Theatre maker Trevor Barrette is celebrated for his hugely successful superhero musical Captain Aurora and its sequel Captain Aurora II: A New Dawn, and the queer playwright directs the world premiere of his queer rom-com Max and Aaron Write a Musical which opens at Montreal’s Segal Centre on June 15.
Set in present-day Montreal, Max and Aaron Write a Musical tells the tale of two childhood friends who collaborate on a coming-of-age musical loosely based on their lives, but their partnership is threatened as long-repressed truths rise to the surface. The sexy rom-com stars actors Rylan Allen, Émile Auger, Patrick Park and Nathaniel Bacon.
A graduate of John Abbott College’s Professional Theatre program, Barrette knows his way around a stage: the Montrealer has performed in or stage-managed productions at the National Arts Centre, Centaur Theatre, Repercussion Theatre and Scapegoat Carnivale, and is a theatre educator at the Segal Centre Academy and Geordie Theatre School.
Trevor, who married Montreal actor Oliver Price in 2022, recently sat down for a candid Q&A to preview Max and Aaron Write a Musical which runs at The Segal Centre from June 15 to 22.
What compelled you to create Max and Aaron Write a Musical?
Trevor Barrette: In 2016, Kamana Ntibarikure was artistic director of the Centre for Education and Theatre in Montreal (CETM), and she gave me a spot in their Next Wave Festival which gave me the opportunity to write the first version of Max and Aaron Write a Musical. I wanted to write a queer love story and have been working on this musical for eight years now. I feel the reason I wrote it in 2016 absolutely applies today – that even as the world changes around us, it is still radical to put on a show with four queer characters.
Your musical’s associate producer, musical director and choreographer is Jonathan Patterson whose husband Chris Barillaro contributed new piano and vocal arrangements.
Trevor Barrette: They’re both very close friends of mine. Jonathan was actually in our very first workshop of the production in 2016. And because I’ve evolved as a creator and composer over the past eight years – as has musical theatre – I thought we needed a little freshen up. So there are some new songs, and it just felt natural to bring Chris on at this point, to give everything a bit of a lift.
Queer artist Cara Rebecca is your Intimacy Director. What does that mean?
Trevor Barrette: There’s a lot of lust and love onstage in this production, and Cara helps us make sure that all of these moments of intimacy are choreographed and repeatable, and make sure it is safe and sustainable for the whole process.
How do your cast members Rylan Allen, Émile Auger, Patrick Park and Nathaniel Bacon rehearse intimacy?
Trevor Barrette: Well, everybody has read the script which we also workshopped in April. So everybody knows what the play consists of. That said, our rehearsals are collaborative and consent-based with Cara shepherding the whole experience.
What’s really beautiful about having an intimacy director is they are able to facilitate awkward and difficult moments and conversations – “I don’t feel comfortable with this” and “I don’t feel comfortable with this part of my body.”
So we come up with creative ways to do the scene, where everybody feels safe and we still get the lust and love that I think is important for our show.
Your musical is set in Montreal.
Trevor Barrette: Yes, Montreal is central to our show. We’ve also added French dialogue to the script. I’m so excited about this next level of integration where we get to hear our characters live as a francophone or bilingual person in our show. That’s another way we’re making it real.
What was like for you growing up as a queer kid in Pointe-Claire in the West Island?
Trevor Barrette: I like to say that I came out pre Glee in 2008 when I was 17. I came out at musical theatre camp in Ontario! I mean, how gay of a coming-out story could you come up with?
And it is explored in the show: these two characters meet at musical theatre camp, then spend the next eight years being friends and having this question in the back of their mind going, “What if we could have done something? What if we knew how to come out? What if we knew how to be who we are at that time?”
That is something I’ve realized, that you’re always coming out. I think my coming out journey was scary and kept me on my toes for a lot of my life. Now I’m really confident in who I am, but there’s something about constantly having to refigure out who you are and what is allowed, and what you can do and who you can be.
As a theatre educator who has also lectured at McGill and Concordia universities, what do you tell queer students about being out in your industry?
Trevor Barrette: Don’t do the job of casting for the director. Come in, do your work. Do you feel like you’re good for this part? If you feel like this is your story to tell, if you feel this is your moment, go for it. The thing that’s scary is somebody else will make the decision. But if you make that decision before you walk in the door, then there’s no chance.
You have queer interns on the set of Max and Aaron Write a Musical.
Trevor Barrette: That is another reason why this show is so important. We’re working with a mostly queer team and I’ve started a little mentorship program with our production. We have six young queer artists following us throughout the process. I reached out to all the theatre schools and said, “Just let me know who you are. Let me know what you want to get out of this.” And the responses were, “I’m a young queer artist. I’m figuring things out. I don’t know what this world of theatre looks like for me in Montreal.” I love that we can be queer artists together, put on a show and give them the chance to network with all these professionals.
I don’t recall if I ever told you, but I so enjoyed a January 2014 performance of your Kaleidoscope theatre company’s terrific musical To Be with actors Adam Capriolo and Sean Colby. Their falling-in-love scene on the park bench put a big smile on my face. That park-bench kiss was great! Still ranks as one of my all-time favourite scenes.
Trevor Barrette: You definitely have told me! And I hold that so dear to my heart. There’s so much more of it in Max and Aaron Write a Musical!
Do you consider yourself a gay theatre maker or a theatre maker who happens to be gay?
Trevor Barrette: For this show, I’m definitely a queer theater maker. We think theatre is very queer, right? You think there are a lot of gays in theatre. But when I look at my career – especially the work I do as a stage manager – I don’t actually work with a lot of queer designers. I found that really surprising.
Now that I’m working with a very queer team – my stage-management team, my designers, my cast, there are so many queer folks in the room – I kind of have permission to be more myself. This is such a beautiful moment for me which I don’t get to experience often in a professional setting. This is an opportunity for me to embrace my queer theatre maker label.
So I think this question is beautiful, and I’m sure I’ll find a different way of answering it at the end of the production.
INFOS | Max and Aaron Write a Musical runs at The Segal Centre from June 15 to 22. For tickets, visit www.segalcentre.org.
