Delaware State of the Arts Podcast
Delaware State of the Arts is a weekly podcast that presents interviews with arts organizations and leaders who contribute to the cultural vibrancy of communities throughout Delaware. Delaware State of the Arts is provided as a service of the Division of the Arts, in partnership with NEWSRADIO 1450 WILM and 1410 WDOV.
Delaware State of the Arts Podcast
S13 E1: Delaware State of the Arts - New Light Theatre's The White Chip
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What if a story about addiction was fast, funny, and fiercely compassionate—and left you more connected than when you walked in? We sat down with New Light Theatre’s artistic director Lena Mucchetti, co-directors Allison Heishman and Charlie DelMarcelle, and actor Owen Corey to unpack The White Chip, Sean Daniels’ candid, high-velocity play about substance use disorder and the hard-won road to recovery.
Across the conversation, we explore how humor becomes honest medicine. The team shares why a brisk, episodic structure, quick character shifts, and sudden moments of stillness make the heavy parts land with care, not shock. We also dive into what hope looks like in real time: relationships that heal, shame that loosens in the light of conversation, and a pivotal shift from self-focus to service that reframes success and sustains sobriety.
Stigma thrives in silence, so New Light builds real-world bridges around the art. Their partnership with Delaware’s atTAcK addition brings training to the rehearsal room, resources to the lobby, and informed voices to post-show talkbacks. Teen Night adds guided context and a safer space for questions. From discreet bathroom cards to concessions that directly fund community work, this production models how theater can be both storytelling and support system—meeting people where they are while inviting them to take the next step.
If you care about harm reduction, recovery, and the power of theater to change minds, this episode will resonate. Come for the craft of a well-made play; stay for the deeper truth that we heal by showing up for each other. Subscribe, share with a friend who needs a compassionate nudge, and leave a review to help more listeners find this conversation.
The Delaware Division of the Arts, a branch of the Delaware Department of State, is committed to supporting the arts and cultivating creativity to enhance the quality of life in Delaware. Together with its advisory body, the Delaware State Arts Council, the Division administers grants and programs that support arts programming, educate the public, increase awareness of the arts, and integrate the arts into all facets of Delaware life. Learn more at Arts.Delaware.Gov.
Delaware State of the Arts is a weekly podcast that presents interviews with arts organizations and leaders who contribute to the cultural vibrancy of communities throughout Delaware. Delaware State of the Arts is provided as a service of the Division of the Arts, in partnership with NEWSRADIO 1450 WILM and 1410 WDOV.
For Delaware State of the Arts, I'm Andy Truscott. Today's guest is New Light Theater. New Light Theater is committed to bringing light to the darkness by creating theater that raises awareness and support for causes that improve the human condition while placing special emphasis on providing opportunities for emerging young theater artists to work in a professional setting. Today, with me I have Lena Muchetti, artistic director of New Light Theater, Alison Heichmann and Charlie Del Marcel, co-directors of their upcoming performance, The White Chip, and Owen Corey, who plays Stephen in the show. Sean Daniels' honest, frenetic, and wildly theatrical play, The White Chip, candidly chronicles a journey towards sobriety, aiming to destigmatize substance use disorder. This funny, honest, and ultimately hopeful story illustrates the importance of recognizing our own true worth, prioritizing our connection to others, and learning to live with addiction while coming alive in recovery. Everyone, thanks so much for joining me. And Lena, as we kick off, why the white chip and what is the connection to Delaware that New Light Theater hopes to enact by presenting the show?
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, you read our mission statement so beautifully, but to break it down a little more clearly, every show that we do, we partner with a local thematically connected charitable organization that we feel like is working on the cause that we're exploring in the show. So the white chip really connects very beautifully and easily to uh our nonprofit partner for this one, Attack Addiction. They are working throughout the state of Delaware to break down the stigma and to help folks on their recovery journeys holistically and sort of meeting everyone where they're at. So when I read the script, it was very easy to see how that would fit in with our mission and help to make an impact and start some conversations in the community.
SPEAKER_03:What was the first moment as you read the script where you said, you know, New Light has to produce this?
