INTERVIEW | BRINGING EVERY BRILLIANT THING TO WHIDBEY
We sat down with the team behind Every Brilliant Thing to talk about hope, the healing power of story, and grieving together as a community.
In Conversation with Actor, Billy Tierney, Director, Deana Duncan, and Co-Founder and Co-Director of Healing Circles Langley, Diana Lindsay.
How did this collaboration between Whidbey Island Center for the Arts [WICA] and Healing Circles Langley come about?
DEANA: I try really hard when I pick plays for WICA that I’m thinking about the community and a story that is important, a reason—that there is a why these words now, why this story now—not just what will it make at box office or what actor wants to be in this show. But this one was really, really personal, because a friend of mine last year took his life…I realized that I wasn’t processing it well and I read that there was this play about this…I was really touched by it. I knew it was one of the most personal plays I was ever going to choose, because not only did I want to produce but I wanted to direct it and I wanted to have influence on the impact it could have in the community…The more I started working on it the more I realized that I needed help around the themes, about making sure that I was holding it correctly
I literally look out my window at Healing Circles everyday, that’s just part of my life. And I think about Greg almost every day. I knew I wanted to reach out to Diana and that I wanted to ask Healing Circles to be part of the process. The play didn’t make any sense to me if I didn’t do that—if Healing Circles wasn’t involved…I didn’t want to do this play without them. So we were meeting around something else, having coffee, and I mentioned that I was working on this play and would she be willing to read it to collaborate.
DIANA: Well we’re really delighted that you reached out to us. The themes in this play of what are the conditions that would lead someone to consider suicide? Are they irretractable? Is there something that can be done?...Is there something we can do? You know, we all want to do something, to help someone anchor back into life. WICA held a conversation on mental health and suicide prevention and it was so powerful, and we had many discussions after at Healing Circles on that topic. But we’ve also held many grief circles for those that have been impacted by the suicide of others or by the death of others, and we felt like that’s an important conversation too, because suicide, because of our laws, has to be private—it can’t be with others. The others that surround the person don’t understand why usually, and feel a lot of regret, and have a lot of I wish I could have that they are not given the opportunity to work through. So that can be a lifelong impact, and it felt like that’s important to bring in, and this play is so beautiful with that.
But we’ve also had many conversations about what if choosing to end your life is the best available choice? Because of our work with cancer we brought in End of Life Washington early on to talk about the options that are available for somebody with a clear six months left and two doctors that will verify it. Death with dignity can be a humane way of letting people make that choice. But we’ve talked about how there are so many other situations in life that are equally full of suffering and pain where that’s not an option, dementia being one. And so we felt that that conversation was also an important one.
DEANA: We are doing three separate talks with Healing Circles during the run of the show…and the last one is going to be about end of life choices.
DIANA: So we look forward to being able to look at it in a bigger context.
How about you, Billy?
BILLY: Well, I am an observer of things, and I was here that day that Deana’s friend took his own life. I didn’t know him, but I was with Deana when that was happening and I could tell how much it affected her. For me it's not so much about whether or not I knew a person. I think that all human life is valuable…Then Deana had me read the script. My background is in improvisation and this is going to be my second play, my first one being about three-minutes on stage last summer for Curse of the Starving Class. But when I read the play, even though I’ve not done this before, I couldn’t imagine anyone else doing it. I could see myself in the role…And it's a unique play in that it wholeheartedly invites the audience to the experience. It’s done “in the round”, so everyone sees everyone and it’s done with lights up to some extent—so everyone really sees everyone…it’s an exercise almost, in seeing each other, and having a shared experience that could be at times uncomfortable, at other times is delightful and hilarious. I was really drawn to that.
And that sharing of the experience you spoke of, how do you all feel about the importance of processing something like this as a community, and how do orgs like Healing Circles and WICA work together in helping communities through these types of things?
DEANA: Well that’s the most we can hope for and I think that’s the best work we can do: if WICA can collaborate with Healing Circles in this way then we’re reaching the full potential of what this organization I think was always meant to be and what we’re built to be here for… When we’re having strong conversations and we’re holding community, that speaks directly to our power and purpose, and why we do what we do—not how we do what we do, but why.
