Tucker Tab DeGregory

BRIGHT STAR

DIRECTOR AND CHOREOGRAPHER

Book by Steve Martin
Music by Steve Martin and Edie Brickell
Lyrics by Edie Brickell
Directed and Choreographed by Tucker Tab DeGregory

Bright Star is a bluegrass musical set against the backdrop of North Carolina’s Blue Ridge Mountains … it is based on a true incident. With authors Steve Martin and Edie Brickell at the helm, its book is equally humorous and heartfelt; its score is folky and freeing. The script features flashbacks, continuously jumping between the 1920s and ‘40s and all across the North Carolina Appalachians. Bright Star discusses maternal identity, tradition vs. modernity, self-will, and putting faith in fate. Presenting this grand narrative in an intimate setting, we are inspired by both communal storytelling and the importance of sharing stories within and between communities: from pen to paper; from instrument to ear; from generation to generation.

In 1945 Asheville, NC, a World War II veteran and young writer, Billy Cane, seeks out mentorship from Miss Alice Murphy: a now prominent editor of the literary magazine, the Asheville Southern Journal. Though Billy covers up his lack of formal education with eccentric language and lies, Alice recognizes his potential to tell impactful, truthful stories. “You will write better when you find your voice,” she tells him. “You need to find a sweeping tale of pain and redemption. In the people you know and in the people you meet.” Alice encourages Billy to tell his story; after years of repressing her own story, she considers writing it a new ending.