Photos by Jeff Lorch
Ensemble Theatre Company, Santa Barbara’s only professional theatre company, presents the smash Broadway experience Every Brilliant Thing as part of its 47th “Truth and Illusion” season.
Award-winning theatre and film director Jenny Sullivan directs Nicholas Mongiardo-Cooper as a person creating a list of everything wonderful in the world to help his mother cope with depression. The process evolves into a life-affirming, interactive experience for the audience, asking the question “What makes life worth living?” The audience is invited on a heartwarming journey through life’s highs and lows, discovering joy in the simplest things.
“There may be no more powerful theatrical experience right now than Every Brilliant Thing,” according to ETC executive artistic director Scott Devine. “A single performer, an audience invited to play along, and a list of reasons to keep going—it’s funny, brave, and profoundly human.” The list ranges from Christopher Walken’s voice to the smell of old books to inappropriately timed ABBA songs.
“In a season exploring truth and illusion, few stories feel more truthful, or more necessary, than this one,” Devine says.
Mongiardo-Cooper has dedicated his life to storytelling in character. He has appeared Off-Broadway, in regional theatre, in films and commercials, and on television in Law & Order: SVU, Dying For Sex, Ghosts, and The Connors. He also has performed in concert at the historic Lobero Theatre in Santa Barbara along with his fellow “Lonesome Travelers.”
Performed in the round, Every Brilliant Thing begins previews on June 3, opens on June 6, and runs through June 21 at the New Vic Theatre, 33 Victoria Street in Santa Barbara. The June 3 performance is “Pay-What-You-Can.”