We are eagerly anticipating Oakwood’s production of The Clean House, beginning on November 9. Please get your tickets HERE!
Below, Director Javier Rivera shares his thoughts and reflections leading up to opening night.
Finally, a female playwright! A female sensibility in our Oakwood Theatre! I am embarrassed to admit that this is the first play by a female playwright I’ve directed, ever. Why is that? I had male blinders on, it’s that simple. The fact that our current Theatre Department is mostly composed of female-identifying performers was the wake-up call I badly needed. I needed to tell THEIR stories. In what has become my favorite moment during this creative process, Brady Klein (one of this production’s Assistant Stage Managers) mentioned to me that The Clean House felt different from other Oakwood productions. Brady could not quite put it in words, but he said the play felt kinder, gentler—smoother. I knew exactly what Brady meant. “Kinder, gentler, and smoother” is what we should all be striving for, particularly during these horrific times. And OF COURSE, it took a woman to get us there.
What Sarah Ruhl brings to our stage is a story about class elitism, and how those who find themselves in the periphery of that sphere sometimes choose to hover further away from that epicenter to find a wealth of love that a lot of us lack. In this era of TikTok, Insta, and allowing others to “influence” what we eat, what we wear, WHO WE ARE, in comes Ruhl, reminding us that perhaps true happiness and genuine love lives somewhere far away from the “likes,” and the “please, follow.” Ruhl also makes a powerful statement about the fleeting nature of financial wealth and warns those who chose the all-mighty dollar over genuine human connections (a theme that was important to explore, particularly on our campus). Sarah Ruhl does all of this with the wisdom of women—a wisdom severely lacking in our world today.
