Opening Right Stories

Eunice Wong

Actor and Audiobook Narrator from Central New Jersey

Theatre is an empathy machine. It expands your world beyond your own life and makes you ask, What is it like to be someone else? Who might I have been if things had been changed in my life? A lot of problems in our world today could be solved by more compassion and more empathy. That’s why we need theatre.

New Jersey is my home, and theatre is one of the most important things in my life, and I want it to be strong and thriving in my home! I want theatre to thrive everywhere because we all need it. We’re nourished by the stories we tell each other; our worlds open up; we start to make sense of our own lives by connecting them with others.

It sounds like a small thing, but I’m really looking forward to the moment when I’m sitting with my family in the audience pre-show, and the lights go down, and we’re all sitting there together with the rest of the audience in the cool darkness, waiting for the show to begin. That feeling of openness and receiving.

It will be incredibly emotional to return to live theatre. I posted a picture on social media of me recently, grinning like a kid on Christmas when I first got to go back to a professional studio to record an audiobook. A friend responded, “Look at that smile!” and I said, “The next step up will be the tears of joy I’ll be ugly-crying when I get back into a theatre!”