Opus Meet and Greet/First Rehearsal

Can you believe we just had our first rehearsal for the 2nd to last show in our 2009-2010 season? I just can't believe how fast this season has gone! I just wanted to share some highlights/inspiration that took place in the rehearsal. For some great facts about the show make sure you keep up with our tweets for the next few weeks on Twitter.

Where the magic starts:


Eric Propp shares his costume inspiration:


Take a look at some of the costume inspiration boards he showed the actors:



Here is a peek at the set rendering (designed by Cristina Todesco)

Hope you enjoyed this small sneak peak into the world of Opus! Opus starts performing on March 28th. I will try to give you some more behind-the-scene peeks while they are in rehearsal.

-Desiree Pedrami, Marketing Associate

Boom - J.K. Cosmos / Reviewer

Boom – Review by J.K. Cosmos

Expectations aside, what was the point of ‘Boom’. Keeping an open mind, was this production entertaining? Was it informative? Was it engaging? Mastering language and staying in focus. Are these the requirements of an effective play? What is it that holds the audience and speaks to us as individuals? What is it that we seek when we take the time and buy the ticket?

Mulling it all over in my mind and reviewing the particulars, ‘Boom” is not it. The playwright tries very hard to create a work that is significant. He does not succeed, in this reviewer’s humble opinion.

How does the New Rep select their season is the next logical question? Not knowing the answer to that one, we can only hope for the best and wait on the next play that comes along in Watertown.

The scenery and costumes as has been the case in this season’s productions are fabulous. Really exceptional and not a disappointment. Kudos to those in charge and those accomplishing a fab set and dressing the actors.

The Actors over the top and the swearing and vulgarities were for what purpose? The repetition of swears and crassness, if it adds something to the work is fine. But when it is there and purposeless, then it is not fine at all. It grates. It annoys and looking to get out of my seat and out of the house, as soon as possible. The three actors tried to save this play, giving them some credit. To no avail. The 'woman' behind the scenes, Karen MacDonald, made sounds effects that was the closest to a female Mork from the popular show "Mork & Mindy". Not very effective use of talent. MacDonald is a talented actor, however, this play doesn't add to her creative process.

Some of the audience laughed at a few points in the play and it was hard not to notice the heartiness. So the question becomes were those few laughing, relatives or friends of the actors?

This is a production that you may miss. This is one that is not recommended and a true disappointment. This saddens this reviewer to have to share this negative opinion, as any creative endeavor deserves a shot. Unfortunately, there are so many playwrights working hard and having something to tell, to share or to just give us a reprieve from our daily routine, that this one is just not up to snuff in any way.

Reviewed – J. K. Cosmos

"Boom" Makes an Impact

I fully enjoyed New Rep’s production of “Boom.” This is a unique piece of theatre that is certainly worth seeing, and I commend New Rep for choosing to present it.

The basic concept – boy meets girl, boy traps girl in bomb shelter so as to re-populate the earth once comet hits – is rich with comic opportunity, and the two actors, Zofia Gozynska and Scott Sweatt, are able to capitalize on that quite well. There is less success with the few dramatic moments that are attempted, but they are rare enough not to detract from the piece as a whole. The added layer, provided by Karen MacDonald’s museum guide who is presenting this story to a tour group far in the future, opens the play up to more laughter, as well as providing a bit of mystery; small pieces of information are revealed one by one in her monologues, allowing the audience to slowly piece together what is going on.

There are many strong elements of this production. Jennifer Guadagno’s costumes are interesting and evocative, and play a large part in character development. MacDonald’s character, Barbara, is a complete joy to watch. Sweatt, as Jules, emerges more and more strongly as the piece goes by, and his excellent comic timing provides many of the larger laugh moments. The weaker link is Gozynska, as Jo. Unfortunately, this character is underwritten; she is essentially a pile of clichés, and never prevails over them. Gozynska gives it her best shot, but she is unable to infuse Jo with enough life to overcome the script’s shortcomings.

