(bright music) - Salt Lake Acting Company's world premiere comedy, "Sunny in the Dark," continues the company's legacy of elevating new theatrical work.

Joining us to tell us more are playwright, Elaine Jarvik, and director, Marion Markham.

Welcome ladies.

- Thank you.

- Thank you.

- So tell me what "Sunny in the Dark" is about.

- Well, the main character is Sunny herself and she's in the dark, sort of literally and figuratively.

She has a lot of questions.

She's 15, going on 16.

She wonders about the universe and God, and especially her own creation story, I guess.

She wonders who her father is and that's what sort of propels her through this play.

And she has some imaginary fathers, including an astrophysicist who I based sort of on Neil deGrasse Tyson, only our astrophysicist is even more of a showman, not a shaman, but showman.

And he's played hilariously by Matthew Ivan Bennett.

- [Liz] Hmm.

What is it like, staging a world premiere, and why SLAC?

- Well, SLAC is an actor-based theater and they do a lot of brave new work, and I think they really should be commended for embracing new playwrights.

Doing a world premier is interesting because you're creating from scratch, and all the information is pretty much in the play, but you do have to add a few things here and there in order to enhance that to make it look realistic, in 3D.

- [Liz] Yeah.

- And thankfully, we have some great actors who are very inventive, have fabulous senses of humor, and are up to the task of really portraying the drama and the story very well.

- And what I love about SLAC is they always connect with the audience.

What are you hoping the audience takes away from this play?

- Well, there are some provocative subject matters and there are some facts about science, but also, I just hope they have fun.

I just hope that they come to the theater and learn, but also just enjoy themselves.

- I know they will.

SLAC is always a great time.

Thank you so much for sharing this.

If you would love to check out this brand new world premiere of "Sunny in the Dark" by Elaine Jarvik, just head on over to Salt Lake Acting Company and go to the website to get your tickets, saltlakeactingcompany.org.

It is gonna be playing from February 4th until March 1st, so be sure to check it out.

Thank you so much for joining us here on "Contact."

I'm Liz Adeola.

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