Solebury Playwright

NEW HOPE, Pa. — As part of its Premiere Showcase series, the Phillips' Mill Community Association's drama program presents "Bleeding Black & White," a play written and directed by Solebury playwright Rick Goodwin.

The play will have its world premiere at the Mill in a fully-staged production from July 14 to 17.

The Phillips' Mill 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.

“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.”

Goodwin's 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,” explained 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."

A decade in the works, Goodwin says, “I am now in rehearsal with an amazing cast, 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 said he 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 deeply involved in the New Hope theater community. 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.

Goodwin's play, “Home Smarts,” was seen at the Manhattan Repertory Theatre in 2018. His one-acts, “Uncommon Ground” and “Socially Active,” were part of the “New Voices” Festival at the Bucks County Playhouse in 2015 and 2016. And in January of this year, he directed “Reckonings in New Hope” by Chris Canaan for the ActorsNET of Bucks County.

Onstage, Goodwin has appeared in numerous play readings in Bucks County, in Phillips' Mill's Spring Cabaret, and he appeared as the writer in Chris Canaan’s “Writer’s Block”, Phillips’ Mill's inaugural Premiere Showcase production in 2018. He is also a member of the Dramatists Guild.

Goodwin says he is looking forward to seeing “Bleeding in Black and White” on the stage at Phillips’ Mill. “In the end, this is not a story about AIDs or hemophilia. It is about the healing power of love and family in overcoming grief and helping us find a way forward.”

"Bleeding in Black & White" by Rick Goodwin, a World Premiere at Phillips' Mill Community Association, 2619 River Road, New Hope, is on stage July 14, 15 and 16 at 8 p.m. and July 17 at 2 p.m. Tickets are $30 or $25 for PMCA members. They are available at https://www.phillipsmill.org/event/premiere-showcase-bleeding-in-black-and-white. (Please note that there is mature language and content in the play.)

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