New Light Theatre in Kirkwood presents The White Chip, opening in early March.
The play, by Sean Daniels, is a semi-autobiographical story about a theatre artist struggling with addiction and moving through recovery. Co-director Charlie DelMarcelle says Daniels’s background in theater makes the work even more compelling.
“Sean was a theater maker himself, actually pretty famous at the height of his career,” he says. “So the piece being crafted by someone who's kind of a master playwright and director themselves is fast and funny and insightful and honest.”
Owen Corey, who plays the central character, Steven, says the play’s subject matter drew him to the show.
“Addiction is one of the things that is universal, cuts across boundary lines of race and gender and class,” he says. “And so to have a play that really engages with that in a way that's both deeply theatrical and deeply caring is some of the most exciting material you can touch as an actor.”
New Light’s Artistic Director, Lena Mucchetti, says choosing this work lines up with the company’s mission of “raising awareness and support for organizations that illuminate, and to deepening our empathy and connection with one another through meaningful artistic work.”
“This one was very easy. It's a very short line to read a show that's about recovery and addiction and realize that can make a difference in our community,” she says.
For this show, New Light is partnering with Delaware non-profit atTAcK addiction. Mucchetti says the organization has been deeply involved with the show.
“Part of our proceeds are going to atTAcK addiction,” she says. atTAcK addiction joined our cast and crew for the read-through to give us a little training and insight into what they do so that we can approach this really responsibly and be good allies and advocates moving forward.”
The group will also be engaging in outreach to audiences.
“They're helping us lead some talkbacks for folks who want to unpack things a little more,” Mucchetti says. “We're going to have resources in the lobby for people who want to learn more and hope to get that conversation going because having those conversations can help us prevent those tragedies that they're working to erase.”
Those conversations are important, DelMarcelle says.
“There's no way to move forward to make substantive policy change or learn how to help people more effectively until we can just normalize talking about substance use disorder,” he says.
The White Chip opens on March 6 with a preview night on March 5 at the OperaDelaware studio in Wilmington. Shows run through March 15, with a post-show conversation on March 8 with the cast, crew, and atTAcK addiction and a teen night on March 13.
Delaware Public Media's arts coverage is made possible, in part, by support from the Delaware Division of the Arts, a state agency dedicated to nurturing and supporting the arts in Delaware, in partnership with the National Endowment for the Arts.
