Preview: "Always Plenty of Light at the Starlight All Night Diner"

Press release

NEW BRITAIN...Hole in the Wall Theater presents the Connecticut premiere of Darcy Parker Bruce's play Always Plenty of Light at the Starlight All Night Diner, directed by Matthew Benjamin Horowitz. Performances are August 16, 17, 23, 24, 30 & 31 at 8:00 PM with a matinee August 25 at 3:00 PM at the Hole in the Wall Theater, 116 Main Street, New Britain, CT. Tickets, which are $20 for students/seniors and $25 general admission., can be purchased online at HITW.org or at the door. Follow Hole in the Wall on Facebook and Instagram for event updates.

Always Plenty of Light at the Starlight Diner is a SUPER queer time travel adventure that takes place in a roadside diner on the eve of the end of the world. Everyone is star-crossed in this charming love story set in a world where the stakes are life or extinction. The pies are the best, the coffee is hot, and oh yes dinosaurs, all while Comet Killjoy lights up the nighttime sky.

Playwright Darcy Parker Bruce is a world traveler who calls Connecticut home. They grew up along the shoreline in New Haven and Montville and currently reside in Norwich. Darcy stokes a fierce commitment to opportunities for underrepresented artists and stories in our theaters and schools. The weekend that Always Plenty of Light at the Starlight All Night Diner opens at Hole in the Wall, another one of their plays will be on stage across the Atlantic in Dublin.

This production at Hole in the Wall Theater marks the Connecticut premiere of this popular published work. For the playwright, seeing Starlight performed in their home state is important. When asked about the relevance of live performance Darcy responded, “Theater is a life force to me because theater makes and sustains community. If it weren't for theater, I wouldn't be here. Theater saved me when I was a kid, offering me a safe refuge and a place to connect and explore storytelling. I love that my earliest memories are of being in a group of professionally silly humans.”

Director Matthew Benjamin Horowitz states, "Always Plenty of Light...is the perfect play for a community theater like hole in the wall, where the slogan for 20 years has been 'Always Letting In The Light.' I want everyone who walks into the theater to feel both at home and on another planet. The Starlight begins as a place of nostalgia and yearning. A place where you can get comfortable gnawing on an old wound. then, with no more warning than the time it takes to brew a cup of strong coffee, you are translocated to the actual past which is all new and different. An unfamiliar yesterday, before all the beginnings we thought would never end. They are fragile, the stories we tell, the spaces we inhabit, the bonds we form, they are fragile and must be treated with care. For they are not the means by which we prevent change but the context in which we embrace it. And one thing's for sure: it's going to be different, starting now."

The cast includes Katie Ciurleo as Sam, Mallory Spencer as Jessa, Erin Walsh as Danni, and Robb Ecker as Doctor Moxie. The createive team includes Producer and Intimacy Coordinator Shawna Martine, Stage Manager Jill Dvorsky, Assistant Stage Manager Rachel Kiel, Original Score Ym, Set Design Tony Palmieri, Lighting Design Hilary Lang, Costume Design Stephanie DeMarco, and Executive House Manager Luis Marrero-Solis.