The Phillips’ Mill Community Association’s drama program takes special pride in working with and encouraging new voices in theater. Begun in 2018, its Premiere Showcase series does just that, choosing a dramatic work that has yet to be produced on stage and giving the playwright the opportunity to cast their production and present it to live audiences on the Phillips’ Mill stage.
On July 14 - 17, “Bleeding in Black & White,” written and directed by Solebury resident Rick Goodwin, will have its world premiere at the Mill in a fully-staged production – think props, lighting and sound, costumes, scenery and actors. “It’s worth gold to the playwright,” says Valerie Eastburn, chair of the PMCA Drama Committee. “Each year the Drama Committee selects one show. It’s a great opportunity for the playwright to be able to see, firsthand, how an audience reacts, and make adjustments as needed.”
The play is set in the spring of 1999 after a piece of a failed satellite has crashed through the roof of the Kayle home in rural Pennsylvania. As a result of the freak accident, Michael Kayle, an HIV-positive hemophiliac living with his mother, sister and grandmother, meets a man who may be his salvation – but only if he can reckon with a past tragedy that has plagued him for more than 15 years.
Michael’s struggle to move forward and embrace the possibility of love, not only puts him into emotional free fall, it reopens old wounds that could tear the whole family apart.
“In the 1980s, I met a woman who had two sons and a grandson who were hemophiliacs and, ultimately, HIV positive from receiving tainted clotting factor,” explains Goodwin. “Over a short span of time, one of the sons and the grandson died of AIDS. Their story was the spark that inspired me to write what eventually became ‘Bleeding in Black & White.’
Goodwin continues, “Combining reality with dreams and memory, the play explores the importance of love and family, biological and otherwise, in helping people move forward in the shadow of unspeakable grief.” “Bleeding in Black and White” deftly weaves those elements into a beautifully crafted work.
Though “Bleeding in Black & White” takes place in 1999, many of the characters in the play are still trying to come to terms with events that took place in the early days of the AIDS crisis in the early 1980s. “I was a gay man living in New York City when AIDS first appeared,” says Goodwin. “It was a very frightening time, and to this day I remember the absolute terror I felt waiting for the results of my first AIDS test. Death was a constant, and those who viewed the disease as God’s revenge weren’t helping matters any. The fear and sadness from the time certainly had an impact on what I have written, though I believe the play ultimately is both positive and uplifting.”
A decade in the works, Goodwin’s play has had several table-reads in the area, one of which was attended by members of the Phillips’ Mill Drama Committee. They quickly decided to offer Goodwin the opportunity to premiere his play on the stage at Phillips’ Mill. Originally planned as a Summer 2020 production, Covid intervened. “I am now in rehearsal with an amazing cast,” says Goodwin, “and finally getting to see what’s been in my head (and on my laptop!) for so many years take shape on the stage. It is even more gratifying than I imagined.”
The Phillips’ Mill Community Association, renowned for its support of artists and photographers, has broadened its scope to include new work by area playwrights with its Premiere Showcase and Emerging Playwrights programs. Goodwin is excited about his upcoming production but says, “I think the story here is bigger than the play itself. It’s the commitment Phillips’ Mill has made to showcasing new work by local writers. There is certainly an abundance of community theater in the area; what’s rare is the production of engaging new works by area writers making it to local stages. The Mill is trying to change that.”
Goodwin is also the executive producer of “Bleeding in Black & White” and is deeply involved in the New Hope theater community. He is active in the Phillips’ Mill’s Emerging Playwright Competition and Spring Cabaret productions, is a board member of the nascent New Hope Repertory Company and a founding member of Playwrights’ Bridge, an organization of playwrights in the New Hope/Lambertville area. Recently retired from a nearly 40-year career in publishing, he is now focusing his creative energies on writing and directing for the theater.
He has degrees in both theater and the oral interpretation of literature from Northwestern University and was an actor, director and producer off- and off-off Broadway before beginning his publishing career.
“Bleeding in Black & White” by Rick Goodwin, a World Premiere at Phillips’ Mill Community Association, 2619 River Road, New Hope. July 14, 15 and 16 at 8 p.m.; July 17 at 2 p.m. Tickets $30; $25 for PMCA Members; available at phillipsmill.org. (Please note that there is mature language and content in the play.)
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