1/3/20
by Audrey Rowland
Continuing with our blog posts on our 2019-20 class of interns (or “Trinterns,” as they’re affectionately called) we’re sitting down with our Brown/Trinity Rep MFA Programs intern, Devin Gately.
Devin is from Dighton, Massachusetts, and attended Ithaca College. He graduated last year with a major in Theater Studies.
AR: To start with, what are you most looking forward to this 2019-20 Season?
DG: Sweat. I’m a huge fan of Lynn Nottage. I think that her writing encapsulates so many people I’ve met in my life’s vernacular. It’s so honest with how they speak and how they speak to each other and the bonds of loyalty that exist in workplaces like that. She handles it with such beauty and delicacy and honesty that when things go awry, as they do in the play, it’s truly heartbreaking. It reflects the dog-eat-dog mentality that is impeded in capitalism, which makes it such an interesting play to be doing in our world today. It speaks, unfortunately, volumes.
AR: What does an average day as the Brown/Trinity Rep MFA Programs intern look like for you?
DG: I don’t really have an average day, which is part of the reason I like my internship. I do a lot of production management tasks for each Brown/Trinity show that happens. I sit in on all the production meetings, and I usually take notes. When a studio project, like The Tempest or Gruesome Playground Injuries, needs something, it’s up to me, Mike [Michael Cline, Pell Chafee Performance Center Technical Supervisor], and Anne [Anne Harrigan, Assistant Production Director] to figure out what we can grab for them, how we can help them, and to serve each production to the best of our abilities.
AR: Dighton is only about 30 minutes from Providence. Did you ever encounter any Brown/Trinity Rep productions when you were growing up?
DG: The second-year Shakespeare projects do tours around the middle schools and high schools in the Rhode Island area. It’s a lot of the kids’ first exposure to theater, and it’s really exciting and rewarding. When I was a freshman in high school, Brown/Trinity’s first-ever touring production came to my school. That was my first exposure to the program, and now I’ve stage-managed for it. That was a really great full-circle moment.
AR: Wow! That’s a cool connection. On that note, do you have any cool hidden talents you’d like to share?
DG: I have a great memory with words. I can remember phrases and things people say very well. I know the entirety of the balcony scene from Romeo and Juliet, from start to finish.
AR: Impressive. What else do you like to do in your free time?
DG: I’m a big reader. I really like to read plays. I did a lot of that in college, because it was in the curriculum, and I got used to the medium of plays. Now that I’m working a post-grad gig, I’m able to read more books right now. I’m also a bit of a foodie, as they say, and Providence has a lot of good spots, like Persimmons or the Poco Loco Taco truck. I try to go somewhere new once a week. I’m really into puzzles. I started one last night. It’s of A Jungle Book.
AR: Excluding Romeo and Juliet, do you have a favorite theatrical production?
DG: My favorite thing that I’ve ever seen was Choir Boy, by Tarell Alvin McCraney. That play rocked me to my very core. It was a beautiful portrait of survival in such a confined area of an all-boys boarding school, especially for a gay black man. I felt like it was a show that I never thought I would see, and I was so ecstatic that I did, especially on a sold-out Broadway stage. I didn’t speak for 45 minutes after seeing that show because I didn’t know what to say.
AR: Tell me about the best Halloween costume you’ve ever worn.
DG: My favorite Halloween costume was when last minute, I bought a Roman man costume and I told everyone I was Caesar’s boyfriend.
AR: What does theater mean to you? Why is it important?
DG: At its core, theater is a place we come to bear witness in a shared space together. It gives us a really interesting idea of what we as a society will accept and what we are a part of and what we are behind and what we aren’t behind based of off an audience and a space. Granted, with that said, we need to fight to get more diverse people in the seats, but to me, theater is a place where we come to ask questions and see where we’re at right now.
AR: And last, but not least, what’s a fun fact about you?
DG: I can quote the entirety of the Mean Girls movie script. I know the whole thing.