A sit-down with two actresses from “Circle Mirror Transformation” 

This weekend, Wofford finished up their performances of “Circle Mirror Transformation,” written by Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Annie Baker. The play follows five characters through a six-week adult acting class—Marty, the hippie drama teacher; Marty’s husband James, a college professor; Theresa, an actress from New York; Lauren, a junior in high school; and Schultz, a carpenter who recently divorced his wife. Each week, the characters delve into pain from their past, as well as new romances and introspection through Marty’s acting exercises, eventually learning more about who they are and what they will become.  

Since this play only requires five main cast members, director Dan Day decided to have two casts which would alternate what days they performed. This allowed 10 students to be cast rather than only five; it also allowed for each cast to have slightly different productions, most notably that in one cast, the role of Schultz is played by a man, while in the the other, Schultz is played by a woman. 

To learn more about the casts’ preparation for the play, I sat down with the two actresses who play Theresa, Eliza Metts, ’21, and Rachel Rutkowski, ’20.  

Rutkowski is double majoring in Theatre and Biology—she is currently taking 20 hours to meet her requirements. Metts is an English major and Theatre minor with a concentration in Creative Writing. They discussed how hard they worked to prepare for the show. 

“It’s definitely not easy,” says Rutkowski. “We’re struggling, but it’s worth it.” 

They also revealed how time-consuming acting in a Wofford play is.  

“On paper it’s 16 because we rehearse four hours a night, Monday through Thursday, but you have to get to the theatre early and you don’t leave right away,” says Metts, “and you also have to study your lines outside.” 

“We also had a paper due at the beginning on our character, which was pretty intense,” said Rutkowski. Metts’ essay on her character, Theresa, was 40 pages long; the actresses studied the text to learn about their character’s motivations, desires and personality so that they could reflect that in their acting.  

“All in all, I’d say at least 20 hours a week, or more, are spent on the play alone. And we’re also in other theatre classes as well which are pretty time-consuming. I think the Bio major and the Theatre major are the two most time-consuming majors at Wofford,” said Rutkowski.  

Metts said that she has noticed many students shying away from the shows at Wofford because of their abstract, off-the-wall nature: “I really wish that people would give the plays more of a chance rather than be so dismissive of them.” 

They also mentioned the way that acting changes the actor; through pretending to be someone else, they began to understand that person better. 

“I have been growing so much with myself and learning a lot about my emotions and my life through her [Theresa]. That’s not just an experience that an actor will have, the audience will have it too,” said Metts. 

“I think I’ve changed so much as a freshman until now, just by being in theatre. Learning about different people and different perspectives, it’s almost like you can’t even hate people now, because you might have to play characters of people you might not like very much and you have to learn why they’re that way,” said Rutkowski. “I think it really does change you, to become a better person.” 

“Circle Mirror Transformation” ran from Nov. 6-16 Thursday night through Saturday night in the Salinger Sisters Black Box Theatre.