Sunlight
By Sharr White
Directed by Jasson Minadakis
Originally produced at Marin Theatre Company, Mill Valley, CA.
January 26,2010 through February 14, 2010
About the Premiere Production: Sunlight is a gripping political/family drama that centers on Matthew Gibbon, a dynamic, liberal University president, who is threatened with a “no confidence” vote after he destroys the office of the Law School Dean, who is also his son-in-law. The Dean, Vincent, has become the primary opinion writer for the government’s expansion of interrogation practices after his wife, Matthew’s daughter, nearly dies in the World Trade Center on September 11. Since then, the Law School has become a hotbed of Conservative legal thought. Unwilling to see his principles challenged, Matthew declares his own personal war against Vincent that threatens to destroy not only his career, but also the university and his daughter.
Artistic Statement: We are committed to developing and premiering new American plays that initiate important social and political dialogue between our theatre and our community. Sharr White’s Sunlight fits perfectly into that commitment. I am excited about producing Sunlight because the play uses the backdrop of a family in crisis to engage in a discussion of politics and morality that is poignant and viciously relevant in today’s political environment. The play provides a platform for intelligent, engaged debate on issues central to the American experience, including morality, justice, ambition, and responsibility to family, community and country. It is a debate that rages over dinner tables, in town halls, on campuses and in courtrooms. Sunlight presents those debates, distilled and overlapping in a complicated real-time situation pitting old guard against new blood, and fracturing once intimate relationships through differences of opinion and a changing national and international political landscape. I look forward to the ways in which Sunlight will engage MTC’s audiences in these vitally important discussions.
Director: Jasson Minadakis
Set Design: John Wilson
Lighting Design: Mike Palumbo
Sound Design: Chris Houston
Costume Design: Callie Floor
Dramaturg: Margot Melcon
Props Artisan: Seren Helday
Casting Director: Meg Pearson
Production Manager: Jennifer Gadda
Cast: Charles Dean, Wanda McCaddon, Carrie Paff, Kevin Rolston
Subsequent Productions: National New Play Network performances at Marin Theatre Company,Mill Valley, CA, New Jersey Repertory Company, Long Branch, NJ, Phoenix Theatre, Indianapolis, IN.
News
Sunlight received The 2009 Sky Cooper New American Play Prize
-from BroadwayWorld, March 20, 2009.
Additional Funders:
The National New Play Network
The Flora and William Hewlett Foundation
The San Francisco Foundation
The Shubert Foundation
The Ben and A. Jess Shenson Foundation (student matinees)
Pending:
The Phyllis Wattis Foundation
National Endowment for the Arts