Ava Maloco on Student Directing Eurydice by Sarah Ruhl

Taking the stage in 2003, the play, Eurydice, by Sarah Ruhl follows the tribulations of a young woman, Eurydice, as she struggles to remember and forget. After dying on her wedding day, she’s plunged into the River Styx, leaving her husband, Orpheus, for the land of the Underworld. There, however, she meets her father again. And she’s forced to decide. Should she try and free herself from this place, leaving the father she adores? Or should she stay and remain parted from Orpheus?

Ava Maloco, the newly appointed, and only, student director for Boston College’s 2025-2026 season, decides to tackle these questions head on. Choosing Eurydice as her project, Maloco makes a statement. Illustrating the grief of death, loss of personhood, and the complexities of fatherhood; her artistry reflects upon the gravity of change and loss in the lives that go remembered and unremembered. 

Now, with opening night only four months away, Ava must split her time between planning with student designers, finding dramaturges, and crafting the kind of story she hopes reaches audiences. And yet, she takes the time to sit with me. So, please enjoy as Ava and I talk on her “surrealist” vision, the volatility of grief, and where she hopes directing will take her after her time with the BC Theatre Department comes to an end.

Hey Ava! Would you mind please telling me about your involvement in theater and how you got interested in directing?

Sure. I directed for the first time when I was a senior in high school, and it was a student written, student directed festival thing we have every year. And I really liked it, and I had acted my whole life, but I wasn’t sure if I was going to keep doing theater in college until I got here. I happened to have a theater professor as my orientation advisor, yeah. So, it just was kind of fate. You could say she convinced me to take a theater class that’s like, very much meant for theater majors as my art core. And then through that, I realized that I couldn’t really give it up if I wanted to. And even though it’s not the most practical career… you got to do what you’re most passionate about.

So now I’m a theater major here, and I started out doing a lot of acting, but I knew that I still wanted to direct while I was here, because I did really like it in high school. So, I took the directing class here my sophomore year, directing one in the fall, and then directing two in the spring, and I really loved it. Then at the end of the year, that sophomore year, I applied to direct for a student group. So, I directed a show called Witch for contemporary theater in the spring of my junior year, and it was such a good experience. Even though it wasn’t for the department, it was still a full-scale production. So, it was a really involved process that I worked on for a whole year, and I really loved it. It was also well received by people who saw it and by theater department faculty, so that was a good confidence booster. 

While doing that process, I applied to direct my senior year for the theater department in something they called the workshop production, which is a production they do every year. We use [the Theatre Department’s] budget and their time and their space and everything, but it’s all student done. So, it’s student directed, and then student designed, and then we all have mentors in the department that walk us through the process. So yeah, I was chosen. I applied with two different shows. I applied with Eurydice and with a show called Lemons, lemons, lemons, lemons, lemons. And then they selected Eurydice and me, so I’ve really been working on it since then, so since last spring, and it doesn’t go up until March. But there’s lots to do beforehand. So, yeah, that’s sort of how I got here.

Why Eurydice specifically? What was your thought process when choosing this show?

Yeah, I saw Eurydice my high school. They did it my senior year. I was not in it, but I saw it, and I really liked it. I thought it was super unique. It’s an interesting show because it’s so, sort of, surrealist. But it’s also not hard to follow, and the language is sort of poetic in a way. There’s just a lot of parts to it that I think are kind of like a challenge, which is something I wanted.

There’s a moment where [Eurydice’s] supposed to come down to the underworld via like, an elevator that has rain inside of it. And then there’s multiple parts where she loses her memory, or her father loses their memory from being dunked in a river. […] So, there’s all these things about it that are up to interpretation and, really, not just interesting for me, but interesting for whoever’s designing it. It gives everyone a lot of creative freedom because it’s so not straightforward, and then it’s written by Sarah Ruhl who I just really love as a playwright.

I knew that this play, and Sarah Ruhl, was someone that had a bit of name recognition and would hopefully draw some attention and some interest from students to be involved in it. So, yeah, there’s sort of a lot of reasons. It was also just hard, in general, finding a play that I liked. I scoured, the whole internet. I feel like I read every play that exists. (laughs) But I really wanted to do a contemporary play where I liked the message and the dialogue, and those things are all hard to find. But I did really like this one.

There’s one word you mentioned, “challenge.” And obviously, as the director, you have a lot of the creative vision, you know, to impose what you think that “challenge” is for your audiences. So, what do you think your Eurydice production is going to challenge? Is there any specific theory or lens you are starting from?

Well, basically, we’ve had a bunch of design meetings so far, meetings between me and the set designer, lighting designer, sound designer and costume designer. We’re talking about the direction that we want to take the show in, and what we think is the most important thing to communicate to the audience. Essentially, we’re speaking on what we think is the main message, or the central theme, or like how it should look, generally, so that all our visions can kind of come together, which is a really fun part of it for me. Sort of the world that we landed on was a carnival or a circus in a way that’s really, I think, going to be interesting. 

