Oakland Theater Project's 2021 Season Returns With EVERY BRILLIANT THING

Oakland Theater Project's ambitious 2021 Season continues with the exciting announcement of its first indoor seated performance back inside the theater with the newly announced one-person show Every Brilliant Thing by Duncan MacMillan and Jonny Donahoe, starring Co-Artistic Director William Hodgson and directed by Executive Co-Artistic Director Michael Socrates Moran.

Oakland Theater Project's production of Every Brilliant Thing is an attempt to address existential questions of life, death, depression, suicide, and love - exploring why we continue living and what we live for in a deft and humorous way that feels congruent with the experiences of living through a pandemic.

The production will be staged in the theater as an in-person production with socially distanced seating at OTP's Oakland Theater at FLAX art & design (1501 Martin Luther King Jr. Way), October 8th - October 31st.

Every Brilliant Thing finds a subtle balance in exploring struggle and celebration, weaving raucous humor and painful loss. Every Brilliant Thing reveals what it is like to be a child of a suicidal mother and the experience of processing grief and fighting for the ones you love. And with a society grappling with loss and isolation in a pandemic, this production not only delves into important questions in a way that allows us to process them and laugh at ourselves but this production also places the actor and audience in a visceral sense of shared space.

Every Brilliant Thing is audience interactive in the gentlest of ways, and after a year and a half of observing theatre through Zoom, it is its own revelation to have an actor interacting with his audience. Through our interactions with the 'Narrator' on his journey - and every brilliant thing worth living for - we undergo our own life affirming journey. At Oakland Theater Project we believe in theater's ability to engage with 'the joyful participation of our sorrows' and can think of no better play than this to encapsulate such joy in such a sorrowful time. Our hope is that this play offers a catharsis, a collective connection back in our theatre, and a gentle experience of hope that transcends all the strife and struggle we've experienced.

"William Hodgson's innate dry humor, wit and comedic timing suit this sensibility of this play perfectly," says director Michael Moran. "It's a joy to get to Direct William again for OTP and to collaborate as Co-Artistic Directors as artists on a project. I think audiences will find joy, relief and catharsis as we return back to indoor theatre with this one-of-a-kind theatrical experience."

Oakland Theater Project has concluded its drive-in theater model and has shifted its season and performances back inside the theater. Oakland Theater Project continues to produce live performances during a pandemic while keeping a strong commitment to safety for our staff and community. With California and Alameda County's new reopening guidelines, Oakland Theater Project's is able to produce theater in a manner in which actor and audience get to share space once again. To promote ongoing safety, audience members will have to provide proof of vaccination or a negative COVID-19 test (within 72 hours) to gain entrance to our theater. Additionally, staff and audiences will be required to wear masks at all times while indoors.

To post a comment, you must register and login.