The Department of Theatre held this year’s Cornerstone play, “The Coast Starlight,” written by Keith Bunin on Nov. 14-19. This is only the second official performance of the play and it will debut on Broadway at the Lincoln Center in March 2023. 

Director of the production and senior professor Adam Hester heard about the script through one of his students. Upon reading the script, Hester contacted Bunin’s agent and eventually obtained the rights to produce the show. Even after 40 years in the ACU Theatre Department, Hester said this play presented him with the chance to do something new.

“It has a profundity that is subtle,” Hester said. “It’s not an action-driven play. Instead, you’re watching these characters who are all on this journey struggle together – in their imaginations – to come to terms, eventually with all of their problems.”

The play follows TJ, a marine medic, as he boards the Coast Starlight train. Here he encounters Jane, an aspiring animation filmmaker. As TJ and Jane observe and meet the other four passengers, the audience gets a look in their imagined conversations and confessions.

“The play calls us to really see one another – that there’s this desire, this yearning, for community,” Hester said. “The play also reminds us that everybody is fighting a battle, and so, give the benefit of the doubt.”

Junior musical theatre major from Plano Nouwen Craft, who played Jane, was fascinated with the play’s use of the imaginary. Craft recalls a specific exchange between two of the characters in which one says, ‘I wish I had known that about you,’ and the other responds with, ‘I wish you had too.’ 

“What a hauntingly beautiful example of what we lose when we decide not to engage with those around us,” Craft said.

Rehearsals began immediately after the annual Homecoming musical, giving the cast only 17 rehearsals before showtime. Junior musical theatre major from Austin Ryan Chu, who played TJ, had to be off book by the third rehearsal along with his cast-mates.

“It was an interesting time of combining dialogue, blocking, and also the idea that sometimes we’re not acting ourselves because we’re in another person’s imagination,” Chu said.

In preparing for the role, Chu drew from some of his personal experiences with family and searching for a sense of home. He also researched the psychology of soldiers and war being that his character is between deployments.  

“There are things that soldiers can’t leave,” Chu said. “There should be more importance and thoughts and prayers for them.”

Looking at things from different perspectives is central to the mission of Cornerstone, so “The Coast Starlight” opens the floor for relevant discussions in the classroom. Long time Cornerstone professor and English professor Karen Cukrowski saw the play Nov. 16. 

“We’ve all had that experience of seeing someone and making up a story about them,” Cukrowski said. “I find that anything that challenges us to think about other people, their experiences, is important.”

For photos of ACU’s production of “The Coast Starlight,” and updates on upcoming productions follow @acutheatre.