Trevor Boffone

Dr. Trevor Boffone is an American educator, writer, scholar, and producer who lives in Houston, Texas. He is a social media influencer whose work with his students on Instagram (@dr_boffone) has received national recognition. Boffone teaches in the Women’s, Gender & Sexuality Studies Program at the University of Houston and is a Spanish teacher at Bellaire High School (Texas)|Bellaire High School in Houston, Texas.
== Career ==
Boffone has a Ph.D. in Latinx cultural studies from the Department of Hispanic Studies at the University of Houston where he also has a Graduate Certificate in Women’s, Gender, & Sexuality Studies. His dissertation, Eastside Latinidad, explored the community impact of playwright Josefina López and CASA 0101 Theatre in Boyle Heights, Los Angeles|Boyle Heights, Los Angeles. He has an MA in Hispanic Studies from Villanova University and a BA in Spanish from Loyola University New Orleans. 
=== Teaching ===
Boffone is the creator of the @dr_boffone Instagram account which features his work using Dubsmash, dancing, and music to connect with his students at Bellaire High School in Houston, Texas. Boffone created @dr_boffone in February, 2019 and immediately went viral. Boffone and his students have been featured on Good Morning America, Inside Edition, Localish, Access Hollywood, The Shade Room, and ABC News in addition to numerous local outlets in Houston. In August 2020, Insider Inc.|Insider named Boffone to their annual list of Doers. The Doers are "25 trailblazers creating hope and inspiring us." The Doers list "includes people who are working on projects related to social justice, gender and LGBTQ rights, sustainability, public health, and education."
Boffone began working as a Spanish teacher at Bellaire High School in 2018. He noticed that many of his students were making Dubsmash and TikTok videos. According to Boffone, after he showed “an authentic interest, they began to teach me. It became a way for us to build strong relationships and a better sense of community which enhanced the learning environment.” Dubsmash became a way for Boffone to work side-by-side with his students and push against barriers that exist in traditional classrooms. Boffone’s teaching situates his students as experts and leaders. His students choose the music and teach him the dances that are then posted to his Instagram account. 
Boffone runs the account. He sees it as an extension of his classroom and as a place to highlight the collaborative work of his students and him. In an interview with The Shade Room, Boffone says, “I may be the face of the account, but this is really about them. If you notice, I am usually in the back of my videos. The students are front and center. This isn’t by chance. It’s intentional. It’s not about me. It’s about giving them a platform.” In an interview with Insider, Boffone says, "What I'm trying to do is to allow the students to recognize their talents and recognize how their identities matter. How they shouldn't have to change who they are to fit into a system."
=== 50 Playwrights Project ===
In 2016, Boffone founded the 50 Playwrights Project. The 50 Playwrights Project is an advocacy organization for Latinx playwrights. The organization’s primary objective is to interview contemporary Latinx playwrights. As of 2020, the 50 Playwrights Project has interviewed over 100 playwrights at all career stages.
In addition to playwright interviews, the organization also offers many resources to earn more about Latinx theatre. Since 2017, the 50 Playwrights Project has published an annual list of recommended unproduced Latinx plays chosen by a selection committee. The organization also annually publishes a curated list of Latinx plays for college theatres.
In addition to its digital content, the 50 Playwrights Project also helps develop new work by Latinx playwrights. The organization supports table readings, workshops, and staged readings of new plays. These efforts have supported new plays by playwrights Marissa Castillo, Jasminne Mendez, Emilio Rodriguez, and Karen Zacarias.
=== Sin Muros Latinx Theatre Festival ===
In 2017, Boffone helped create and produce the Sin Muros Latinx Theatre Festival at Stages Repertory Theatre|Stages in Houston, Texas. He served as the festival producer until 2020. The festival features full productions and staged readings of Latinx plays in addition to free playwriting workshops, poetry readings, town halls, and panel discussions. The festival’s goals are to focus on Texas Latinx artists, build a network of local Latinx artists, and to create a pipeline to develop local theatre talent. From 2018 to 2020, the festival featured full productions of Purple Eyes by Josh Inocencio, WET: A DACAmented Journey by Alex Alpharoah, Ursula by Frida Espinosa-Muller, and Cenicienta by Caroline Reck and Rupert Reyes. During the same time, the festival presented staged readings of new plays by Tanya Saracho, Bernardo Cubria, Mando Alvarado, Jasminne Mendez, Georgina Escobar, Beto O'Byrne|Beto O’Byrne, Franky D. Gonzalez, and Adrienne Dawes.
== Publications ==
Boffone is a public intellectual who frequently writes about race, ethnicity, gender, sexuality, and community in Latinx cultural studies and contemporary U.S. popular culture. His writing has appeared in American Theater Magazine, Theatre Journal, Latin American Theatre Review, Studies in Musical Theatre, HowlRound, Arts+Culture Texas, Houston Press, and Edutopia among other publications.
Boffone is the co-editor of Encuentro: Latinx Performance for the New American Theater (2019). Published by Northwestern University Press and co-edited with Teresa Marrero and Chantal Rodriguez, the anthology is a collection of plays and critical essays from the 2014 Encuentro Festival produced by Latino Theater Company at the Los Angeles Theatre Center. The book includes plays by Ruben C. Gonzalez, José Torres-Tama, Rickerby Hinds, Mariana Carreño King, Javier Antonio González, and Evelina Fernandez|Evelina Fernández. The book also documents the contemporary Latinx theatre movement and the work of the Latinx Theatre Commons.
Boffone is also the co-editor of Nerds, Goths, Geeks, and Freaks: Outsiders in Chicanx/Latinx Young Adult Literature (2020). Published by University Press of Mississippi and co-edited with Cristina Herrera, this collection explores the role of outsiders in contemporary Latinx young adult literature. The anthology is one of the first scholarly books to focus on Latinx young adult literature. While young adult literature “stereotypical portraits of young Latinxs–that is, the chola/a/x, inner-city kids, at-risk youth, etc.,” Nerds, Goths, Geeks, and Freaks focuses on outsiders—nerds, LGBTQ youth, bookworms, theatre geeks, and superheroes.
== References ==
Category:American educators
Category:American writers
Category:American producers