SPEAKER_04:We have done over a dozen shows, and it's not a cause or a theme that we've really explored yet, but it is one that is still rampant in the communities and something that I think isn't always presented as honestly and holistically as it is in this show, running the full range of humanity and showing all of the beauty and the imperfections of the journey through to recovery. So when I read the synopsis that it was a play about addiction, I wasn't totally sold and it sort of sat in my reading pile for a little while. But when I finally got a chance to go through the script, it's funny and it's beautiful and it's touching and it's unexpected. Um, and so it just felt like the right heart-centered human story that we wanted to tell.
SPEAKER_03:Charlie and Allison, for listeners who haven't heard of the show yet, what do you think is the emotional promise of the night? What should people expect to feel as they walk out?
SPEAKER_02:Andy, I think that there's maybe even a potential, but danger is a word that's maybe doing a little bit too much work here, but I mean danger of being like, well, this is the addiction show, right? This is the show that's really going to, you know, tear your heart out, and we're gonna see a human being that's just like at their lowest low, and they're gonna make their way through to the light at the end of the tunnel. And I'm not saying that that ingredient isn't part of the story, because it is, but uh here's what I would hope, Andy. I'm I'm a big advocate for harm reduction in general, and trying to find, as a society, especially in this country, a way we can systemically help other people in many arenas, but certainly people who are struggling with substance use disorder. So here would be my big hope that we leave the play talking about this a little more, having open, honest conversations about how addiction really has touched all of us in some ways. And I say that because I think there's a lot of shame, guilt, regret, anger, stereotypes that are wrapped up into the idea of what it means to be a human being that is either struggling with substance use disorder or being someone who loves a person who's struggling with substance use disorder and feels like they're not sure how to help them, or maybe they're partially responsible for that person's journey. And all of that puts us into a place of like silence and a place of um stasis. And I think one of the things just telling stories like this and normalizing stories like this can do is allow us to then proactively talk about how we can help people who are struggling that way. And I think you can't even begin to start that journey until we all recognize that it's not a choice, that it's not something that like, because I think maybe I'm rambling a little bit. Maybe the biggest takeaway might be, Andy, that these human beings, all of us, struggle with myriad things. And there's nothing unique about the fact that human beings are struggling with addiction. It is something that is a physical and psychological disorder, and it deserves the same kind of thoughtful and empathetic care that any other disorder does. So any story that just says, hey, this is a person that, oh, by the end of the night, I feel connected to, I see myself in, I recognize is incredibly valuable. And then Lena brought this up too. There can be a sense in the in stories like this that it almost becomes like like, oh, we're gonna get we're gonna get together and witness a bunch of trauma, and that's really exciting and interesting. This play is very, very human and as such, very, very funny, sad, sad when it when it is, because that's part of life, but it's really just an honest reflection of that. I think it's really helpful that the person that created this play is uh is a theater maker themselves. So it's crafted through the lens of someone who's an expert storyteller. Wow, I really went off on the tangent there. But I but I I guess the big thing is I'd love for people just to keep talking about it and maybe have a different perspective about what they might think it means to be someone who struggles with substance use disorder.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, I'll I'll echo that briefly if I can. Um I think conversation is is key, and I and I hope that that's what seeing this play brings to the audiences, to the folks that they interact with. I hope people see the show and want to talk about it, want to bring other folks to come see it, to maybe spark conversation. Um I love that you uh when you read the the New Light Mission, what really struck me when thinking about this play specifically is that idea of a light in the darkness. And I think that's what conversation is, right? Because shame and stigma thrive in that darkness when we don't talk about things, when we hide things away. Um and it that that's that's the spiral. And I think conversation is that light. And I think this play, like Charlie said, really is a light. It's it's funny, it's fast, it's I it's a bit of a roller coaster of emotion, right? Like, like life is in general, but but specifically when you're dealing with a struggle, when you're dealing with the world around you, the external elements, the stress, the burnout, the the sadness that can exacerbate addiction, that can, that can make it easier to to find alternative coping mechanisms for for what you're dealing with in the world. And I think this play touches on the humor that can come from all of that and the and the devastation and the and the sadness. Like I said, it's it's up and it's down and it's all around, but I think ultimately it leaves us in a in a place that's hopeful, and I think a place that um creates compassion, more space for compassion and conversation.
