Bright Boys
by Blake Hackler
Directed by Jake Nice
Streaming April 21-25, 2021
Synopsis:
Baptist minister Peter unwittingly exposes his family’s darkest secrets after he welcomes a young drifter into their home. When their teenage son learns the truth about his parents, Peter and his wife Sondra must confront their own shortcomings and keep their lives from going up in flames.
“Bright Boys is the third in a trilogy which includes This Sweet Affliction and The Necessities, seen at Second Thought Theatre in 2017. All three plays explore how people cope with tragedy - how tragedy can reshape and redirect a life. Inspired by a true story of a spate of church burnings in East Texas, the play asks what happens when the compromises we've made, both conscious and unconscious, can no longer be born. As in so many plays, movies, and stories, a stranger comes to town and things change. But the stranger in Bright Boys... well, he might be a little different..."
- Blake Hackler on his inspiration for Bright Boys
Cast:
Jennifer Kuenzer - Sondra
Matt Lyle - Peter
Marcus Piñon - John
Brady White - Matt
Notes from Director Jake Nice:
Blake Hackler was my sophomore year acting professor at SMU (even though he gave my final essay on Brechtian acting technique a perfect score, I barely passed his class). I was flattered when he asked me to serve as his assistant director on the mainstage show the following year, and I went on to assist him once more before graduation.
After college I assisted Blake on productions with Second Thought and Undermain. When I started receiving directing offers around DFW I asked Blake if he had been writing anything and he sent me Bright Boys. It has been remarkable to watch Blake develop the play from what it was then into its current shape!
Having grown up in the Christian church myself, Bright Boys feels uncomfortably familiar. I recognize parts of myself in each of the characters -- a testament to both the writing and the actors’ performances -- in Matt’s anger, Peter’s shame, Sondra’s restlessness, John’s curiosity...
To Blake, the cast, and Undermain: thank you for for the chance to tell this story in a new medium.
May your fire burn bright.