Photos: Go Inside Opening Night of A BRIGHT NEW BOISE at Signature Theatre

Signature Theatre hosted the opening night of Samuel D. Hunter's A Bright New Boise - an acclaimed early play from the MacArthur Fellow and now directed by Oliver Butler. The show marks Hunter's return to Signature for the second play in his Premiere Residency.

Check out photos below!

Opening Night for A Bright New Boise kicked off with a red carpet and pre-reception followed by the performance and official afterparty. The cast -Anna Baryshnikov, Ignacio Diaz-Silverio, Eva Kaminsky, Peter Mark Kendall, and Angus O'Brien- was on hand to walk the red carpet prior to the performance. The evening also convened a host of renowned actors, playwrights, and other notable guests including Dylan and Becky Ann Baker, Teddy Bergman, Mark Brokaw, Juliana Canfield, Martha Clarke, Michael Cyril Creighton, Nilo Cruz, Edmund Donovan, Michael Greif, Miranda Haymon, Greg Hildreth, Marin Ireland, Zainab Jah, Martyna Majok, Pam MacKinnon, Mara Manus, Kristine Nielsen, Estelle Parsons, Heather Simms, Lois Smith, Shaina Taub, Zoe Winters and Harris Yulin who all graced the carpet along with the play's cast, playwright and director.

A Bright New Boise boldly mines themes that would become integral to Hunter's work, particularly the search for divinity and intimacy and the question of how the social and physical architectures of late capitalism create a breeding ground for American zealotry. Will (Peter Mark Kendall) has fled his northern Idaho hometown and found a new community in the artificially bright break room of his new Boise workplace, a Hobby Lobby craft-supply chain store. But there are other reasons he's chosen to make a fresh start for himself in the world of this specific big box store: one recent scandalous tragedy and another from long ago involving a new coworker. Will's presence-the past that sticks to him, the grandiosity of his troubled faith, the weight of his hunger to connect-threatens to throw the sanctuary of the Hobby Lobby ecosystem into chaos. As in A Case for the Existence of God, A Bright New Boise captures a region of Hunter's home state Idaho, a cookie cutter milieu and the contrastingly singular people who inhabit it.

The creative team for A Bright New Boise includes: Wilson Chin (Scenic Design), April M. Hickman (Costume Design), Jen Schriever (Lighting Design), Christopher Darbassie, (Sound Design), Stefania Bulbarella (Projection and Video Design), John Baker (Dramaturg), Caparelliotis Casting (Casting) and Jonno Knust (Props Supervisor).

To post a comment, you must register and login.