O.P.C.

Eve Ensler is a Tony Award-winning playwright, activist, and author of the theatrical phenomenon and Obie Award winning The Vagina Monologues, which has been published in 48 languages and performed in over 140 countries. Eve’s plays include Necessary Targets, The Good Body, Emotional Creature, O.P.C. (which premiered at A.R.T. in 2014) and The Fruit Trilogy, which just premiered at the WOW Festival in London and the West Yorkshire Playhouse. Her books include Insecure At Last: A Political Memoir; the New York Times bestseller I Am An Emotional Creature, and her critically acclaimed memoir In the Body of the World on which this play is based. She has written numerous articles for The Guardian, Time, Elle France and the International Herald Tribune. Ensler’s film credits include an HBO film version of The Vagina Monologues. She also co-produced the film What I Want My Words to Do to You, winner of the Freedom of Expression Award at the Sundance Film Festival and premiered on PBS’s “P.O.V.” Ensler was a consultant on the 2016 Oscar nominated film Mad Max Fury Road. In 1998 Ensler founded V-Day, the global activist movement to end violence against women and girls and in 2013, its evolution, ONEW BILLION RISING, a global mass action campaign linking racial, gender, economic and climate injustice in over 200 countries. She was named one of Newsweek’s “150 Women Who Changed the World” and The Guardian’s “100 Most Influential Women.” Eve is thrilled to be working with Diane Paulus and the entire A.R.T. team. 

A.R.T.: Debut. Pesha Rudnick is the co-founder and Artistic Director of LOCAL Theater Company in Boulder, Colorado where she pursues the company's mission to discover and develop new American plays. She has directed over twenty new works and runs an annual new play festival involving artists from around the country. Directing credits from LOCAL include the world premiere of Elijah: An Adventure. Ms. Rudnick has recently collaborated with Eve Ensler as Associate Director of the world premiere of Ensler’s play Emotional Creature at Berkeley Repertory Theatre and Pershing Square Signature Center. Additional credits include: 26 Miles, Curious Theatre Company; The Hairy Ape, Tartuffe, Hangar Theatre; The House on Mango Street, Kennedy Center; American Night, OSF (Assistant Director). Rudnick is a member of Lincoln Center’s Director’s Lab in New York City, and a Drama League Directing Fellow.

A.R.T: Debut. Off-Broadway: Big Love, Signature; What's It All About?, NYTW; Titus Andronicus, Public Theater; Winter's Tale, Pearl Theatre; Tamar and the River, Prospect Theater. Regional: As You Like It, Two River Theater. Associate Set Designer: The Ambassador, BAM Next Wave; Dr. Zhivago, The Last Ship, If/Then, Hands on a Hardbody, Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo, Broadway; Rigoletto, MetOpera. Education: NYU, UCLA.

A.R.T.: ExtraOrdinary, The White Card, Father Comes Home From the Wars (Parts 1, 2 & 3), O.P.C., Witness Uganda, The Gershwins’ Porgy and Bess, Best of Both Worlds. Broadway: Motown, The Gershwins’ Porgy and Bess (Tony nomination), Topdog/Underdog. Off-Broadway: Water by the Spoonful; By the Way, Meet Vera Stark (Lucille Lortel and NAACP Theater Awards), 2econd Stage; The Capeman, Juan and John, Romeo and Juliet, Public Theater; The Misanthrope, All That I Will Ever Be, NYTW. Regional: Othello, Guthrie Theater; Ruined, Señor Discretion Himself (Helen Hayes Award nominee), Arena Stage; Twist, Alliance; Once on This Island, Center Stage.

A.R.T.: We Live in Cairo; Endlings; Burn All Night; Natasha, Pierre & The Great Comet of 1812; O.P.C. Broadway: Hadestown (Tony, Drama Desk, OCC Award nominations); Natasha, Pierre & The Great Comet (Tony, Drama Desk, OCC Awards); Bernhardt/Hamlet. Off-Broadway: Roundabout, MCC, LCT3, Ars Nova, Signature, Atlantic, Cherry Lane. New York: LAByrinth Theater Company, The Kitchen, Wild Project. Regional: Berkeley Rep, La Jolla Playhouse, McCarter Theatre, The Old Globe, South Coast Rep, Virginia Stage, Yale Rep, Williamstown Theatre Festival. Opera: Bard Summerscape, Boston Early Music Festival, Kentucky Opera, Virginia Opera. Education/Training: MFA, NYU.

A.R.T.: Debut. Off-Broadway: The Killer, Tamburlaine, Theatre for a New Audience; Red Dog Howls, NYTW; London Wall, Mint; The Rivals, Pearl; Grounded, Page 73; Jackie, Women's Project. Regional: Hamlet, Hartford Stage; The Little Foxes, Cleveland Play House; 4000 Miles, Asolo Rep; All in the Timing, Dorset Theater Festival. Recipient: NEA/TCG Career Development Program; Henry Award, Denver Center; Premios ACE 2012 Award; Bessie Award (with Big Dance Theater). Graduate: Harvard College, Yale School of Drama. 

