A Bright Room Called Day
By Tony Kushner
February 24–26 & March 3–5 at 7:30 PM
Mainstage Theatre
Checking on the Arts (WKNO)
From Tony and Pulitzer award-winning playwright Tony Kushner comes an epic story that juxtaposes 1985 American socio-politics with 1933 Weimar Germany's descent into Fascism. Before his groundbreaking Angels in America, Kushner's first published play, A Bright Room Called Day, asked audiences to notice the cracks in American democracy by intentionally drawing parallels between events of the Regan presidency and the immediate spiral of Germany's only democracy into authoritarianism. Spanning a period of just over a year, the play primarily dramatizes the effect of the swift rise of the Nazi regime upon a progressive artist's collective--forcing these friends to choose between fighting for their ideals or succumbing to inaction and isolation. The '30s and the '80s conflate through the single voice of a 1985 American activist who has called the past into existence to examine and identify the similarities between the two eras. A Bright Room Called Day asks its audiences to continue the political examination, to notice the cracks, and to “eat something indigestible…and listen to your nightmares.”
PRODUCTION TEAM
Director: JAMIE WARROW
Assistant Director: PATRICK POLSIN
Sound Designer: MICKI MCCORMICK
Lighting Designer: CORINNE FANN
Costume Designer: ALI FILIPOVICH
Scenic Designers: BRIAN RUGGABER
Projections Designer: NAT DEFUSCO
Production Stage Manager: KAYLYN N. NICHOLS
Assistant Stage Manager: ANNA HEFNER
Technical Director: ERICA MARIA CAUSI
Poster Designer: JEN GILLETTE
Costume Shop Manager: KATHLEEN KOVARIK
Paint Charge: NATALIE ERVOLINO
Production Manager: AMY SALERNO HALE
Dramaturge: DONNA SEGUE
CAST
Agnes: RAINA WILLIAMS
Paulinka: AVERY HALL
Gotchling: AXYL LANGFORD
Husz: AUSTIN WALL
Baz: JASPER LANE PIPPIN
Traum/Roland: PERSHON HARPER
Malek: EMILY BARRON
Zillah: ZY PALMER
Die Alte: ANITA JO LENHART
Herr Swetts: MOY HINOJOS/GREGORY BOLLER
Understudy: EMILY SEATVET