Melisa Pereyra in the Huntington Theatre Company’s production of Stand Up If You’re Here Tonight. Photo by Nile Hawver

Theatre

For CFA’s Head of Acting, Huntington Role Required Discretion, Listening

Melisa Pereyra says her love of regional theater drives her

Anytime a new play opens, the theater hosting the production usually wants as much publicity as it can get, especially reviews and profiles of the cast members that might help attract audiences. But when the Huntington Theatre Company’s production of Stand Up If You’re Here Tonight opened at the Huntington Theatre in Boston earlier this year, veteran stage actor Jim Ortlieb was highlighted everywhere, while there was not a peep about the second, and only other, cast member, Melisa Pereyra.

It was no accident or oversight. Her role is hard to explain unless you were lucky enough to catch the show in person (it’s live run ended March 23, but it’s streaming through April 20). Playing a man desperate for human connection, Ortlieb commands the stage by himself for nearly the entire performance, engaging with the audience and inviting their participation. But only toward the very end, when he starts talking with a particular, and extremely reluctant, audience member and calls her up on stage, does it become apparent that she might not be just a random theatergoer, but the second cast member.

Pereyra, who is Argentinian, is a veteran performer at regional stages across the country. She is also the head of acting at Boston University’s College of Fine Arts, as well as an assistant professor of acting and cochair of performance. She could not talk about the Huntington show, do interviews, or say anything on social media until now because keeping her role secret was essential to the audience experience and to maintaining the surprise factor.

But now that the show has pivoted from an in-person performance to a digital streaming show, Pereyra is free to talk about the uniqueness of the role, what’s next in her acting career, and her work at BU, which she joined in summer 2021. (Watch a CFA video of her talking about her career here.)

Below are excerpts from our conversation with her. 

Searching for the right part

This is a really unique process. I was away from campus on Broadway for the semester. I came back in the fall. I knew that part of my research at BU is to continue to be a working artist. The difference between a designer versus being an actor is that our contracts are usually longer. It’s hard to find the perfect acting job that works with the demands of a full teaching load and other responsibilities. My goals were to continue investing in the BU community and be home and sleep in my own bed. There were specific things that needed to fall into place for me to make this effort worthwhile: the length of the show, the rehearsal time, the collaborators. We rehearsed only three days in Boston. The Broadway understudy experience was a great bedrock for me, because it allowed me to execute a performance in a high-pressure environment in a short amount of time.  

The audition

The Huntington knew I was in town from previous readings I had done with artistic director Loretta Greco. My audition for Stand Up was on Zoom, as well as the callback. It’s so interesting, because this particular play relied so heavily on the ‘live’ experience. I remembered John [Kolvenbach, the playwright and director], talking about how I was sitting here so close to the screen, and he was wondering if he was getting a Zoom read on camera. He didn’t know if it would translate to the live experience in the space.

I have done a lot of live, outdoor, unmic’ed theater, and I knew I’d be fine. But after so much Zoom work during the pandemic, I got very good at bringing the size of a performance to the size of the lens on my computer. It is so important to keep adapting to the medium, but not forgetting that at the end of the day, our work will be shared live and it needs to serve the space in which we perform.  

Audience reaction

Jim [Ortlieb, the lead performer] is such a gracious human being. I was so interested in how this play demands that you engage with theater differently. It is so heavily reliant on what you, the audience, think of the play. If the audience is nervous, it influences my role. If the audience is super rowdy, that influences me. For me, I have to be really in tune with what is going on with the audience, with you all, because I am part of the collective experience.  

This play is about how do we all become one. I am responsible for that experience. What I sensed from the audience most of the time was that I feel like they are relieved. They are so glad I am part of it, they are in good hands, and they begin to recognize that we are taking them to the end of the story. Audiences want to put the puzzle together. The play doesn’t let you do that until you can experience something, this schmearing of the story. Some people will sometimes whisper, ‘She’s part of the show,’ and that’s fine. My goal is not to convince you that I’m not, but rather to make you doubt it.  

