The GoodheART Report – Welcome to O.P.C.!

Nina Goodheart, former intrepid high school intern/reporter turned intrepid gap year intern/reporter, is back with a progress report on the A.R.T.’s 2013/14 Season.

I slip into the first rehearsal of O.P.C. a few minutes late, having finished ushering in any stragglers through our (charmingly unreliable) front door. Today marks the start of Eve Ensler’s sharp and shocking new play about consumption and politics. The show centers on Romi, a dumpster-diving Freegan (and homegrown fashion designer) and her mother Smith, a candidate for U.S. Senate. Perhaps a hundred people, including A.R.T. Artistic Director Diane Paulus, Eve Ensler herself, dozens of A.R.T. staff members, and the cast of the show, have formed a circle in the center of the rehearsal room.

“Can we go around the circle one more time? And just say your name, what you do, and one thing I wouldn’t know about you by looking at you.” Director Pesha Rudnick smiles and gestures to the motley crew assembled for the first day. One by one, people begin to offer up their own little known facts.

“If I see a bulldog, I will scream like a little girl.”
“I’m a twin.”
“I’m a twin.”
“I speak six languages.” (Spoken with utter sincerity.  Apparently not a Spelling Bee reference.)
“I’m on a gap year before college,” I volunteer.

Even after the meet-and-greet is over and the group has been whittled down to those who will be in the rehearsal room every day, I’m slightly intimidated by this roomful of strangers. It quickly becomes clear that every single person here is deeply committed to the ideals and principles of this play—and we haven’t even begun to rehearse. I feel like I need to go save a bunch of endangered species just to get close to the ethical level of this cast and creative team.

It feels like we are working on something big, something important. From the first day I read the script, I knew O.P.C. would be unlike any play I had ever seen. It has so many different themes, themes that have been present in plays since the beginning of theater: love, sex, politics, family, sanity, purpose. In the hands of another playwright, these subjects might seem tired—recycled, you might say. But just as Romi makes sparkling and magical creations out of trash, Eve crafts a play that is that is greater than the sum of its parts.

I barely know the people in this room, at least not beyond their favorite kind of dog or whether or not they have a twin. I still have so many questions and so much to learn. And I can’t wait to get started.

Nina Goodheart is a full-time artistic intern, production assistant, and blogger at the American Repertory Theater.