Director's Note

Playwright Lisa Loomer's "ROE" features 53 characters.  To allow more opportunities for the talented University students who auditioned, I created two casts – a Red and a Blue – comprised of actors who each play multiple roles in both groups (the casts alternate performances, so you should definitely come back).  It was a big ask to have 15 students, 2 professional colleagues, 2 children (and their parents!), 2 student sound designers, a student cameraperson/choreographer, a stalwart student Stage Manager, rotating student Assistant Stage Managers until the perfect one arrived and stuck, and a team of both guest and University designers participate in this production. To my great pleasure (and relief!), the people you see on stage tonight, including those whom you do not see, all said yes to this project, and together, we went all in.  A huge production that felt impossible for us to do came together beautifully.  Not only did we pull it off, we pulled it off big.

 

I am so proud of how bravely, fully, and enthusiastically this cast – some of whom are new to acting! – has come together, embraced the material, their work as actors, and the demands of both.  They have, for the past two months (five if you include our first read throughs back in November), supported and shown up for each other and the humanity of their various roles.  As a University community, we all also had classes, other jobs, family obligations, homework, grading, meetings, and then 4-6 hours of daily rehearsal for 8 weeks.  I don't know how we did it other than to say that we all just kept showing up, working hard, doing our homework, and getting better together.

 

I share this about our process because it serves as an allegory for the work of Roe v Wade, both its history and its future.  The overturning of Roe v Wade in 2022 was a devastating and dangerous moment in our history because it opened the door to federally examine – and potentially overturn – other pieces of personal choice freedoms; especially (exclusively?) those that directly affect and protect women, low-income citizens, and BIPOC and LGBTQ communities.  Even though other laws that enable mass killings remain iron-clad, funded, and protected, the Roe v Wade Right To Choose finally fell after 49 years of constant attack.  Thankfully and tragically, as Jay Floyd says in Act One: "History ain't over yet, is it?" 

 

ROE is not just an historical play.  While many of the people, conversations, conflicts, and struggles that we see in ROE are set in the past, they continue to happen now in the present at local, state, and federal levels.  These actors could be wearing MAGA hats and Eras Tour t-shirts.  These characters could be listening to "Texas Hold 'Em" and FOX News.  Many young people in my close and extended circles, classrooms, and communities have only vaguely "heard about" Roe v Wade.  At best, it is, or was, background American history to the younger generation.  We've seen, time and again, what happens when a group of dedicated individuals show up for the work, a cause, and each other.  While we may not all be on the front lines of a movement, even small acts of courage and community fuel it.  We can vote, we can march, and we can share our stories and the stories of others.  In the play, Sarah confirms that a law can't change people's hearts, "but it's a start." 

 

I posit here that changing people's hearts is a start to changing laws.

 

So you, too, are part of this movement because you made the choice to show up. Regardless of the reason why you're here, you chose to come when you had the choice not to.  We were all hoping you would show up and you did.  Together with you, we are about to participate in an exchange of time, energy, emotion, story, and experiences.  You're about to bear witness to our showing up for you to share these stories with our bodies, hearts, and voices in an effort to move yours.  As a collective, we are fueling a movement.

 

Lisa Loomer, when asked what she hopes audiences take away from her piece, said that she hopes that people talk to each other.  I have that same hope: that this play makes us talk to each other, do our homework, and show up for each other to get better as a community.  Time and again, I find that behind our differing rhetoric and values, we all treasure our individual right to choose what we believe in, whom we love, and what is best for our own health and bodies. I have yet to meet a fellow American who is into other people telling them how to live their lives. 

 

For some reason, Roe's work isn't done.  We hope our work in the theatre today inspires you to continue that work in your own conversations, voting polls, dorm rooms, classrooms, workplaces, and communities.  The players of history have passed the torch to us to show up for each other.  It's our turn now to decide how we support, or don't, a person's right to choose. 

 

Your presence here today is a start. Thank you for coming.