BWW Interview: Katy Sullivan of PANDORA at TheatreWorks Silicon Valley Represents an Exciting Expansion of Possibilities in the World of Theater
by Jim Munson Sep. 16, 2020 for Broadway World
Sullivan is an award-winning actor, producer, writer, and athlete. She starred in the Pulitzer Prize-winning Cost of Living (Manhattan Theatre Club and Williamstown Theatre Festival), and has been nominated for Drama League, Outer Critics Circle, Lucille Lortel, and Ovation Awards, and is a recipient of a Theatre World Award. Her TV credits include “Station 19,” “My Name is Earl,” “Last Man Standing,” “Legit,” and “NCIS: New Orleans.” She is also a Paralympic track and field athlete, a four-time US Champion in 100m, and US record holder. Born a bi-lateral transfemoral amputee, missing both lower legs, she is also an in-demand public speaker on the topics of fighting for your dreams and making the things that help you stand out become the things that make you extraordinary.
I recently spoke by phone with Sullivan in Chicago where she is currently enjoying a respite away from her home base of New York City. She is delightful to talk to – instantly approachable, unguarded, funny and innately upbeat without ever coming across as saccharine or naive. The following conversation has been edited for length and clarity.
How did you become involved with Pandora?
Laurel [Ollstein], the playwright, saw me do a reading at the Writers Guild West and also saw me do the LA production of Cost of Living. According to her, she had just kind of put me in the back of her mind as someone she wanted to work with at some point. She dreamt up the idea of this play through working with the Getty originally, and then asked me if I wanted to workshop it. It was a little complicated because I was in New York and she was in LA, so I flew to LA for a couple workshops last year, and then we did a workshop in New York. It’s been really cool to be involved in the deep conversations about where we think these characters are going or where we see them expanding. And so much has changed, which I think is the really exciting and fun part of being involved in a brand-new work.
How would you describe the play? What are audiences in for?
The play is modern-ish, because it feels like we are in sort of a magical land where time and space are a little relative, a little fluid. It’s a retelling of the myth of Pandora, who was the first woman ever created, and according to the myth, the perfect woman. As the story goes, she’s given this box and told not to open it. When she does, she lets out all the evil in the world [laughs ironically] – “just like a woman!” So Laurel has taken those basic principles and ideas and sort of created a magical island where Pandora lives. We actually meet up with her on her wedding day. She’s a newly created human so she is also learning everything, and curious and experiencing everything for the first time. So it’s this really big reimagining of A VERY OLD story.
You’re part of a terrific cast under the direction of the fabulous Giovanna Sardelli. What has the rehearsal process been like?
It’s been this whole new world of what actors are having to experience and be a part of, this world of Zoom. Laurel and Giovanna put together an incredible group of people that just immediately jumped in and started playing, and we ended up finding these cools things and being able to tell the story in a way on Zoom that’s totally different. It’s a different medium, a whole new way of bringing a theatrical event to life. For actors, I think this whole experience with Covid and theaters shutting down kind of [left us] in this place of “How do we create art? How do we move forward?” This was sort of that first safe place to do this kind of thing. It was just invigorating and exciting to be back in a rehearsal room, even if it was a virtual room.
Read more of Katy’s interview here.