DIANA: Rachel [Naomi] Remen says, “We heal best in community.” Francis Weller talks about grieving together as an essential healing need. And really we can’t grieve any other way. After our friend died, we held many circles trying to understand it. Many of our community were very close to him but it was COVID, and we could only [gather] by zoom. One of our poetry circles had gone global during the pandemic…The day after he died, I asked if the circle would be able to help us process. So everybody that knew him from Whidbey had a chance to say how they were feeling, how they were being impacted, and it was very beautiful. And then I just asked the people from elsewhere if they wanted to reflect back, and one of them said, “I am just so moved by what a loving man he was, and how loving your community is. I don’t live in that kind of community.” And a woman from Ireland said, “In Ireland we tell each other two hundred stories about the deceased person, and I’m really honored that I was here for the first, and I would be really honored to be here at the hundred and ninety-ninth telling.” And so, that is what we have to do. We have to tell each other these stories, it’s how we grieve. So I am really happy now that we can get back together in person to continue our process of individual grief and to continue, I feel like, we owe it to him to have the broader conversation.
DEANA: …I think there is real beauty in that: creating space for us to help each other heal. [As you enter the show] …you’re going to walk through hopeful quotes and hopeful conversation, every brilliant thing about how beautiful it is to be on the planet and have this moment, what a gift this lifetime is. So there is great hope in this show, and for me I think there are two things for the community: if somebody is struggling, the reason we’re having Healing Circles there, if they are triggered or need to speak they know there is somebody there that they can speak to and that will help them with that. And that for all of us…all of us know what grief is—that we understand the importance and feel the community.
What are three of your brilliant things that make you happy to be alive?
BILLY: …Off the top of my head I will say number one is breathing. I think that breathing is way more of a brilliant thing than we give it credit for. We’re just like Ah that old thing that happens every moment…but for me breathing is a brilliant thing. I think that watching people grow is a brilliant thing…for me it's my kids, watching my kids grow. But really, truly, it's always been: watching students of mine grow or watching people I perform with or people that I work alongside. Seeing people grow has got to be one of the greatest brilliant things in the world. And then, might as well just for the sake of good measure and sort of an homage to the first brilliant thing I mentioned, I think drinking water is a brilliant thing.
DIANA: I would say singing with family, creating with my grandkids, and walking with my friends in nature.
DEANA: Continuing to see growth in the love with my kids. They’re adults and they’re growing, it’s just getting bigger and bigger, it warms my heart. Time with my mom and dad, cause I know it’s scarce, I know I’m at the end, I recognize the end, and it’s brilliant to recognize it and see it. A life lived towards purpose. I feel really blessed that I’m in a place on the planet, with an education, how privileged I am, to get to do what I love—it’s a brilliant thing to live on purpose.
And I want to just say one thing as a shout out, I think this is a brilliant thing too: I love performers. I think actors are brilliant. And Billy…you bring an authenticity and a wholeheartedness…you bring that like in buckets. And that’s what this audience is going to leave with: they are going to be witness to this man telling a story that he needs to tell, and they are going to be touched by it, they are, I have no doubt. You’re brilliant.
BILLY: I have a hard time accepting compliments, but thank you.
What do you hope the audience and anyone struggling with any of these issues might take away from these performances?
BILLY: I hope people are affected in some way. I hope that some of the…parts of this character’s, this person’s story, cause people to consider their own story…This is just how I look at media in general—that maybe there is something that I can learn from this that helps me in my life. So, I hope that our audiences are open to the experience…I think it’s going to be surprising and maybe emotional for people to be a part of, and I just hope that they leave it feeling some new feelings or being able to address some old feelings that they might have, just from having the experience of watching a show in Zech Hall.
DIANA: I also think it’s very important [to know]—these are times of big upheaval and we’ve just reopened our circle of two program—[that] there is somebody sitting there right now. So if you have a bad day, you can talk to somebody…that feeling of we’re not alone, there’s somebody to talk to, I think that’s really important. I feel in terms of death itself, that there’s been a long standing movement to see it as of course a part of life, but a part of life that we may not have any influence over, and yet sometimes we do…
People have been so generous with me to share their thoughts on end of life, what they’ve observed, [and] when my husband got sick and died just before the pandemic, I could spend his last year really making it as beautiful as possible, up until the moment of his death. I think when we don’t talk about it, we lose those opportunities that we could have to really make every moment of life as beautiful as it can be.
DEANA: Every Brilliant Thing.
DIANA: Yep. Every Brilliant Thing.
Every Brilliant Thing runs April 8-23 at Whidbey Island Center for the Arts.
Tickets and more information available at www.wicaonline.org.
Healing Circles Langley is open once again for in-person drop ins!
Please drop by Monday - Friday from 10:00 am - 2:00 pm for tea and conversation. You can learn more about Healing Circles Langley and their community resources at www.healingcircleslangley.org.