So, it starts with Eurydice and Orpheus in this “above world” or the real world. And then Eurydice dies. And then most of the action is with her father in the underworld. So, this gave us a cool opportunity to sort of start with things looking much nicer and prettier and feeling kind of straightforward and classic. And then when it gets to the underworld, everything is going to sort of distort, and we wanted it to be like a creepy abandoned carnival, like something that feels kind of liminal and wrong and kind of creepy, and then also something that’s sort of surrealist. Nothing is clear, almost like it’s all in a dream state. And I think that’ll be interesting. I think the main things that I want people to take away from it, well, first and foremost, is that it should be up to every individual’s interpretation, which is really what I like about this play. It doesn’t really give you a straightforward answer.

But I think the reason why somewhere that’s sort of abandoned and left behind is a good setting for it is because so much of it is about memory and the past. The main characters are all stuck in the past. […] It’s just a lot about the consequences of being stuck in the past and not moving forward. But I also think it says a lot about the nature of grief and how that can feel really like forgetting is the easiest thing to do, but it’s not the right thing to do. There’s this whole thing where in the underworld you’re supposed to forget. You’re supposed to get, like, dunked in the river and then don’t remember any of your earthly memories. Trying to cling to their earthly memories ends up being more painful and more difficult than living in a world where they don’t remember anything. But I think the message is sort of that you must both, you know, not live in the past but also still hold on to your memories. It’s sort of contradictory and sort of nuanced, but there’s a lot to take from it. Orpheus can’t help looking back. He must make sure that [Eurydice’s] still there. He starts to get worried that she’s not following him, which I think can say a lot about, you know, trust and fear. But it’s also a very literal metaphor for what happens if you keep physically looking back.

Yeah, so I think it’s, it’s an interesting show about grief, and it’s very up to every individual’s interpretation. I don’t want it to feel straightforward, and I don’t want it to feel like there’s one message that I’m trying to get across. I want people to leave sort of confused, a little bit like they’re in a dream state, and then I think that will make them continue to think about it and continue to wonder about what it meant and what they take away from it.

I know you mentioned earlier how you performed in theater. After hearing about the complicated themes of grief, trust, individual expression, etc. in this show; I can’t help but think that these feelings must be extremely difficult for actors to portray. So how are you going to direct your performers to achieve that kind of response?

Well, there’s going to be a lot of challenges for the actors in this show. I’m really hoping to get a lot of people to audition because I think these roles, all of them, are difficult. They are going to take some very strong performers, especially because of the language. It’s very poetic, and it can easily, I think, get to sounding contrived and not real. But I want it to feel like it’s real. And I think a big part of the challenge of the acting in this show is just you must really have a very solid understanding of who your character is and what they want in each given moment. It’s not about it being different every night, per se, but just moment to moment in the show what the characters want and know and need changes.

And I think obviously that’s a very difficult thing to play. They’re not straightforward characters where they kind of are wanting one thing the whole time, especially the main character, Eurydice. She goes from just being super in love to forgetting all her memories and not knowing who she is or who anyone else is. And then she gains back some of her memories. […] So, she has multiple sorts of things going on at once and grappling with her own death. And then when Orpheus comes down to get her, she must sort of make this choice between going back to living and being with her husband or staying with her father that she lost in The Underworld.

And then the choice she makes, she doesn’t get to leave, because Orpheus turns around. […] She doesn’t remember anything. Her father doesn’t remember anything, and then Orpheus dies, and he doesn’t remember anything. So that journey in itself… there’s so much going on, and I think that is what’s going to be really the challenge. And same with sort of all the characters, who they are and what they want is very different from moment to moment, and that’s what makes it not straightforward.

And then there’s the character of the lord of the underworld, or the Hades character, and then these three stones who are sort of like the rule enforcers of the underworld. And all of them are, you know, they don’t have as much of an emotional journey going on. But that’s almost even harder, because you must, at once, be this sort of evil character while still sort of knowing what you want moment to moment. I think it’s a hard balance to strike, sometimes even more so than having a complex, emotional character. To have a character that feels like an individual that has different wants and needs, while still being like, literally a stone, you know, or literally like the devil, basically. Yeah. So, I think that is what sort of makes it surreal.

And what’s interesting to me is I’ve never really heard of a show that is so transitory, so changing. Especially with the forgetting, it’s a lot of cycles. And I think it’s an interesting piece to put on during this time. I’m curious, why did you choose the piece to be shown now? Is this change a reflection of you personally? Is this a theme you gravitate towards in general?

Yeah, I think it’s definitely something I gravitate towards. I think I gravitate towards heavier themes in general, especially in plays that aren’t just tragic. That’s what I liked about Witch too. Witch, the show I directed last year, was about sexism and misogyny. And it was about familial loss and non-acceptance of sexuality and what everyone’s deepest secret and deepest desire is, and what they would do to get it. But it was also really funny. So, I think it makes it easier to digest for everyone involved when you have this show that’s fun or really interesting, and you’re just kind of sucked into the story. And then when you take a step back from it, there’s actually a lot to think about here, and I really like that about it.

