As performing arts continue to ramp back up, Theatre Workshop Owensboro hopes to have an important conversation with their one-woman show Every Brilliant Thing — but the dialogue will be with the audience.
Every Brilliant Thing will run for the next two weekends and covers topics such suicidal ideation, depression and mental health.
It’s a one-person show that follows the narrator as she ages alongside her mother’s mental health. While there’s only one person on stage, it operates in a way to get the audience involved.
While done from a safe distance, the actress references the audience and helps get them involved in different aspects of the show, playing different people in her life.
“I think it’s been a really effective play to do for the situation that we’re in, and we found some really interesting ways to still engage the audience because it’s very heavy on audience participation, but doing it in a safe way that follows the COVID protocols,” Director Brooklyn Thompson said.
While it deals with heavy topics, Thompson said it’s a comedy at its core.
Even though the show focuses on some dark topics, Thompson said it has been really liberating to be back in the theater and see how excited people are for the show to start. She said many people seem to be fascinated by the fact that the show is a one-person show.
Added to the rarity of a one-person show, Thompson plans to do the show in a fully lit theater, heightening the importance of the conversation.
“It’s a conversation with the lights on and we’re approaching these really harsh difficult topics with an awareness that ‘we’re going to do this together,’ and ‘we’re not alone,’” Thompson said.
The show will run this Nov. 12, 13, 19 and 20 at 7:30 p.m. and Nov. 14 and 18 at 2 p.m. at the Empress Theatre.
