The New Canon Theater Company has only been around a year and was founded to present new plays and classics reimagined in new settings or new time periods. The Company’s latest play, Finding Chase, opening this week, is a world premiere that deals with love, loss and redemption.
Note: This story deals with the subject of suicide.
On a summer evening in Pacific Grove, actors gather in a modest rehearsal space. It’s a simple white room with wood floors. There’s a couch in the middle of the room, which is the central set piece for Finding Chase, a new original play which opens Thursday night, put on by New Canon Theatre company.
C. Wright, the play’s writer and director, stands directly across from the couch, in front of what looks like a music stand with notes on it. He’s giving feedback to two of the actors, who are seated on the couch.
The play begins not long after the title character, Chase, has taken his own life. He leaves behind Glen, his partner of eight years, and his father, Martin, who was his hero. Chase also leaves behind a note with a very specific wish: that his partner and dad spend time together, even though the two have never met. When they do meet, tensions rise when their feelings about each other are exposed.
Jonathan Bangs plays Glen, Chase’s widower.
“I love the complexity of it. I love the storyline,” he said. “I just love the way that these characters are there for each other. Everyone fills each other up the way that it’s written.”
The writing is compelling in part because Wright loosely based the play on his own life.
“If I died, what would people discover about me?” he asked. “Would this side go, ‘oh I knew about this, but I didn’t know about that.’ And would the other side go, ‘oh, we knew about that, but we didn’t know about all this.’”
Wright says that while the play does deal with suicide, it’s not about suicide.
“It’s more about what happens in a person’s life — what you don’t know about an individual,” he said. “The play is actually begging the question, ‘is one person’s love greater than the other?’ You have a dad who’s poured his life into his kid, and they’re best friends. But then you also have this individual who he’s chosen and built a life with. Whose love is greater?”
Finding Chase is part of New Canon Theatre’s Lab program, which takes up-and-coming playwrights like C. Wright and puts their work out into the world. Justin Gordon is the New Canon Theater Company’s artistic director.
“We chose Finding Chase because at its core, it is just a deeply human, beautiful story,” Gordon said. “It’s elegantly written.”
He adds that while the play’s subject matter — suicide and the ripple effects that it has on the surviving loved ones — is very heavy, “there is a light, and there is a warmth, and there’s hope. It is an extremely hopeful piece, and that’s what drew us in.”
Justine Stock, managing director of New Canon Theatre Co., adds that plays like Finding Chase are more important than ever.
“It’s critical for modern day theater to foster new plays, new playwrights, new voices in order to keep theater alive and healthy,” she said. “And we are, I think, the first professional local theater company that is doing a BIPOC and LGBTQ+ -themed show — an original play. So, it’s really special.”
And while the themes and identities in Finding Chase are specific to his life, Wright says that the overall message is universal enough to appeal to everyone.
“I’m hoping that when people come to see this show, that they actually see themselves or see an aspect of themselves or somebody they know and not necessarily change, but see a perspective that they haven’t necessarily seen before. And maybe that will lead to change.“
Finding Chase plays July 27th through August 5th at Carmel High School’s performing arts center. New Canon Theater Co. is one of KAZU’s many underwriters.
If you or someone you know is dealing with thoughts or feelings of suicide, there is help available by calling 9-8-8 the suicide and crisis lifeline.