Morning Star Productions Marketing Director Mary Atwood (who also acts in and directs some this Bible-based theater company’s shows) describes Morning Star’s self-styled mission to “bring quality plays to our communities that imitate Jesus’ storytelling” and provide theatergoers with “exciting and spiritually uplifting” shows. One such show is their next production, Matthew Edison’s The Domino Heart, which will run Sept. 29 through Oct. 8.
Where does Morning Star get its actors, set designers, costumers, directors and so forth?
We have a network of people, and we work closely with Acacia Theater, which was founded by our artistic director, Alan Atwood.
Besides your shows at Eastbrook Church, does Morning Star do anything else anywhere else?
Oh yes indeed! We are very excited about our interactive plays, which are at different venues. We performed… at a Lake Drive mansion and [perform] Bible Smugglers this fall… on a course in the woods behind Wooded Hills Church in Colgate—just west of Menomonee Falls. This event is like an escape game, a video game and an interactive theater experience at the same time. We will also be offering a production of It’s a Wonderful Life in December, venue TBA.
Can you share some information about The Domino Heart?
The Domino Heart is a play about three characters struggling to make sense of an increasingly unstable and uncertain world. There is a “domino” effect in the lives of each of them. Cara relates her affair, which caused the heartbreak in her marriage, which caused... did it cause the accident which caused her husband’s heart to become an organ donation? Mortimer, the passionate priest, and Leo, the young Hispanic marketing executive, both need a new lease on life; they need new hearts. All three characters are connected—even though they never meet.
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The style of the play is monologues from the heart, from the gut, raw, honest and heart-wrenching.
I believe there is some kind of tie-in with this particular show and organ donation?
Yes, we are partnering with Wisconsin Donor Network [by] providing lobby presence for their literature and sign-up opportunities. Volunteers from the organization, who have been touched by the experience of organ donation, will be involved in our talkbacks after each show and available for audience questions.
