Starbright is showing at The Magnetic Theatre in Asheville, NC May 6-22, 2022!
Starbright is the story of Grace, an astrophysicist who lost her daughter Abby nearly a year ago. As Grace's life spins out of control, Abby appears to her and begins making predictions about the cosmos. Grace must determine if her daughter's appearance is a sign of her dwindling sanity, or proof that there's more to the universe than even she understands.
We reached out to actor Courtney DeGennaro Robinson to find out more about herself and her experience working on this production.
1. Do you relate to your character or to any character in the show? How similar / different are you?
Grace is fiercely intelligent. She's guided by the logical, the sensible, the provable, and she's constantly seeking new information. All of this leads to her being pretty certain that she's almost always right. I won't say I relate to that, but... my husband might say I should.
Grace is also a person who doesn't have a huge social circle, but when she loves someone, she loves deeply and completely. We definitely have that in common.
2. What's your favorite line in the show? Why?
Grace has a brief monologue about the pain of loss that is, without a doubt, one of the most gorgeous and gut wrenching things I've ever read or performed. I won't transcribe the whole line, but anyone who comes to see the show will almost certainly be able to spot it.
There's also a moment where Grace, discussing nebulae and how stars form, says, "The universe never lets anything go to waste." She's speaking in the literal in that moment, but the echoes of the sentiment run deeper. From the perspective of a physicist, looking at grief from that angle, the idea that all the energy and matter that make up ourselves and the people we love cannot be destroyed? It can only change? That's a really beautiful, comforting thing to keep in mind in moments of loss. They're not gone. They're just different now. The universe never lets anything go to waste.
3. What are songs that reflect the mood of this show?
I don't know that I can itemize songs that reflect the show's mood, but I have a few songs that I can share from the playlist I listen to in order to drop into the headspace I need for Grace. Those are:
White Wine in the Sun - Tim Minchin
Painter Song - Norah Jones
Stars - Grace Potter and the Nocturnals
4. Do you believe connecting with those who have passed is possible?
I don't know if I believe that you can literally speak to or reach out to the dead, but I believe that we are all, constantly, becoming memories for every single person we encounter. Hopefully, we live our lives in such a way that when we're gone, we've left a trail of happy memories behind us. And any time we draw on a happy memory of someone we've lost, that loved one is alive again, sparking through our neurons just like they're in front of us. We hear their laughter in our ears, see their smiles in our minds' eye, and feel the warmth of that time we shared. For just a moment, they're with us again. And that's better than nothing.
5. How did you get into theatre?
I've been into theatre for as long as I can remember. A favorite family story (that happened when I was too young to remember) is that I apparently watched Beaches when I was VERY little and fell in love with Bette Midler's burlesque song. So much so that 4 or 5 year old Courtney learned every single word to "Otto Titsling" and would run around the house performing it at the top of her lungs.
As I got older, I found theatre to be a safe space to explore lives vastly different from my own. Every summer was spent in some months-long theatre camp or another (which I will use as an excuse for my excessively pale skin until the day I die). Eventually, my love for the theatre took me to a residential arts conservatory at age 15 where I finished high school with two years of pre-professional theatre training. After that, I made the hard choice to attend an academic institution rather than any of the conservatory colleges that offered me places in their programs, but I've continued to study and perform at every opportunity since.
6. Have you done any research or read any books or listened to any interesting podcasts related to the play's subject matter that you'd recommend?
I've read a lot of books on grief, both in a university setting and independently in the several years since this play was born, but they've all had a far more academic, conceptual approach than a practical, coping-based one, which I found useful in exploring different possible manifestations of loss. It's easy to imagine that grief is all rending of garments and wailing uncontrollably, but it's almost always more layered and complex than that. A theoretical understanding of all the ways that grief can appear in the body and psyche of a person has been helpful in creating a character who, hopefully, has nuance and depth.
Biography
Courtney DeGennaro Robinson (Grace) is delighted to return to the Magnetic stage with Starbright. She most recently appeared as Becca in Rabbit Hole (ACT), Grace in the off-Broadway production of Starbright, Ricky Roma in Glengarry Glen Ross (DSPAC), and Sam Fried in Coyote on a Fence (DSPAC).
She would like to thank her husband, Sean David Robinson, for being her wild genius and writing brilliant roles for women. She also owes endless gratitude to her parents, Paul and Debi, for teaching her firsthand the universe-traversing depths of love between parent and child.
Grab your tickets to Starbright here: https://app.arts-people.com/index.php?show=132323