Tyler Gevas had never done anything like this before.  Not just performing at Urbanite Theatre—the 20-year-old Sarasota native and Booker High grad made his debut this fall as Pup during the theater’s five-week run of Monsters of the American Cinema—but playing a character as complicated as this. The show, written by Christian St. Croix, follows Remy Washington, a Black man who recently lost his husband and now has taken on the responsibility of raising his late husband’s teenage son, Pup. Although Remy and Pup bond over a shared affinity for classic American monster movies, their fraught relationship is tested when Remy discovers that Pup has been antagonizing a gay classmate. “What attracted me to the show and to Pup is how different it is from anything I’ve ever done before,” says Gevas. “Pup is a very complicated character who's dealing with a lot of pressure and grief, especially given the absence of his actual father. There’s a ton of vulnerability that the actor has to take on for this role.” Staged largely within the confines of the family’s mobile home, Monsters leans heavily into magical realism to depict the schism developing between Pup and Remy.
As Pup pulls further away from Remy, he experiences episodes where he transforms into a rabid, wild-eyed monster. Is this merely a manifestation of Pup’s adolescent rage, a sign of distinct mental illness or even something darker? “The monster is truly a manifestation of everything that Pup’s going through, the grief for his deceased father, the challenges of entering manhood as well as his fears of not fitting in,” says Gevas. “One of the scenes I look forward to, but also get nervous about, is toward the end when Pup fully becomes the monster. I’m shirtless, covered in blood—it’s such a vulnerable part where I’m not even human—throughout the performances, I’ve discovered parts where I’m more the monster and Pup is fighting back to try and regain his body.” Gevas’ portrayal of Pup’s internal strife is crucial to the emotional arc of the story. While Remy is torn by Pup’s actions, seeing the boy he helped raise turn into a stranger, Pup is being literally torn apart by the counteracting forces inside of him. Pup’s desperate urge to not be left alone—what Geva cites as the character’s driving force throughout the story—causes him to spiral further into this identity of the “monster”. “At 16 years old, Pup is becoming a man. The monster is so strong within him because he’s at such a critical juncture in his life,” says Gevas. “We also built out the monster with the choices we made from what we were given with the text. In the text, the monster ‘croaks’ and ‘yowls,’ and we were unsure of what that meant. Summer Wallace, our director, did a great job of discovering my personal ‘yowl’. We decided that it is more of a neck tick, because the monster is trying to escape.” After the run of Monsters at Urbanite, Gevas headed back to Los Angeles, where he is an undergraduate acting student at the University of California. Gevas, who began his professional career on stage at Asolo Repertory Theatre, has acted in short films and hopes to expand into more work in front of the camera. Live theater, such as the run he had at Urbanite, however, will always hold a special place in his heart. “Doing this play brought me back to why I love live theater so much. There’s that factor of inspiration of excitement one gets from watching a live show—if I can give someone that same feeling when they’re seeing a show I’m in, then I feel like I’ve done my job,” says Gevas.  SRQ