Inside the PlayGround Festival: Starlight & Playwright Christian Wilburn

Posted by on May 19, 2023

This weekend is the PlayGround Festival premiere presentation of Christian Wilburn‘s new play, STARLIGHT!

STARLIGHT is about a young girl’s learning to live with her chronic illness. Their’s magic, and Specters and other worlds, but underneath all of it, that’s the story.

Playwright Christian Wilburn is a San Francisco based writer whose work blends the deeply personal and the fantastical. He graduated Magna Cum Laude from Santa Clara University and holds an MFA in Writing from the University of San Francisco. Over the past three years Christian has been an active PlayGround member, frequently contributing to PlayGround programming. He’s been featured in Monday Night PlayGround, Best of PlayGround, and the PlayGround Playwright Residency Program.

Christian first wrote STARLIGHT in 2021 as a short play called SASHA AND THE ANGELIER, which was selected for that year’s Best of PlayGround and won the People’s Choice Award. PlayGround commissioned this piece to be developed into a full-length play which was workshopped through PlayGround and presented as a stage reading as last year’s Festival of New Works.

We asked Christian a couple questions about Starlight and what audiences should expect. He shared with us the following…

PlayGround: What is the emotional journey of this play?

Christian: I’ll paraphrase the words of Neil Gaiman on this. I would like to lead the audience into a dark forest, tell them that I’ll hold their had the whole time and that they’ll be safe with me. Then, let go of their hand and run away…Figuratively speaking of course.

PlayGround: Why was this is a story you’d like to share now?

Christian: I’ve made a conscious decision to try to make more socially conscious work over the past few years. Chronic illness is an underrepresented topic in media, as well as and experience that is deeply personal to me. This is especially true during the time of the pandemic, where those with chronic illnesses have been some of the most vulnerable. We exist, and we have stories to tell.

Don’t miss your chance to see the premiere presentation of STARLIGHT this weekend!

Join us for the PlayGround Festival premiere presentation of STARLIGHT by Christian Wilburn, live in-person at Potrero Stage and simulcast online, this Saturday, May 20, and Sunday, May 21, at 7pm PDT and available on demand through May 31. Admission is free (donations gratefully accepted) but advance reservations are required. For more information or to reserve tickets, visit https://playground-sf.org/starlight/.