A.R.T.: Debut. Broadway: Leap of Faith, Memphis (2010 Tony Award for Best Musical). Off-Broadway: Stop. Reset., Mound Builders, Emotional Creature, Signature; By The Way, Meet Vera Stark, Second Stage; Father Comes Home From the War, Public Theater. National Tours: Memphis, Julius Caesar. Regional: The White Snake, Measure for Measure, American Night, OSF; Back Back Back, Old Globe; Carmen, La Jolla Playhouse; Cowboy Vs. Samurai, Mo’ollelo.

A.R.T.: Crossing, O.P.C. Director of Dance, Senior Lecturer in Music and Theater, Dance & Media; Artistic Director of the Harvard Dance Project, at Harvard University. Graduate of Canada’s National Ballet School; a 28-year veteran of the dance field, Johnson choreographs for film, television, and the stage; has danced in over 50 tours on 5 continents. Was soloist with the National Ballet of Canada and a principal dancer and researcher in William Forsythe’s company Frankfurt Ballet. Stages Forsythe’s work worldwide, including for Paris Opera Ballet, La Scala, Batsheva Dance Company, Norwegian National Ballet, Netherlands Dance Theater, Boston Ballet, and American Ballet Theater. Is a founding collaborator of The Movement Invention Project in New York, and has served on the faculties of and created choreographic work for Princeton University, Columbia University, the Juilliard School and NYU; and has created 12 new works at Harvard since 2011 including, Paper Wing, What Moves You?, and dance installations RE: RE: RE:, and LOOK UP. Recent collaborations include those with the Harvard Choruses, Harvard Mahindra Humanities Center, Boston Ballet, San Francisco Ballet, Dries Van Noten and the Louvre Musee des Arts Decoratif, Ryuichi Sakamoto, and Mikhail Baryshnikov. 

A.R.T.: We Live in Cairo; Jagged Little Pill; The White Card; Trans Scripts, Part 1: The Women; Witness Uganda; O.P.C.; The Glass Menagerie; Once; Ajax; The Blue Flower; Johnny Baseball; Best of Both Worlds. Casting director for Roundabout Theatre Company. Broadway: Moulin Rouge, Kiss Me Kate, The Play That Goes Wrong, Beautiful: the Carole King Musical, Sunday in the Park with George, Amélie, Violet, Winslow Boy, The Glass Menagerie, Mystery of Edwin Drood, Harvey, Don’t Dress for Dinner, Once, Road to Mecca, On A Clear Day…, Anything Goes, Brief Encounter, Scottsboro Boys, Sondheim On Sondheim, Hedda Gabler.

A.R.T.: Stage Manager: HEAR WORD!; Burn All Night; Notes from the Field: Doing Time in Education; 1984; O.P.C.; The Shape She Makes; The Donkey Show. Assistant Stage Manager: Bedlam's Sense & Sensibility; The Night of the Iguana; Fingersmith; RoosevElvis; Kansas City Choir Boy; Natasha, Pierre & The Great Comet of 1812; The Heart of Robin Hood; All the Way; The Glass Menagerie; The Lily’s Revenge; Once. Production Associate: Prometheus Bound; The Blue Flower; Cabaret. Education/Training: Graduate of Boston University (Summa cum laude) College of Fine Arts.

A.R.T.: O.P.C. (Asst. Stage Manager), Witness Uganda (Asst. Stage Manager), The Wedding Band (Staged Reading, Stage Manager). Broadway: Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Cinderella (Production Asst./Sub. ASM), Off-Broadway: One Night Only (Stage Manager), American Theatre of Actors. Regional: Welcome to Jesus (Stage Manager), Hartford Stage; Dreamgirls (Asst. Stage Manager), Ivoryton Playhouse; The Dining Room, Westport Country Playhouse. 2011/12 Season Production Assistant, Two River Theater Company. Stage Management B.F.A. from Syracuse University.

A.R.T.: Debut. Mixed media artist. Costume designer: The Catamounts, Hannah Kahn Dance Company, 3rd Law Dance/Theatre, Theatre Aspen, Evolving Doors Dance, Naropa University. Wardrobe Supervisor: Theatre Aspen. Dresser/stitcher: Opera Colorado. Owner: EyeSoar Performance/stilt dance. Performer: EyeSoar Performance (NZ/USA), Borrillo Entertainment (US), Evolving Doors Dance (US), Empress Stilt Dance (NZ/HK/AUS), Lord of the Rings Peter Jackson (NZ), Footnote Dance (NZ), Spinal Chord (UK). Training: Bachelor of Performing and Screen Arts (Contemporary Dance) (Unitec/NZ), Cert Pacific Cultural Performing Arts (Whitirea/NZ).

A.R.T.: We Live in Cairo; Endlings; Othello; ExtraOrdinary; Jagged Little Pill; WARHOLCAPOTE; Burn All Night; The Night of the Iguana; Trans Scripts, Part I: The Women; Fingersmith; Waitress; In the Body of the World; O.P.C. Broadway: Mary Stuart. Regional: New Electric Ballroom, Gloucester Stage Company; Absurd Person Singular, Nora Theatre Company; Arms and the Man, Guthrie Theatre; A Christmas Carol, McCarter Theatre; The Foreigner, Cabaret, To Kill a Mockingbird, Kansas City Repertory Theatre. As Head of Voice and Speech at A.R.T., Erika also teaches voice in the Theater, Dance & Media concentration at Harvard as well as teaching public speaking skills across the university. Education: MA, Voice Studies, the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama; MFA, Acting, Brandeis University.