home to multiple social rights cases of the last few years, of police involved in the death of black civilians. We're definitely using Melbin to bring the community's attention to these issues."

While it is his third project, fundraising continues to be a frustrating issue. "Right now, we're attempting to raise rental costs on Kickstarter, but I'm also talking to various businesses and patrons in town, including the colleges." While Durham pays his actors and crew, it would not be the first time he has ended a project without pay.

The project is using never-before-seen technology to achieve visual spectacle to match the complex script. Ground-breaking staging, an experimental script, and newly invented tech are combining with the work of passionate students to create a theatre piece without equal. All embedded in the heart of a community not well known for its theatre. Trevor wants to change that.

For more information, you can visit MELBIN THE ACCIDENTAL THIRD on Kickstarter, the Facebook page, or purchase tickets for the Tallahassee premiere at Eventbrite.

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