‘Bright’ delivers dark comedy

In the drab break room of a Boise Hobby Lobby store, father and son collide, brothers work to preserve family ties, lost souls pursue their dreams and one man waits for the rapture.

That’s the setup in Samuel D. Hunter’s Obie Award-winning play, “A Bright New Boise,” which is having its Idaho premiere tonight in Moscow.

The play, co-produced by Moscow Art Theatre (Too) and the University of Idaho’s Theater Arts department, centers on Will (Alex Wendel), a disgraced evangelical fleeing from his collapsed North Idaho congregation who goes looking for his estranged son Alex (Hunter Price). Alex and his adopted brother, Leroy (Jonathan Rau), work at the Hobby Lobby, with loudmouthed manager Pauline (Maggie Miller) and the daydreaming Anna (Park Williams). Will takes a job at the store not only to get closer to his son, but to await salvation.

Hunter, a Moscow native who last month won a $625,000 MacArthur fellowship (nicknamed the “genius grant”), wrote the play in 2010. He picked the setting – a Hobby Lobby – because he thought the store had a ridiculous name.

“Most people who saw the play in New York thought I’d made it up,” he said. “I wanted something that was so diametrically opposed to questions of faith and God and the rapture, which is the foundation of the play. I really wanted to put the play in the most banal, quotidian place. The combination of a break room and a place called Hobby Lobby just seemed like such an unlikely place to set questions about faith and spirituality.”

Of course, that was before Hobby Lobby fought against portions of the Affordable Care Act’s birth control provisions for employees, based on the religious views of the corporate owners.

“Then I came to realize they’re a very religious company,” he added.

Rau, who lives in Moscow with his wife, UI acting professor Kelly Quinnett, said he was drawn to the character Leroy right away.

“He’s an artist and he’s rebellious and he likes to push the limits, to make people uncomfortable,” Rau said. “But that doesn’t get in the way of how he feels about this kid (Alex), who he sees as the one pure thing in his life that he can preserve and help to a better future than he had.”

Hunter’s seen “A Bright New Boise” referred to as everything from a heavy drama to a raucous comedy. Rau finds the play squarely in the “dark comedy” realm. He also relishes being part of a new experience for the region’s theater fans.

“I love doing something kind of new and fresh,” he said, adding he thrills at being the first actor to introduce local audiences to Leroy. “People aren’t going to be spoiled by having seen the play before, or the movie version or whatever. It’s cool in that respect.”

While “A Bright New Boise” has been produced 30 or 40 times around the country, Hunter said, this marks the play’s first appearance in Idaho, save for a staged reading at Boise Contemporary Theatre in 2012. It’s also the first time one of Hunter’s plays has been staged in his hometown. For the most part.

“Technically, when I was 16 and 17 years old, I staged some of the first things I ever wrote,” said the 2000 Moscow High School graduate, who did his undergraduate work in playwriting at New York University. “I’d always hoped my plays would get out there somehow. I just wish I could make it out to see it.”

The closest he’ll get is Saturday, when he’s beamed in via video conferencing for a post-show talkback with the audience.

He admits it’s been hard to get back home for the past couple years to see his family because he’s been traveling so much. His hope is that the McArthur grant gives him more opportunity to do so.

“In the best possible circumstance, I’d really love to come to Idaho twice a year,” he said. “It’s been harder recently, so I hope this money sort of changes it all.”