By Madison Butkus
Hometown Weekly Reporter
Westwood resident and Thurston Middle School (TMS) student Eviva Hertz is currently performing in her third professional play, “A Wrinkle in Time,” at Wheelock Family Theatre (WFT) in Boston, MA. This play is adapted from Madeleine L’Engle’s much-loved classic tale in which Hertz is playing the character of Charles Wallace.
Marketing Specialist at WFT, Jenna Corcoran, went on to write, “In ‘A Wrinkle in Time,’ directed by Regine Vitale, one of literature’s most enduring young heroines, Meg Murry, is back, stubbornness and all. Joining forces with her baby brother Charles Wallace, friend and neighbor Calvin O’Keefe, and the celestial beings Mrs. Whatsit, Mrs. Who, and Mrs. Which, she must battle the forces of evil in order to rescue her father, save humanity, and discover herself. Traveling through time and space, Meg must save both her father and the world from IT, an evil force that is rapidly casting its shadow over the universe. But what does Meg have that the IT does not? Love. For in the end, love is enough to overcome evil and bring IT’s dark world crashing down. One dark and stormy night, the eccentric Mrs. Whatsit arrives at the home of Meg Murry, a young teen who doesn’t fit in at her New England high school. Meg’s scientist Father vanished over two years ago, under mysterious circumstances. Aided by Mrs. Whatsit and her friends, Meg, her gifted brother Charles Wallace, and her friend Calvin are transported through time and space on a mission to rescue their father from the evil forces that hold him prisoner on another planet.”
When talking with Hertz, she explained that her love for the theatre started through her older sister who started taking class at WFT. Upon taking a class there herself, she quickly fell in love with WFT and all that it had to offer. “Wheelock is really amazing and fantastic,” Hertz stated, “because it is a family theatre and they really care about the kids. We get our own full dressing rooms and changing/bathroom areas which is really nice. Everyone there is really kind and just based towards a family experience and atmosphere. It is also very much an intergenerational theatre which is really comforting.”
While Hertz is playing the role of a boy character in this production, she mentioned how this is rather usual for her. “I am almost always the character of a boy,” she explained, “in a majority of the productions that I do. For Charles Wallace specifically, I really try to tap into that younger part of myself to really get into the boy character. I also get into the ‘I’m so smart and know-it-all’ mindset just as is seen within his character. As I have said to our amazing director Regine Vital multiple times, Charles Wallace is magic but he thinks about himself in a scientific way, where he knows the answers to the questions but he doesn’t understand them. So I try to channel all that when becoming his character.”
Hertz’s love for the theatre is abundantly clear, but she is rather realistic about it when it comes to her future endeavors. “I don’t want it to become a full time job,” she mentioned, “because I know it is pretty hard to sustain yourself on just acting. I actually want to become a therapist when I grow up but I do want to continue acting on the side for as long as I can. I just love the feel of being on stage, the rehearsal process, and meeting new friends.”
She further described just how much it means to her to be able to live out her dreams of acting on a professional stage. “This continual experience means a lot to me,” she stated, “every time I go on stage to perform. I love letting other people experience the magic of the theater and, you know, the audience really does a lot of the work. They are so important to the show. And it really means a lot to me that I get to be another person and experiment on different ways I can portray different characters. I get to share with people the tiny parts of myself that I didn’t know I had but that I now love to show off to them. Through the theatre, I am finding out things about myself that I had never realized before, and through performing, I feel a sense of comfort that I can show them.”
“A Wrinkle in Time” made its opening debut at WFT on April 13th and will continue to run until May 11th. While this is Hertz’s third professional play at WFT, she will be returning there in the summer to perform in the role of Mamillius in “The Winter’s Tale.”
For more information about WFT and/or to get tickets for “A Wrinkle in Time,” please visit their website at www.wheelockfamilytheatre.org. Here at Hometown Weekly Newspaper, we would like to congratulate Hertz on her role and wish her good luck in her upcoming performances!
