Meet Drelan Evans

Today we’d like to introduce you to Drelan Evans. 

Hi Drelan, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstories.
Hello, my name is Drelan Zuriel Evans and I’m from Baton Rouge, Louisiana. I’m currently a sophomore at Northwestern State University in Natchitoches, Louisiana majoring in Musical Theatre. I’m here in Utah for the Ogden Musical Theatre summer show’ “Shrek the Musical”, where I will be playing the role as Donkey. I’d never heard of OMT until one of my good friends posted the audition notice for Shrek the Musical on to her Instagram story. When I was younger, they were having Shrek auditions back in my hometown, but I couldn’t do it because of another show I was involved in at the time. It was so devastating because Shrek was a show I wanted to do for a while.

I was absolutely thrilled when I saw that I had the opportunity to do the show again, so I sent in my audition tape to OMT during my spring break from school. After my audition video was sent, I didn’t hear anything back for almost two weeks. I thought I wasn’t going to get booked for any jobs for the summer and I started to lose my confidence in the performing arts. I was checking my email every single day and answering every phone call that came to my phone and nothing. I honestly thought all was lost and I started to forget about the audition. One day something kept telling me to check my email, but I kept blowing it off because I was saying to myself that no one emailed me so there is no point.

I kept getting the feeling that I needed to check my email. I got to my Anthropology class that morning and I hesitated to open my computer to look at the email, but when I did it was an email from our director Andrew Barrett Lewis. He told me that they really enjoyed my performance, and they were in the process of local callbacks at the time and wanted to touch base with me moving forward. They weren’t typically set-up for out-of-state actors, but they were able to make accommodations for me. A couple of days later I was able to chat with the OMT board and the vocal director and the choreographer on Webex to give me all the information I needed moving forward for the summer production and that’s when I found out that I will be playing Donkey.

I was so happy and couldn’t wait to share the information with my family and friends. It was the beginning of a new chapter for me, and I was so grateful. Now I’m here in Ogden, Utah making awesome friends and working with so many talented folks. Big thank you to Ogden Musical Theatre for trusting me with the role, thank you to Burke and Shelly for taking me in this summer, and thank you to all my family and friends back home for the support.

We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
Unfortunately, it has not been a smooth road for me. Within the past two years in school, starting spring semester of my freshman, year my grandmother passed away. That was the most heart-breaking day of my life, and everything went downhill from there. I wasn’t focused on school, I started to lose my confidence with singing and acting, and I just wasn’t the Dre’lan I was before. Along with my grades slipping, my GPA dropped and cost me to lose my scholarships from school and I’m currently struggling to pay out of pocket to get back to school in the fall. I must say the good outweighs the bad, but sometimes I did feel like a failure, and I thought my whole life was going down the drain.

As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about what you do?
I began my love for acting, singing, and dancing at the age of nine. To name a few, I’ve appeared in plays and musical productions at local theaters in my hometown and at school including The Wiz (New Venture Theatre), Aida (New Venture Theatre), Good Kids (McKinley Senior High School), Broadway Santa (Playmakers Baton Rouge), Akeelah and the Bee (New Venture Theatre), The Lion King Jr (New Venture Theatre) and Rocky Horror Picture Show (Northwestern State University). I also had the opportunity to be casted as an extra in movies including One Nation Under God (Suretone Entertainment) and Emancipation (Overbrook Entertainment). I also was a haunted house actor for the 13th Gate Haunted House in Fall 2019 in Baton Rouge. My love for the arts is out of this world. I’m mostly proud of the person I am and the person I’m becoming! While being bullied in middle school it took a lot for me to build my self-esteem and stay true to who I am as human being. I’m not afraid to say what’s on my mind, I’m not afraid of doing what I want to do, and I’m not afraid to walk into my own path of uniqueness. It takes a little bit of courage, wisdom, and pride to one me. Like my actress Taraji P. Henson said, “Can’t nobody be me like me and can’t nobody be you like you!”

If you had to, what characteristic of yours would you give the most credit to?
Some qualities I feel that is most important to my success is risk, determination, willingness, and most of all faith!

Contact Info:

• Instagram: www.instagram.com/drelanzevans
• Facebook: www.facebook.com/drelanevans