Olivia Rose Barresi and Greg Cuellar in the world premiere production of INITIATIVE by Else Went and directed by Emma Rosa Went.
Joan Marcus/Courtesy of The Public Theater
Greg Cuellar, director Emma Rosa Went, Olivia Rose Barresi, and Andrea Lopez Alvarez in rehearsal for the world premiere production of INITIATIVE by Else Went.
Joan Marcus/Courtesy of The Public Theater
Olivia Rose Barresi in the world premiere production of INITIATIVE by Else Went and directed by Emma Rosa Went.
Joan Marcus/Courtesy of The Public Theater
Olivia Rose Barresi and Greg Cuellar in the world premiere production of INITIATIVE by Else Went
and directed by Emma Rosa Went.
Joan Marcus/Courtesy of The Public Theater
GREENWICH — When their daughter, Olivia, first told them wanted to be a working actress, Mary Barresi said she and her husband tried to talk her out of it.
Her husband, Guy Barresi, who retired from film post-production and lives in Greenwich, said it was a difficult industry to be in.
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“It’s the worry of going from job to job and waiting and looking for the next thing, and also having to be competitive against your peers,” Guy Barresi said. “It’s a struggle.”
The parents’ worry turned into full support, though, Olivia Barresi, who graduated from Greenwich High School in 2009, went to college for theater and was later admitted to the master’s program at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Arts.
Barresi now has a lead role in the play, “Initiative” at The Public Theater in New York City, the same theater where Hamilton was first shown. “Initiative” has received Broadway interest and on Nov. 24, its playwright Else Went, was nominated for the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize, the oldest playwriting prize for women writers in English-speaking theater.
The winner will be announced at the Royal Court Theatre in London in February.
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“It is exciting to think of the possibilities that there are people who are as touched by this play as we are who might want to give it some more time at a place further Uptown in Manhattan,” Olivia Barresi said.
“Initiative” is a “bittersweet reflection on adolescence” that follows the lives of seven teens from 2000 to 2004, according to The Public Theater’s website. The show runs until Dec. 7.
Before the Olivia Barresi performed in the same space as Lin-Manuel Miranda, she got her start in acting in a fifth-grade production of William Shakespeare’s Comedy of Errors playing Luciana.
“Not a play one would do with fifth graders,” she joked.
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The eventual actress had tried a lot of different artistic pursuits, such as poetry and music. She said she landed on acting because it let her “wear a lot of hats and express myself in a lot of different colors.”
“I just realized quite quickly that acting was a way that I could share stories and reach people, but do so in a variety of different ways,” Olivia Barresi said.
She went on to get her Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from Boston University and her Masters of Fine Arts from London Academy of the Dramatic Arts, where she studied Shakespeare.
Olivia Barresi met Went on a previous audition for one of Went’s shows. The pair became best friends and so when Went started working on “Initiative” with their wife about nine years ago, when it was then known as “Saving Throw,” Olivia Barresi became one of the original performers.
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Olivia Barresi plays Clara, who she said is an overachiever and “at first seems like the goody two shoes.” She also played the character in the show’s earlier iterations and said she had a chance to “let my impulses affect the role.”
“(Clara is) the person who is so open hearted that what is going on in her life, but also in the world around her, really affects her, and is the person that wants to do good and believe in good, even when it seems like the world around her is falling apart,” Olivia Barresi said.
The character is unashamed to tell others exactly what she thought, which presented a challenge for Olivia Barresi to depict the character since she was “much more embarrassed to share of myself” at that age.
“The beautiful thing about Clara is that she shows up in the play not knowing that she should be embarrassed about anything yet,” she said. “That practice has been a really amazing one and a really beautiful one to show up in this play as a young person, as a young girl, entirely open and entirely standing in herself.”
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Olivia Barresi said she hoped the play can inspire people to look back on their teenage years and reexamine them, both the “good things and the ugly things about them.” She said those years are more important than people give them credit for.
Her mother, a retired high school teacher, said the play was “so believable.”
“It’s gritty, it’s innocent, it’s hard, it’s happy and silly, and it’s heartbreaking, and it’s everything,” Mary Barresi said. “You’ll relive high school and some of the stuff we’ve been through.”
One of the “big tasks” of performing as Clara, Olivia Barresi said, was “going through a journey where the light of hope flickers out a little bit, but then gets born again.” She said she has sometimes thought back to some of the things Clara says in the play “that are reflective of her need to keep going.”
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Those words and a support system of family, friends and her fiancé have helped her through rough spots in her career when she might be doubting herself. They would tell her they know it’s tough but encouraged her to believe in herself and to keep acting for those who supported her for so long.
“It has been really important to remember, even in times when I don’t know what my next job is going to be, that it is worth it to put yourself on the line for your art and for yourself and for the people around you,” Olivia Barresi said.