(Actress Anna Sosa)
By Jerome Langston
“Every Brilliant Thing is a play that I have seen more often than any other play that I’ve directed,” says Tom Quaintance, the Producing Artistic Director of Virginia Stage Company, during a recent phone chat earlier this week. It’s quite the striking statement from this long-time AD and theatre director, who has obviously seen a whole lot of shows during his decades long career. Tom led VSC’s 2022 production of Every Brilliant Thing, which closed out season 43. Now it’s bringing season 46 to a fitting close, with a short run production on stage at the Wells, that also celebrates its successful touring production — a show that has impacted thousands of people with its over 70 performances.
Following its May 2022 opening here that ran into June, Every Brilliant Thing would soon go on the road, bringing its timely messages centered around mental health, to diverse communities across the East Coast. “Since the run on stage at the Wells, we’ve had a really successful tour,” Tom says. The single performer show has played at military bases, community centers, churches, and corporate spaces. “I would love to say that there’s no longer a need for a show about mental health, depression and suicide. But I think that we need that now more than ever,” adds the director.
“We’re bringing it back to the stage. For anybody who’s seen it out in the community, this will be a little bit more of a technical experience, in terms of some of the bells and whistles that go with it, but really we want to celebrate the success of both the show and these actors, and get an opportunity to do it on stage at the Wells,” says Tom, a bit later. Actors from the touring production will play the “narrator” role for the Wells staging. The tour cast featured actors Laura Agudelo, Greg Dragas, Candunn Jennette, and Anna Sosa.
Premiering in 2013 at the UK’s Ludlow Fringe Festival and later opening off-Broadway at the Barrow Street Theater in December 2014, the one-man show — written by Duncan Macmillan with Jonny Donahoe, starred Jonny Donahoe as the narrator, who recounts his life to the attending audience, who also feature cleverly in the storytelling. The show received a rave review from The New York Times, and in the decade plus since its humble debut, has reportedly enjoyed hundreds of professional productions that have been performed in over 60 countries.
A single actor, tour de force of a role, the narrator (a placeholder name for the sole actor) tells the story from his or her perspective, and leads selected audience members through their portrayals of important characters in the narrator’s life. Back when the remarkable actress, Kathryn Hunter-Williams, chose me as her Sam, during the opening night performance of the show in May of 2022, I was deeply moved to be able to participate in the theatre making. It was a beautiful experience, with paper and words, and laughter… and no intimidating pressure to give a “good” performance for us as audience members. It just requires you to be open.
“The remarkable thing about this piece is that it is different every time,” says Tom. “What’s extraordinary about it, is how the play changes depending upon who plays the Dad, and who is Mrs. Patterson. And what the kind of relationship is that the actor has with this Sam. These moments happen that everyone in the room knows — this is the only time this has ever happened, and I’m experiencing something that is unique to this day and this performance,” he adds. And the stage performance is presented in the round, which creates a communal intimacy between the actor and their audience.
After the 5 performances of Every Brilliant Thing at the Wells, have concluded, attention turns to season 47, which kicks off in September with the fabulous Fats Waller musical, Ain’t Misbehavin’, which won multiple Tonys for its original Broadway run in 1978, including a win for the stunning work of Nell Carter. That season’s opening production will be directed by NSU Theatre’s Anthony Mark Stockard and will be co-produced with the company’s all-new professional series, so the five actors featured will all be professional. Tom has been a part of presenting the musical prior, during his time with the NC theater that he served as artistic director for. He therefore knows the show well and is excited for its VSC debut. Then there’s Kate Hamill’s Emma, based on the Jane Austen novel, which Tom will direct. Wait Until Dark marks the return of playwright and director, Mark Shanahan. We get perhaps a new take on Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, which Billy Bustamante is returning to choreograph and direct.
For me though, I am most excited to experience Malcolm X & Redd Foxx Washing Dishes at Jimmy’s Chicken Shack in Harlem, a new work written by Jonathan Norton, and a co-world premiere. It’s been years since VSC has premiered a new work, so this co-produced premiere, with its fascinating central story — should create quite the local buzz when it premieres next April. And here’s to hoping that its success will serve as a rejection of a renewed, disgustingly racist assault on black American cultural institutions and works of art. The play is scheduled to be directed by Dexter J. Singleton. And before concluding our productive chat, I ask Tom if he has anything to add about this new, limited run of Every Brilliant Thing. “It is a show that I always find inspiration and renewal, in this play that dives into what makes life worth living.”
WANT TO GO?
“Every Brilliant Thing”
Presented by Virginia Stage Company
April 24 – 27
Wells Theatre
