I'm Trent - A Pittsburgh-raised, New York City-based Performer, Choreographer/Director, and Teacher. How'd I get my start, you ask? Well ... after seeing a production of Honk! - the musical adaptation of "The Ugly Duckling" - in kindergarten, I was HOOKED. I quickly dropped the baseball, literally because I can't catch, and signed up for an after school theatre program called ACT ONE Theatre School. I attended for 8 years and started building my performer's toolbox of skills that make me a unique actor from the ripe young age of 7! The awkward middle school years came quickly and, Justin Bieber haircut and all, I booked my first professional gig during the seventh grade as the Turkey Boy in the Pittsburgh Civic Light Opera (PCLO) annual production of A Musical Christmas Carol. I began training at the Pittsburgh CLO Academy of Musical Theater while performing in my regular public high school shows and soon joined their elite troupe of young performers. This training was crucial for me as a young professional and I believe is the foundation from which I still pull.

Ever since I can remember, I've been obsessed with putting on shows: in my bedroom, in my Grandma's beach condo, on my family's trampoline, literally anywhere. I think I knew early on that I wanted to be a creative and a performer, as I would spend hours typing up the Wicked script from watching a bootleg. Yeah, I was that kid. As I got older, I realized that just being onstage wasn't enough for me. I wanted to create shows, not just be in them! During the summer after my junior year of high school, I applied for an internship at a theatre company in downtown Pittsburgh and was hired as an Intern for Front Porch Theatricals' Summer Season productions of The Last Five Years and The Light in the Piazza. I got to work right away and, knowing my Type A personality, had actor cheat sheets, formation charts, and blocking ready to go by day one of rehearsal. Simultaneously, I choreographed my first full-length musical for a community theatre in my hometown during that same summer. Needless to say, I was eager and these opportunities opened many doors in my mind on what it's like to be on the "other side of the table" during a production! ​
When it came to college and how I wanted to shape my future, I knew that I needed to apply and audition/interview for both Musical Theatre programs, as well as Directing programs. After an arduous college audition process, I decided to move to New York City to attend Pace University's School of Performing Arts for a BA in Directing as part of the International Performance Ensemble. As a Directing major, my training was based in the European idea of devised theater - collaborating closely with actors in a setting where creating work from the ground up was the basis of curriculum. I was able to to create a piece in this program with an ensemble of actors called BLOOM which played off-Broadway at The Lion Theatre at Theatre Row in the Spring of 2018. We also toured this production to Bale, Croatia and were featured in Croatia's first-ever Youth Theatre Festival. During this time, I also auditioned for and was accepted into the Minor in Commercial Dance at Pace - an elite, rigorous dance program with only one or two selected dancers each year. I was also doing a lot of assisting while in the Directing program, and I was the chosen Assistant Director of a new musical at our Pace New Musicals festival, which was directed by the department head of Musical Theater. She and I decided that I might be a better fit for the Musical Theater program at Pace, and I graduated with a BFA in Musical Theatre and a Minor in Commercial Dance! 

​From theater jazz classes to beginner tap classes, I find that sharing my experiences with students through Arts Education is something that brings me a lot of joy. During my time in the Pittsburgh area, I was a Work Study at the Pittsburgh CLO Academy during my high school years. I started teaching dance at a summer camp for Wexford Acting Studio and shortly thereafter became a Choreographer for their showcases. When I went to college, I took teaching more seriously and found myself as a Dance Instructor and Choreographer for Young Artists of America's Summer Performing Arts Intensive in Bethesda, MD where I am still on faculty as the Resident Choreographer for the YAA Junior program and as a dance faculty member. I have served as a guest teaching artist for companies all over the U.S. like companyONE Dance NY (Long Island, NY), Gonzaga University (Spokane, WA), OhLook Performing Arts (Grapevine, TX), StudioDans (Fulton, MD), Centre Stage, Inc., and The Broadway Experience both in the greater Los Angeles area.