SPEAKER_03:For the four of you, how do you feel like you've approached the humor in the piece in the idea of what makes it funny in a way that's earned, but not deflective off of such a serious topic?
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, I could jump in there. Um I think one of the things about plays that deal with serious material is there's never a long stretch of life, no matter how serious things are, where something funny doesn't happen. And to tell the story without humor is to be dishonest, you know, and I think one of the most important things about the play is that it's a really honest look at addiction. It's a really honest look at recovery. And part of that honesty is that a great deal of funny stuff can happen on a downward spiral. I have had the fortune to, you know, attend an AA meeting with a friend. You know, AA has uh open meetings on Thanksgiving, and you can go in support of a friend. And so I've gone to a couple of those meetings. Um, and if you haven't been to an AA meeting before, you would be shocked at how much laughter is at those meetings and how much humor is at those meetings. And part of that humor is a way of coping with the horrible things that have happened, is a way of handling it, and some of it is a way of being honest about, you know, part of the reason that the spirals continue is you can laugh it off. And there's a lot of moments in the play where the main character laughs off what's happened to him because there is something funny about it. And so I think, you know, when we do this production of the play, and there are these moments that are funny, it's actually an integral part of understanding the process of a person who's handling, you know, this addiction spiral is the ability to laugh at it and laugh it off is part of what allows you to keep rationalizing and going down the spiral. But on the flip side, the ability to laugh at it, to look at yourself with the perspective of being able to have some humor about how dark it got, how far you went down, is also a vital part of recovery. And so the humor is baked into the play because it's both in an unhealthy way, the way you cope with things getting worse. And then once you're able to be honest and the humor starts becoming it's funny because it's true, as opposed to it's funny because I'm isolating the parts of this that are funny and not acknowledging the parts of this that are dark, that like humor of lightness, that humor of honesty becomes part of the recovery process. And so it's a play that has humor baked into it all the way through, down and up, because that is such an integral part of being honest about addiction and recovery.
SPEAKER_00:I'll add that the play itself, the the structure of the play and the way the story's told really lends itself to, you know, a lot of a lot of physical comedy, uh, a lot of, you know, running around, you know, the way sometimes trying to manage addiction as a high functioning uh alcoholic or or someone who's you know struggling with substance use is it's it's a little bit of a fever dream at times. You know, we have this ensemble, Vee Sterling, Anna Faye Lieberman, Therese Baldwin, who all play multiple characters in the show. And, you know, at times they even embody these sort of uh voices in Stephen's head, you know, both encouraging him or saying, like, oh, you you got away with that. That was fantastic, and also warning. And so you see this dynamic, you know, which you can imagine is, you know, something that's going on in uh the you know, Stephen, the character, the main character's head, too, of thinking, was this, did I, was this a good thing? Was this a bad thing? Am I doing okay? Is it what's happening here? Um, and that really lends itself to to the like outside perspective of what he's dealing with, you know, throughout this recovery process.
SPEAKER_02:All tied into the idea of like the the speed and humor of the show. And this might be a little in, you know, inside baseball. Sean Daniels got his start as a young, scrappy theater director, working in kind of under-resourced spaces, doing some of the same kind of community building that New Light does, actually. And that's reflected in like the structure of the piece itself. It's fast, it's episodic, it really leans into some fun theatric conceits, like Allison already mentioned, single actors playing multiple characters. We play with jumps and shifts in style and tone, tempo and pace. And that's really wonderful because it keeps the audience a little off balance. And then when it really does, in a really sneaky way, if you kind of like keep all the balls in the air or you're you're on the tightrope on the unicycle while you're juggling, because you know, you're you're also in the arts idea, too. That that's that's baked in here too. Like, how do you even keep an organization going? How do you make a career in the arts? That's an ingredient in the stew, right? If you're moving at that piece with that many different colors that you're playing with, moments then when the play stops and it's very, very still and very, very confessal, hit so much harder and um and feel so much more earned. And then in a structurally sneaky way, because Sean's really smart, kind of sneak in the back door of your consciousness, maybe, maybe when you're not even ready for it. So I think the play is just very, very well crafted.
