Alysia Reiner said Friday she was on a Zoom call with other activists when a South Coast Repertory director realized she would be perfect for the part of the company’s new play.
“When they offered me this job I didn’t know how they found me until I got here,” Reiner said of being cast in “You Are Cordially Invited to the End of the World!” which begins in previews Saturday and opens April 11.
Reiner, best known for playing Warden Natalie “Fig” Figueroa in the Netflix women’s prison comedy-drama “Orange Is the New Black,” said she was told, “They’d done a bunch of workshops and hadn’t found someone right for this role, and what I found out was the director (Zi Alikhan) was on that Zoom.”
Typically, a celebrity is picked to kick off those types of calls to activists, she said.
“A lot of times they have a celebrity start the Zoom and do a stump speech,” she said. “I was doing one of those and the director saw me and thought, `Oh my God, what about Alysia Reiner? He was a huge fan of “Orange.” So he texted the writer (Keiko Green) and she said yes and then they offered me the job.”
It was a first for Reiner, she said.
Reiner, who is active in raising awareness and funding for cancer research and environmentalism, said the play covers both causes for her.
The main character, Greg (Joel de la Fuentes) is diagnosed with a terminal illness and decides that to save himself he also needs to save the planet. His wife, Viv (Reiner), meanwhile is more focused on spending time with her husband in his waning days.
“This play moved me more than any piece of art I’ve read in I can’t remember how long,” Reiner said.
“I lost my dad to cancer at 55,” she said. “And my husband (actor David Alan Basche) just hit 55 so this is very resonant. And it’s about our dying planet, and it’s about gender and our relationship to gender.”
Reiner said she thinks a lot about what she can do for the cause of combating climate change. She said that even as a child she’d watch the toilet flush and worry about wasting water.
“I was talking to a friend about this project and the question I ask myself a lot is am I doing enough,” she said. “Is this play enough? Is this play important?
“And why is doing a play important and my friend said if doing a play weren’t important then why did (President Donald) Trump just take over the Kennedy Center? And I do believe in this moment our artists have outrageous power. That’s part of the human condition.”
Reiner said to advance the cause and awareness of climate change the strategy must veer more toward encouraging people to do what they can instead of frightening them with a dystopian vision.
“Telling stories that are based on massive fear have not been working,” she said. “I think community is a huge piece of the puzzle around activism and environmentalism. I think making people feel hopeless about the environment won’t help empowering people and making them think what they can do on a personal level and how they can support it will help.”
Reiner said she got her start in the theater, so “It’s nice to be home that way.”
She’s also excited about starring in Green’s play, which has been nominated for the prestigious Susan Smith Blackburn Prize.
“It’s really amazing,” she said. “It’s a new playwright so you feel it. She’s an It Girl.”