by Norah Vawter

Right to be Forgotten, a timely new play for the digital age written by Sharyn Rothstein and directed by Seema Sueko, is having its world premiere production at Arena Stage, in the Arlene and Robert Kogod Cradle. The play centers around a man’s quest to regain his privacy and control his image on the internet. His adult life has been shaped by a mistake he made in his youth, which was shared online, and then took on a life of its own. The play asks a lot of questions about memory, forgiveness, redemption, and the role of technology in our society.

But it doesn’t give definitive answers. Right to be Forgotten is not about the end of the conversation: it’s about the conversation itself. Guadalupe Campos, who plays Eve, told me, “The play is about being able to listen, and to create dialogue in a world [in which it’s] very easy to go off first impressions or just be really angry, or biased. ...  To be able to listen, to create dialogue and conversation, is something that I think our country desperately needs. ... To be informed about the other person's argument and then form a coherent counter argument is necessary. ... Because we're not all the same. We all have different needs [and] backgrounds. And I think that's something that this play does.”

I was lucky enough to sit down with Campos a couple days before opening night to have a thoughtful conversation that was never about talking points. Like the play, it was a real dialogue, an exchange of ideas and points of view. Campos is originally from El Paso, Texas. She graduated from the University of Texas, El Paso, and got her M.F.A. from the University of Arkansas. She’s lived in D.C. for about two years, and has appeared at The Kennedy Center TYA, Olney Theatre Center, Studio Theatre, Theatre Alliance, Arts on the Horizon, and GALA Hispanic Theatre. She previously appeared at Arena in a much smaller part in the ensemble of Native Gardens. She said that getting the role of Eve in Right to Be Forgotten was a big deal for her: “I was just grateful that they considered me.”

When auditioning for a role, Campos says she’s hoping to find a part in a play that creates this kind of dialogue and conversation. “More so now. I think when I was younger, I just wanted to wear a pretty costume, and be on stage and make people laugh or cry. Certainly now I want to do plays that will affect somebody who's in the audience ... that can tell truthful human stories and that will maybe change the minds of others. When a play comes across that definitely does challenge the audience, I think it's important to do it. And when it challenges [me as an actor and a person].”

Speaking directly about Arena Stage, she said, “It's one of the most prolific theatres in the industry right now, I think. They're producing new plays and classics, and plays at the center of the American struggle, and what it means to live in this country. And so it's really a dream to work here.”

Campos’ character Eve was the victim of Derril—the central character—all those years ago. It wasn’t a crime, and there are differing views from different characters in the play about exactly what happened, how severe it was, and therefore whether Derril deserves a second chance. But the way I see it, when they were both in high school, he accidentally stalked Eve. He had a crush, was socially awkward and didn’t know how to pursue her romantically, and so he followed her to the point that she was afraid and traumatized. When a school official confronted him, he stopped. But the story (and his name) got onto the internet, got shared over and over, and when we meet him in the play, he’s an adult who can’t escape his past, who can’t meet someone new without having them assume he’s a terrible person. This story is timely not only because of the internet privacy issue, but also because it touches on the Me Too movement, specifically the question of whether men who’ve made mistakes and created scandals should be allowed a second chance. If so, which men, and what are the criteria for forgiveness? Eve’s role in the play is pivotal, because she has to decide whether to forgive Derill; she now holds a key to his future.

When I asked what drew her to the role of Eve, Campos said, “Her sense of justice.... I cannot imagine, [but I try] to imagine what it is like to meet with [your] perpetrator, and then have a discussion about it. I can't imagine how many people go through that and are not able to get resolution. Eve gets to ask the question why, like why me? And the answer that he gives is such an honest and simple and unexpected answer. [So] the sense of justice [and search for justice], I think, is what I connected with a lot. I think that lives in me as a person, as a teacher.” Campos goes on to say, “As an actor, I definitely like to do things that connect in some way or another, and the sense of justice is something that I think is really alive for a lot of us right now. This idea of what is justice and what she perceives it to be.”

Speaking more broadly about the social relevance of the play, Campos elaborated, “This search for justice is, I think, alive in so many people right now. I think it's something I wake up with and come [face to face] with in so many ways, in my day to day life. And to do a play that wrestles with that [is something special].”

The title comes from a European Union law. “The Right to be Forgotten” gives EU citizens the right to apply to have links about them taken out of Google’s index. Not everyone is approved, and the information is not deleted, but this process stops the links from showing up in searches and makes damaging information harder to find. But it’s a controversial law, and many in the United States feel like it would be difficult to institute in our country because of possible conflicts with the First Amendment’s right to free speech. The play deals directly with the law, but it’s careful not to come down on one side of the issue.

Campos has not made up her mind about the law. “I'm still wrestling with it. ... It's very hard, because [if it were me] I wouldn't want it to haunt me for the rest of my life. I think I would want some mercy from this world or from the internet. But you know, I'm from El Paso and with the recent shooting ... I very much wanted the entire world to know that this person decided to go to El Paso to do what he did. There's things that I feel very [strongly about people not forgetting]. I'm Mexican-American, the things that Trump said about Mexicans and Mexican men. I don't ever want people to forget that, because he said that, and he is in a place of power. ... I think there are things that just need to be said, and there's a reason why there's history.”

Theatre gives Campos an opportunity to be part of the conversation, and to give back to the community. She is a bilingual teaching artist for Shakespeare Theatre Company and the director of Paso Nuevo, GALA Hispanic Theatre’s after-school program for at-risk youth. “At GALA, our focus is to educate and liberate our students through theatre, helping them write and create their own narratives, thereby empowering them to change both the way they're perceived and the way they perceive themselves. And then create dialogue with the community through that writing. ... Of course, our program is open to everyone, but our space is created for minority students. And it's a bilingual program. I'm very fortunate to work there—all the youth are amazing. And some of them have never even been in a theatre before, so to show them that they too can have a job in theatre and teach them more about backstage and acting and all of that—it's so fantastic.”

Summing up the importance of stage plays in our society, Campos said, “I think theatre is a reflection of the times, just like art. ... Our modern contemporary art is about today. So how do we hold the mirror up to nature, as Hamlet says? How do we do that? I think it's important. It's our job. You know, we're some of the oldest activists.”

Performances run through November 10. 

Running Time: One hour and 35 minutes with no intermission

Tickets may be purchased online at arenastage.org, by phone

at 202-488-3300 or at the Sales Office at 1101 Sixth Street, SW, D.C 

Norah Vawter is DCTrending’s Local Authors editor. She earned her M.F.A. in creative writing from George Mason University. She has published articles, op-eds, and essays on parenting, politics, and lifestyle topics in The Washington Post, OtherWords, Posh Seven, Scary Mommy, JustBE Parenting, among others.