Ask an Apprentice: Trevyn Wong

Get to know more about our 2023 Acting Apprentices before you see them onstage this summer! Today, we're chatting with Trevyn Wong, a recent graduate and spectacular artist. Come along as we discuss the transition from school to stage, the APT apprentice experience and how special it is to return to Our Town. Read on for more!

To learn more about Trevyn Wong, please visit his website at trevynwong.com.

APT: Welcome, Trevyn! How is your very first season going so far?
TREVYN WONG: It’s wonderful. For me, the dream has always been rep theater since I was young. I grew up seeing Oregon Shakespeare Festival productions. It’s thrilling. I love it. I love nature and being in the woods. I love the little hike up the Hill. I know that it’s not for everyone. When I told my friends, “Yeah, it’s a quarter of a mile hike up to work every day,” they looked at me and were like “that’s my nightmare.” But to me, that’s my dream. It’s my dream to be doing that right now.

APT: Well, we’re very glad to have you here! Tell us a little more about who you are and what your journey to APT this summer has been like.
TREVYN WONG: I am a Queer, Asian artist. I’m a recent grad of UNCSA (University of North Carolina School of the Arts). It’s an all art school, so there were no sports. Our mascot was a pickle. My mom also went to UNCSA, but for music. I grew up going to symphonies when I was six and, frankly, I kind of hated it. I realize now that it’s a blessing to hear beautiful symphonies growing up. That’s a gift. She really pushed me into the arts at a young age, and I kind of always knew I couldn’t do anything else. I mean, soccer was not for me…

When it comes to my artistry and who I am as a person, I love seeing the potential in things. I love devised work. I love talking with people about projects and developing things. I love repurposing things. So, thrifting is a great little metaphor for the things that I’d like to do in my life, seeing the potential in something that could be and making it work for me, making that work for others, and helping it come to fruition.

Sara Becker is a professor of Shakespeare at my school as well as being the Director of Voice and Text here at APT. Carey Cannon came out to do auditions for the program, and that’s how I ended up here!

APT: Let’s talk a little more about the Acting Apprentice program! What workshops have you been doing and what has been your favorite so far?
TREVYN WONG: We’ve done a lot of voice work with Sara Becker and Adrianne Moore that I love. The most inspirational workshops so far were having some of the Core Company members come in and talk to us about their time. So many of them were apprentices before being in the Core Company or being here long term. Kelsey Brennen shared that coming out of undergrad taught her to be a good student, and that really clicked in my head for some reason. I’m in the phase, right now at least, where I’m right out of undergrad, so just the whole student comment made sense. I’m still trying to be a student, but also grasping that everyone are really just colleagues at the end of the day, learning together. And that’s so cool.

APT: And speaking of learning together, what have been some of your favorite memories from rehearsal so far?
TREVYN WONG: I just am low-key obsessed with Tim Ocel. I think he’s not only brilliant, but also just so funny and goofy. I think one of my favorite moments was when it was hot outside during rehearsal and I think his method of cooling down was taking a mini-Pride flag and waving it around to get some airflow going. He’s so fun. And yet, he’s so surgical about everything in a way that makes sense to me. The artist he is and the person he is exists perfectly at the same time.

I’m so excited to share Our Town. I’ve never seen a more beautiful performance than Samantha Newcomb’s in this show. One of the most breathtaking performances I’ve seen ever, and that was just in a run-through of the show. We’re still working through the process, and she is just a beast. She’s amazing.

APT: What are you still excited for this summer?
TREVYN WONG: Honestly, Our Town! I did it in high school, which is the worst time to do it because no one understands anything in the play. I played the Stage Manager in it and, of course, just had no concept of any of it. I think the only person in the room who knew what was going on was the director, the older mentor teaching us what the story is about.

The way that I am returning to and thinking of this story now, how important and just how beautiful it is…I think it transcends. It could be done so many times in different ways, and I feel like it’ll never get old. I’m so excited for people to come see it. I’m excited for my parents to see this.

It really strikes so much within me. I’m just so excited for other people to experience the same thing that I am experiencing right now in the show.

APT: With all this being said, what do you like to do in your non-existent free time?
TREVYN WONG: I like to run. I love to thrift. I love doing visual collages. During COVID, I would turn the collages that I made from local newspapers into woven blankets and then fundraise money for eating disorder treatment for people of color. I love making them for people, too!

APT: Here’s your wild card question: what’s a dream theater project that you’d love to be a part of? Is there a role on your bucket list?
TREVYN WONG: My senior year, I played Mozart in Amadeus. If I could do one role for the rest of my life, I actually think it would be that role. It’s the same feeling as Our Town in the way that I just did that play, but there were things I couldn’t grasp even less than a year ago. I feel like I could still find so much in that play. That play focuses a lot on masculinity, too, and I’m someone who doesn’t really consider myself very masculine all of the time, so that role…I just would love to do that role forever.