This underwritten part is one of the pieces that makes the script feel a bit like a work in progress. The plot of “Boom” is a funny and interesting idea, made more interesting by the play’s format of a story within a story. But this is a bit of a difficult construction, and the connections between the two stories, while present, aren’t fully explained or realized, which prevents the play from being quite as good as it could be.

Despite these few complaints, “Boom” is an exciting new piece of theatre, and this production is a whole lot of fun to watch.

Boom with a View

by Jack Craib, New Rep Reviewer

New Rep‘s “boom” is a blast. The current production from the pen of playwright Peter Sinn Nachtrieb is a hybrid of Thornton Wilder‘s “Skin of Our Teeth” and an episode of “Twilight Zone” on speed. Nachtrieb clearly draws on his degrees in both theater and biology, creating an apocalyptic view that speaks loudly and clearly (not to mention hilariously) to the very topical argument of evolution vs. creationism. His satire on “existential anxiety” is indebted to author Richard Dawkins’ “The Ancestor’s Tale” in which Dawson works backward in time via our “concestors” (apes, monkeys, mammals, invertebrates) and writes that “life evolved out of nearly nothing, some ten billion years ago after the universe evolved out of literally nothing, a fact so staggering that I would be mad to attempt words to do it justice”. Obviously Nachtrieb is mad, as he does just that. He’s convinced not only of the fact, but of the absolute inevitability of evolution, asserting that it would happen exactly the same if we were to start all over again.

The place: indeterminate. The time, as Nachtrieb references elsewhere: “when we least expect it”. The characters: a wholly unholy trinity faced with the imminent impact of a civilization-threatening comet. Scott Sweatt is Jules, a young marine biologist living in a subterranean biology lab who placed an ad for a “casual encounter with intensely significant coupling”; Sweatt makes the angst of this hysterical visionary palpable, never losing his zany focus on the immediate threat of annihilation. Zofia Gozynska is Jo, a skeptical journalism student who answers the ad as part of an assignment to write a story that “made you feel honest genuine hope”; she provides a very believable antagonist for our hapless hero. Karen MacDonald is Barbara, who we come to learn is a natural history docent, complete with name tag, who spends much of the play pulling levers and playing the timpani. Barbara is, in her own words, “passionate about (her) stories. Passionate.” And so is MacDonald. Can this truly be the same actress who so recently broke hearts in the Huntington Theater’s “All My Sons”? With her well-known talent for mimicry and pantomime, she displays an astonishing arsenal of gestures and exclamations rather than words to convey her character’s combination of vulnerability and drive. It’s difficult to tell where her own versatility and the superb direction by Bridget Kathleen O’Leary begin and end; it’s a seamless collaboration, but difficult to describe without divulging too much. Equally seamless are the lighting and sound, both crucial to the impact of this production.

For an off-the-wall fantasy, this work deals with serious issues, as Thornton Wilder did in acknowledging that there is “something way down deep that’s eternal about every human being”. Not only is “boom” concerned with the beginning of life, and its end, it posits that knowledge of our common past is essential; the very future of humanity depends on it. It confronts us with the dilemma of fate or randomness in the course of one’s own existence and life in general. And it does it with a healthy dose of wit, whimsy and wackiness. Don’t delay sharing the hilarity; see it ASAP, before the play’s run ends or the comet hits. Whichever comes first.

"Boom!" is a bust.

"boom" -- Kate Poverman -- New Rep reviewer

After seeing New Rep's production of "boom!" my husband commented that the 90 minute play was 90 minutes too long. I disagreed: I thought it was about 80 minutes too long because there were some amusing parts. I know our negative view of the play was not universal. This was clear from the many laughs that the play garnered during the performance, some of which were my own, and none of which were my husband's.

I found the premise of the play interesting: the world is ending and a nerdy, maybe-gay guy, Jules, tricks a young journalism student, Jo, into coming into his bomb shelter so they can repopulate human kind. This drama is presented as a play-within-a-play: Jules and Jo's story is a museum display depicting how the (future?) human race evolved. However, the script was weak and inconsistent, ineffectively mixing humor and drama.

