ALWAYS PLENTY OF LIGHT AT THE STARLIGHT ALL-NIGHT DINER Gets World Premiere At Know Theatre

It's just your average night at the Starlight All-Night Diner - coffee, cigarettes, secret longings begging to be confessed, a mysterious comet in the night's sky - you know, the usual.

Overnight janitor Sam and her very pregnant compatriot, late-night waitress Jessa, are passing the time polishing the fixtures and polishing off some coconut cream pie.

But just as Sam is ready to spill her heart, in bursts the frantically brilliant Dr. Moxie and his graduate assistant, Danni, with a revelation that the comet isn't just a pretty celestial event - it's the end of the world as we know it.

Armed with a coffee maker, a backup generator, and a conveniently-timed scientific breakthrough, Dr. Moxie has a plan to get the ladies of his favorite diner out of harm's way.

But of course, even the most brilliant scientist can't account for every variable...

In this charmingly queer love story, the stakes are more than life-and-death - they're life-or-extinction. Previously workshopped at New York's Fresh Fruit Festival in 2016, Darcy Parker Bruce's Always Plenty of Light at the Starlight All Night Diner is a world premiere adventure story about finding hope and connection in the face of insurmountable odds.

Know Theatre's own Community Relations Manager Alice Flanders returns to the director's chair after 2018's hit comedy Marian, or the True Tale of Robin Hood by Adam Szymkowicz. And she has assembled a cast of some of Cincinnati's brightest stars to breathe life into the Starlight:

Leah Strasser returns to the Know MainStage, after her unforgettable turn as Alanna Dale in 2018's Marian..., as the very pregnant, very conflicted Jessa; whose friendship with overnight janitor Sam is...complicated. Played by Lormarev Jones, fresh from her onstage adventures at The Carnegie in Hunchback of Notre Dame and Dreamgirls, Sam has a lot more emotional baggage than she can fit in her trusty pick-up truck - and even more devotion to Jessa.

The one and only Michael Burnham, whose production of Corpus Christi in 2003 made the Know just a little bit infamous, joins us onstage for the first time since 2010 as Dr. Moxie, whose devotion to the Starlight diner, its denizens, and its coffee is exceeded only by his hunger for scientific knowledge (and his desire to survive the apocalypse).

And making her Know Theatre MainStage debut as his beleaguered but optimistic graduate assistant Danni is Maggie Cramer, who comes to us after spending a season with our neighbors at Ensemble Theatre as part of their apprentice company.

What can you expect from Always Plenty of Light at the Starlight All-Night Diner?

Witty banter, rich relationships, tender moments, wacky antics, lesbian love stories. And maybe a dinosaur. Producing Artistic Director Andrew Hungerford chose this play to carry us through the February doldrums because:

At its core, Starlight is about people who love each other coming together in a time of darkness to confront the impossible. Who and what do we rely on when we run out of road? Clearly the answers are, in no particular order: friends, love, coffee, science, and pie. I think that's an important message for everyone to hear in a bleak midwinter.

See what happens when you run out of places (and time) to run from your problems in Always Plenty of Light at the Starlight All-Night Diner by Darcy Parker Bruce, playing February 22 - March 16 at Your Theatrical Playground.