And then I think, particularly in this part of my life, I feel like there is a lot of change being a senior. Generally, there’s going to be, you know, loss. And I think it is really something that I always struggle with, like change and the idea of losing people. If I move on, you know, if I leave Boston, who am I leaving behind? And I think those themes in Eurydice do feel very relevant to me because all the characters are grappling with losing people and how you handle that and go about it. So even though it’s not, you know, death for me, there is this idea of loss and change that I think feels relevant to me and to all seniors, but also just to most people. You know, change is something that happens constantly and is never easy.

I’m also just curious, what does the Eurydice planning look like in the future? I know the play is in March, so what is the process like for that?

Yeah well, we started in August, really the Saturday before the first day of school. We had our first meeting; it was four hours long. We all came to our collective vision for the show, and all got on the same page. It was really fun, and that’s sort of how we landed on our abandoned carnival world. And you know, that gave everyone sort of a jumping off place. And then we’ve had meetings every month since. And then when we come back in January, things will really start to ramp up because we will have auditions the week we get back, if not the week after. So as soon as we get back from break, people will be auditioning.

And that’s a huge part of the process. I mean, honestly probably the most nerve-wracking part for me is “Will people want to audition? Who will want to audition?” Like, will I get the right people or enough people so and then, like, it is really, really fun to get to see everyone, sort of put it on its feet for the first time, even just in auditions, like hearing people in the in the BC theater World saying the lines out loud is always like, the first moment where it becomes really real to me. So, I’m really looking forward to that. We’re currently talking about, like me and my stage manager and my mentors about sending out the like, audition announcement and what we’re going to say about the show and when, like, what time and what place the auditions are going to be in, and that sort of thing is all happening right now, and so that people can decide whether or not they want to audition and start to prepare their piece that they’re going to audition with, so that right when they get back, we’ll have auditions, and then, pretty Much as soon as auditions and we will start having rehearsals, and then we’ll be rehearsing, you know, like about four hours a day, five days a week until March, yeah. So, it’s all going to go really fast as soon as we get back from break. But right now, we’re just all, all the individual designers are currently just working on their vision. And like this, that designer has made, like a preliminary scenic plan. And same with the costume designer has sort of like shown ideas of what they’re going to then sketch out and start to build. And yeah. So, it’s all been really interesting to see it start to come together.

And then for me personally, I think a lot of work I will do over our winter break will be working with a prompt book, which is sort of a director’s tool where I’ll put the whole script in it, and then I’ll go through and, well, the first step is sort of to highlight the most important lines, lines that if they weren’t in the show, the show wouldn’t make sense. Just to, like, really identify the key moments. And then you go through, and you make sure you know where all of the costume changes are, where all the props are, where all of those sort of logistical things and sound moments that are in the script. And then you go through and start identifying every sort of chunk of action in the show one by one.

[…] It takes forever, but it is really, really helpful to sort of get a sense of what is happening. […] And then it’s going through and saying, like, like, what research you can do, like, dramaturgically, which means researching sort of historical things or words that people might not know or things like that. And I will have a dramaturg soon. […] I think a lot of it will be about like the Greek myth and Greek mythology in general because it’s based on that. And then, yeah, sort of just really digging into the script and the research. And then we talk about what each character wants in that specific action, every character that’s in it, what are they trying to get in that particular chunk of the script, and then what visually is happening in that chunk of the script. Again, a ton of work, but it really does help so that then I can start preliminarily blocking it, writing what the actors will be physically doing on stage, etc. I like to have an initial idea, because you only have so much time in rehearsal.

But then once I get in rehearsal, things usually do change a lot. Yeah. So that’s that process.

I think my final question is, what is your plan for directing in the future? I know you mentioned this is something you want to do as a career. I hope that works out for you!

Thank you. Well, in in January, I will probably be doing auditions for acting grad schools and then potentially also some directing grad school programs for Masters in Fine Arts and Directing and sort of seeing where I get in and what sort of direction I could go before I make a final decision. Then I’ll be looking at some programs that will let me do both acting and directing. There aren’t very many of them out there, but there are some, and I would love to be in one of those programs just because I am really passionate about both. The reason I’m sort of putting acting on the forefront is because I think professionally, it’s easier to transition from being an actor into a director once you sort of have that role. I think it’s easier to get into the acting world younger, whereas directing is a really hard sort of industry to break into when you’re young. People with more experience, and like older people in general, tend to have a better chance getting into even a directing master’s program or just getting directing experience. So, my current plan is to start with acting, potentially in a program that lets me do both, and then sort of transition into directing. But I would love, ideally, to do both professionally in theater and then maybe in film. I’d probably not direct for film just because it is so different than theater directing, but acting wise, sure. And then potentially when I’m older, or if things just don’t work out in the performing and directing field (it’s a really hard field to break into in general), I would love to eventually be a professor of some kind at a university. Even at BC I feel like we have such a good theater department here, and to then be able to teach acting to students and teach directing with college student actors would be incredible.

Come check out Ava Maloco’s Eurydice at Robsham Theatre, BC, from March 19th-22nd!