DON’T FORGET TO CHECK OUT THE REST OF OUR SPRING PREVIEW!
Award-winning playwright and activist Eve Ensler will star in the world premiere of In the Body of the World on May 10-29 at the American Repertory Theater’s Loeb Drama Center. Directed by Diane Paulus, the one-woman play was adapted from Ensler’s 2013 memoir about working in the Congo when she was diagnosed with cancer. She shared some unscripted thoughts on her latest project at the A.R.T.
IS THERE ANYTHING ABOUT A ONE-WOMAN PLAY THAT APPEALS TO YOU AS A VEHICLE? This is the third one-woman show I’ve done. It was The Vagina Monologues and thenThe Good Body. It wasn’t a conscious trilogy, but there are themes that overlap in all of them. I think it’s really about the body, and looking at the body, and how women are often exiled from their bodies when they’re violated or oppressed or there’s violence. And how the journey for so many of us is to come back into our bodies. I think that’s a lot of what the play is about.
WHAT WENT INTO THE CHOICE TO PLAY THE ROLE YOURSELF? I think it’s logical. But the thing about performing this piece, and going back to a period six years ago when I was very sick, is that it’s strange to be revisiting it in such a deep way. At the same time, what I really believe deeply is that once you go inside one person’s story in a very deep way, hopefully you connect to a much larger universal stream. I’m hoping that’s true of this and it will resonate with people on all different levels. Cancer is a piece of this story and maybe the vehicle of this story, but it’s not a play about cancer. It’s a play about Congo, a play about the body, a play about family, a play about love.
WHAT’S NEXT FOR YOU? After In the Body of the World, Diane and I are cooking up a big show at A.R.T. that we’re going to do together, but we can’t really talk about it yet. … I really love working with Diane. I think she’s a real visionary director, and she has a very clear eye about drama and theater. And it’s wonderful working with such a powerful woman and such a brilliant artist on this play, which is very dear to me and very intimate and very vulnerable-making.
Spring into Action: Theater
By Matt Martinelli | Photo Credit: Brigitte Lacombe | March 12, 2016
DON’T FORGET TO CHECK OUT THE REST OF OUR SPRING PREVIEW!
All About Eve
Award-winning playwright and activist Eve Ensler will star in the world premiere of In the Body of the World on May 10-29 at the American Repertory Theater’s Loeb Drama Center. Directed by Diane Paulus, the one-woman play was adapted from Ensler’s 2013 memoir about working in the Congo when she was diagnosed with cancer. She shared some unscripted thoughts on her latest project at the A.R.T.
IS THERE ANYTHING ABOUT A ONE-WOMAN PLAY THAT APPEALS TO YOU AS A VEHICLE? This is the third one-woman show I’ve done. It was The Vagina Monologues and thenThe Good Body. It wasn’t a conscious trilogy, but there are themes that overlap in all of them. I think it’s really about the body, and looking at the body, and how women are often exiled from their bodies when they’re violated or oppressed or there’s violence. And how the journey for so many of us is to come back into our bodies. I think that’s a lot of what the play is about.
WHAT WENT INTO THE CHOICE TO PLAY THE ROLE YOURSELF? I think it’s logical. But the thing about performing this piece, and going back to a period six years ago when I was very sick, is that it’s strange to be revisiting it in such a deep way. At the same time, what I really believe deeply is that once you go inside one person’s story in a very deep way, hopefully you connect to a much larger universal stream. I’m hoping that’s true of this and it will resonate with people on all different levels. Cancer is a piece of this story and maybe the vehicle of this story, but it’s not a play about cancer. It’s a play about Congo, a play about the body, a play about family, a play about love.
WHAT’S NEXT FOR YOU? After In the Body of the World, Diane and I are cooking up a big show at A.R.T. that we’re going to do together, but we can’t really talk about it yet. … I really love working with Diane. I think she’s a real visionary director, and she has a very clear eye about drama and theater. And it’s wonderful working with such a powerful woman and such a brilliant artist on this play, which is very dear to me and very intimate and very vulnerable-making.
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