Artistic Director Erin Brindley Spills the T about the Adorable Peach.
The first question is always “Is that her real name?”
Really, what’s a real name? Don’t the ones we give ourselves count as real names these days?
But I know what they mean.
Did Opal’s mom and dad name her Opal Peachey?
Yes. Yes, they did.
And like her namesake she has sparkled from the moment her bike punk vibe entered our circus tent and across our radar as she, fresh out of Cornish, took the helm of Circus Contraption’s final show in the role of…Stage Manager.
Opal was organized, professional, and serious which belied her infectiously charming, deeply dimpled baby face.
She was, by far, the youngest among us but already powerful.
As Circus Contraption ended and Nordo was born, Terry, Nordo’s co-founder and resident playwright, was so captured by Opal’s gorgeous (and deeply peculiar) spirit that he wrote a role for her in our first post-circus project, an avante garde pop-up restaurant.
And he never stopped writing for her, as she transformed before our eyes from a tattooed punk in ladybug bike helmet, so nervous to talk to us her hands trembled, to a bonafide chanteuse moonlighting as a host at The Pink Door.
The characters Terry has written for Opal to play: a sous chef, a widow driven mad by grief, a jilted lover, a genetic engineer, a Zelda Fitzgerald type, the daughter of Nordo, the ex-wife of Nordo, a Russian spy, an old-west saloon owner, a dream scientist from the future, a ghost-bride-bellhop, the monster that personifies the Fear of Failure, and a little dolly who gets all her hair cut off.
While Opal was putting on a thousand different wigs and serving a hundred different cocktails at Nordo, she was cutting her teeth as a producer and writer in her own right.
She co-wrote, with producer, crooner, and raconteur Mark Siano, three shows that sold out The Triple Door including Bohemia which has plans for a European tour.
And she brought her most ambitious idea to us. A full-blown original musical in Nordo’s signature style, integrating food and drink into the performance, about the Widows of Champagne. It’s a thrillingly feminist story based on the history of the most celebratory of spirits. Opal cast herself not as the star, Veuve Cliquot, but as the “spirit of champagne”, a fizzy, funny, more than meets the eye special guest in Champagne Widow which debuted to sold out houses at Nordo in 2019.
There is, of course, always the behind the scenes. True to when we first met Opal, she has worked seriously and tirelessly beside us to grow Nordo from a weird pop-up to a Seattle institution. Serving wine, doing our social media, and her best behind the scenes role, “Adorable Member Concierge,” she seems to know everyone who has darkened our doorway more than once. Over the pandemic, she and our Sous Chef Christian created her little twin, a big, dimpled baby boy named Hero who just started to walk this week. And she is documenting this singular experience in her brilliant blog, The Artist Mama.
She has believed in the vision of Nordo even when we did not, never flagging in her relentless positivity. And somewhere along the way, she went from being my younger mentee to my colleague.
Isn’t time funny? She seemed so young when we met…her just out of college and me running a company. After working together for the better part of 15 years, the space between us has evaporated. We’ve grown and changed together. Heartbreaks, grief, life, death, birth, and reinvention. The lifespan of Nordo has been a lifetime.
After Bohemias and pandemics and childbirth and so much life, it’s time for Opal Peachey to come home to the Nordo stage. She will play two roles in Down the Rabbit Hole this summer, (two rabbits, as it happens,) doing that thing she does best and surprising us all as The White Rabbit, (June 16-27) and The March Hare (August 11-13).
We welcome back, with great fanfare, founding company member, Adorable Concierge, and Nordo’s Sweetest Gem, Opal Peachey.
