every brilliant thing at bowdoin college
NARRATOR: The list began after her first attempt. A list of everything brilliant about the world. Everything worth living for.
Ice cream.
Water fights.
Staying up past your bedtime and being allowed to watch TV.
The color yellow.
Things with stripes.
Rollercoasters.
People falling over.
All things that, at seven, I thought were really good but not necessarily things mum would agree with.
This one-person play follows the narrator as they try to grapple with their mother’s mental illness and attempts to take her own life. At 7, after their mother’s first hospitalization for an attempt, the narrator begins their list, which becomes the backbone for this beautiful play about how we find grace and joy in all the millions of brilliant things that life offers us everyday. Bowdoin College is honored to bring this play to campus as an offering—a chance to come together for communal grieving, shared beauty, and a commitment to making the world a better place by recognizing all the good that is already around us.
I am planning to cast 3-4 actors as the narrator. Rehearsals will be with all four actors, but each actor will perform their version of the show alone. The play is based on improvisation and engaging with the audience—true storytelling theater at its most elemental, and each actor will bring her/their/his own experiences to the process of creating this show. Each actor will have at least one performance on campus (in Wish Theater) and one performance at a site-specific location throughout the community; the purpose is to bring this offering to as many of our community members as possible and to integrate Bowdoin a bit more into our surrounding neighborhoods and cities.