The most amusing and best-acted parts of "boom!" were provided by the museum docent/narrator/commentator Barbara, played by Karen MacDonald. I last saw Karen in a production of Miller's "All My Sons," in which she was transcendent. Unfortunately, this script didn't give her much to work with, but she did as good a job as anyone could have done. She was impressive on the drums (really) and was great as a ditzy docent who was a little too emotionally involved in the drama she was presenting.

Scott Sweatt, as the nerdy Jules, and Zofia Gozynska, as the unhappy Jo, were not equal to MacDonald. If they had been, the play might have succeeded. Gozynska's portrayal of Jo was especially problematic. Jo was an unhappy, bitter, foul mouthed young woman whose every other word began with "f" or "motherf." Having had periods in my life where I myself swore like a sailor, I was surprised at how much this irked me. The foul language was repetitive, unimaginative and gratuitous. There are better ways to show that a character has a violently negative view of the world. And to make matters worse, Gozynska couldn't pull this angry character off. She was frantic instead of furious, had no sense of timing, and lacked the physical and emotional dramatic strength that the character required.

Sweatt, as Jules, wasn't much better. He was bland, unimpressive and unconvincing. In short, he was as boring as his character. Sweatt improved a bit as the play progressed and the script allowed him to show some emotion. When this occurred, he was convincing as a man at the end of his rope. It's possible, though, that a stronger actor would have helped the play overcome its speciousness and lack of coherence. This not being the case, seeing "boom!" was pretty much a waste of 80 minutes.

"boom" explodes with laughter

by Frank Furnari, New Rep Reviewer

Your years of researching the sleeping habits of fish leads you to believe that the world will encounter a cataclysmic event, a boom if you will, and after you fortify your underground lab, one of the last things you do before the big boom is place a Craigslist ad for a hookup. This is exactly what Jules does in boom the new production in the Downstage @ New Rep Black Box Theater. Jo is the unsuspecting undergrad who answers his ad and she comes on strong looking for a night of fun; however, things don’t go as planned. She (and the rest of the scientific community) don’t believe Jules’ data and analysis. Jo wonders if he is a psychopath (I believe this play was written before we had to worry about Craigslist killers). The audience soon realizes we are actually visitors to a sort of evolution museum, watching a recreation of events with a museum employee, Barbara, pulling the levers and occasionally offering her commentary.

boom offers some interesting (though not new) ideas on evolution and science. It brings to mind recent debates over evolution and the controversies surrounding them. The play offers many laughs throughout with many witty exchanges. It also includes a fair share of foul language, but not more than you’d find in, perhaps your typical Mamet play.

Bridget Kathleen O’Leary assembles and directs a strong cast. Scott Sweatt is great as Jules with the right nerdy scientist quality; you can sense he’s not good around people. Karen MacDonald steals the show with her portrayal of Barbara, the eccentric museum employee that really cares about the exhibit and has added many of her own embellishments. She’s fun to watch and you find yourself glancing over at her many times just to see what her reaction is to the action taking place on the other half of the set. Overall, boom is a solid production and a fun 90 minutes - make sure you see the final Downstage @ New Rep show of the season.

boom First Rehearsal

Today is the first day of rehearsal's for the the New England Premiere of boom! We just got back from the meet and greet and I wanted to share some of the highlights with you!

First, a little background: boom is by Peter Sinn Nachtrieb, and it is a comedy about the end of the world. Peter went to Brown University and concentrated in theater and biology. He describes boom as "my way of figuring out why I majored in both." Read more about Peter and boom in the Brown Alumni Magazine.

boom will be performing in the Black Box Theater, and as you know it can be a little tricky to figure out how to make you world come to life in this small and intimate space. Here is Jarrod Bray (set designer) talking about his design concept for the show. (also in photo Zofia Gozynska, who play Jo)


Here is a closer look at the world Jarrod is creating:



And here is director Bridget Kathleen O'Leary talking to the cast and crew of boom about her vision (and excitement!) for this show.


Would you like to hear what Bridget has to say about boom? Listen to our New Rep Chats with Bridget and Artistic Director Kate Warner!