Some Brilliant Things

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In three weeks, Every Brilliant Thing will open at Southern Arc Dance Center, and before then I and Alexis Colon Ortiz — my wonderful star — have to generate hundreds of items to include on the main character’s “brilliant list” of everything in life worth staying alive for. (His mother suffers from depression and suicidal thoughts; as a seven-year-old he creates this list to make her want to stay alive.)

  1. Ice cream

… he starts, and the list continues the rest of his life. There 60+ list items that are mentioned in the script, but the show ends with boxes of other items that producing organizations have to come up with on their own.

I’ve challenged myself to come up with at least twenty items a day to add to the list. Here are some of mine:

  1. Afternoon naps

  2. Getting a postcard in the mail

  3. Art supplies

  4. Seeing a bright yellow American goldfinch feasting on a bright yellow sunflower

  5. Realizing that a pretty high percentage of your social circle are published authors

  6. Peonies

  7. Driving a rural highway with lush forests on either side of the road

  8. A freshly sharpened pencil

  9. Learning to waltz (Right, Alexis?)

  10. Slow-blinking back to a cat

What’s on your list? Go add to the pile at https://bit.ly/TheBrilliantList !

Want even more involvement in the work of Lacuna Group? Come to the information session this Sunday, August 25, 2:00–4:00, at Southern Arc Dance Center to learn about my hopes of finally — after nearly 20 years — getting William Blake’s Inn to its world premiere.