Meet the Director: Every Brilliant Thing’s Sydney Parks Smith
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Our Brilliant Director: Sydney Parks Smith
Opening weekend for Every Brilliant Thing has come and gone and there are only few seats available for the remaining run of the production. Being a busy bee is no new concept for Sydney, and it shows with how much she is involved with OpenStage alone! Sydney started working with OpenStage around 1997 and has been a dedicated company member since. Last season, she played M’Lynn in Steel Magnolias, Beatrice in Much Ado About Nothing, and Directed Avenue Q. This season, Sydney has become the Producing Artistic Director for OpenStage and directed our season opener. We got the chance to chat with Sydney about Every Brilliant Thing, and here’s what she had to say:
Every Brilliant Thing
By Duncan MacMillan, with Jonny Donahoe
Directed by Sydney Parks Smith
September 27 – October 19, 2019
“One of the funniest plays you’ll ever see about depression.” -The Guardian
1. Ice cream. 2. Water fights. 3. Staying up past your bedtime. 4. Things with stripes. 5. People falling over. Every Brilliant Thing is a one-woman tour-de-forceabout a child’s fierce, flawed attempt to make sense of adult unhappiness by creating a list of everything that makes life worth living. As we follow the child to adulthood, the list becomes a touchstone that shines a gentle theatrical light on the way sweetness and sorrow are both magnified by tragedy. Exceptionally warm, unflinchingly honest and gloriously funny, this jazz-inspired story captures the irrepressible resilience of the human spirit and the capacity to find delight in the everyday.
Debut Theatre – 827 Riverside Ave