Not talking about her role

I have been pretty discreet about the role. I am mortified that somebody I know will show up and try to interact with me, which is why I have not said much about it. So I am doing the show, but it’s kind of incognito. Talking about the process while I am in process is hard. In hindsight, I am now ready to hand it over (and share it with my students), but while I am in the middle of the experience—whether it be directing, writing, or acting—I try to stay away from synthesis as much as possible.  

Lessons learned from the role

One thing this role has taught me is better listening. I aim to be a better listener, all the time. On and off the stage. Constantly working on this challenges me to be present. You have to listen to how the show is going, because it’s different every night. [On a recent] Sunday we had a full house. Everybody was laughing, joyous. Jim experienced the play in a different way. I had to pick him up and have more courage than I usually do depending on where I catch him in his journey. It’s beautiful to experience that kind of trust with another actor and with an audience. We take the leap together. As any play—but perhaps with more purpose on reframing storytelling and the theater-going experience—our play changes not just night by night, but minute by minute in a way that challenges all of us to take a leap together, not as passive bystanders but as active witnesses and participators of a collective experience. 

What’s next

I am a Core Company Actor at American Players Theater (APT) [a professional theater just outside Spring Green, Wisc.]. I am a big believer in regional theater because acting companies provide an artistic home. I believe in the community of it. This will be my 11th season. The audiences at APT have seen me grow up, from playing Juliet to Lady Macbeth, being directed by my friend and longtime collaborator Jim DeVita. While getting my MFA in classical acting at Illinois State University, I encountered titans of the regional theater, like Henry Woronicz (who was the head of my Acting Program) and my friend and mentor Robert Ramirez (whom I met while working at the Illinois Shakespeare Festival).

The first time APT encountered my work was at the Utah Shakespeare’s Festival production of Shakespeare’s Titus Andronicus. Brenda DeVita approached me and asked me if I would be interested in auditioning for Juliet in a production that was to be produced two years from the date. I was right out of grad school, not knowing where my next paycheck would come from, hearing that someone was looking into the future and keeping me in mind felt overwhelming and comforting. APT has been nurturing my career ever since. My passion for language, obsession with poetry, and deep need for community continues to guide me in every space I enter, whether it be in the regional theatre, Broadway, or academia. 

Regional theater allows us to work on the local level, to engage and make relationships with the local audiences who live nearby and are invested in the theater in a personal way. Although we are making theater on the bones of a flawed business model, I try and get some joy out of the relationships I encounter along the way. This makes the process feel less transactional while investing in reciprocity in a more personal way. 

This summer I am directing a play called Wolf at the Door. We’ve been working to diversify the classics and redefine the structural models that allow stories to withstand ‘the test of time.’ In this conversation, it is important to me to be in plays that speak to the Latine community in some way. I am deeply drawn to this piece of writing and it was an instant classic in my mind the day I read it. This play is part of a trilogy from the playwright Marisela Treviño Orta, whose play The River Bride, directed by Robert Ramirez, was on the APT stage in 2019 and where I had the opportunity to play the leading role of Helena. I am so excited to bring another play from the series that she calls “Part of a cycle of grim Latine fairy tale plays which are inspired by Latinx mythololy and are informed by the European fairy tale canon.” It’s gorgeous and dangerous. A story about the resilience of women and the lengths we will go to protect our homes, our autonomy, and ultimately our futures.  

Time at BU

We are all educationally in a moment of transition, trying to figure out culturally what is important to our community. We are working on defining what that community is. For me, it’s important to uplift the Latine theater community not just in Boston, but wherever I am. Uplifting community is what theater is supposed to be.  

What I’ve loved about Stand Up If You’re Here Tonight is that it asks people to trust. We are at a point nationally where it’s hard to have that trust and connection. We’re struggling to build and invest in that; in rehearsal rooms, in classrooms, in moments of uncertainty and political upheaval. But we want to: we want to trust. We are hungry for it. It will be up to us to decide how we pick up the narrative and what contributions we choose to make on and off the stage. Until then, I choose to keep fighting for authentic connection no matter the platform.  

The Huntington Theatre Company’s production of Stand Up If You’re Here Tonight is available for streaming through April 20. Purchase digital tickets here.