SPEAKER_03:We're doing our best to serve that piece. You've mentioned that the story is ultimately one of hope. And so, how does that hope look on stage in this production?
SPEAKER_00:I think it's about connection. I think a lot of what Steven carries through the play uh leads to to isolation. Um, he hides things, he doesn't talk about what he wants to with his family, with his uh partners, with his you know, coworkers, it's a lot of of concealment. And again, that kind of comes back to that idea of that's that's where shame grows, right? And so once those barriers start to fall, and whether it's whether they're falling out of just they can't hold up anymore out of a strain, or whether they're you know, direct and intentional outreach to other people to you know bring them into the the struggle and the you know what what he's dealing with day in and day out, finding that that connection and you know ultimately a better understanding of what's going on, a better way of talking about it. Again, that goes back to to conversation, right? When you start down the road of honesty and opening up and you know, seeking help, seeking other people to go on this journey with you into recovery. I think that's where the real hope lies.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, I mean, it's kind of amazing to feel like the overall hopeful message is we need to be present for each other. We need to be in service of each other. I mean, there's universality too. Like Stephen is also just addicted to his work and he's addicted to his schedule, and he's addicted to what his idea of success is. One of the big messages in the play comes very late in it when Stephen is kind of dealing with his first, I guess you'd call official sponsor, who basically says one of the sources of Stephen's addiction, at least in his sponsor's opinion, is he doesn't spend enough time doing things for other people. He doesn't live a life in service to others. He's been so focused on his journey, he's forgot about the community that he's supposed to be serving ultimately as like a storyteller that wants to build community. So I think that's it, that's to leave there going that ultimately the way that we save ourselves as humans is by saving other people, that's pretty hopeful. And uh and and feels like a really great message to take home with you.
SPEAKER_01:In terms of like theatrically, how does that hope manifest on stage? I think one of the most beautiful reasons to talk about like, well, why tell this story as a piece of theater? Like, why track it as a show that I go and see as opposed to a TED talk or a podcast or whatever, is that you get to watch relationships develop in real time. And I think one of the most important relationships in the play is Steven's relationship with his mother. And we watch that relationship start in one place that is very contentious and difficult and end in a place that is deeply connected, and it's a huge part of his recovery journey. Um, and so I think, in terms of seeing that hope manifest on stage, like watching the relationship between two human beings change in real time and space over the 90 minutes of a play is one of those moments where you're like, wow, I watched that change and I can walk away with this hope of like having seen a relationship start that difficult and end in a place that positive? What does that mean for my relationships? What does that mean for the ways that my contentious, difficult people, you know, and my relationships with them could change, right? Or can end up being really moving for both of us.
SPEAKER_03:What conversations did you all have as a team about depicting substance use disorder without reinforcing some negative stereotypes about what addiction looks like?
SPEAKER_02:If stigma is keeping us from having honest conversations, then how can we move forward, right, and make positive policy changes or learn how to help people? The shadow side of that coin is, and it's hard for some people to admit this, it's it's sometimes it lives in the periphery, even when I listen to politicians talking about this, is maybe the belief that these people deserve it, right? It's their fault, it's a lost cause. Sorry, you know, we're moving forward. And I kind of feel like, you know, as as we move into this big birthday for our country, that whole like American idea of pulling yourself up by the bootstraps and, you know, um, you can build your own way. The dark side of that is, and if you can't do that, for whatever reason, you're gonna get left behind. You're gonna stay down in the dirt, right? So I think it's incredibly important, knowing that even if some of us don't admit that, that stigma might be bouncing around in the back of our brains as soon as we hear the word addiction or just, you know, we start thinking about that. We start building a picture of what a person like that looks like and how they move through the world. So the good news is this play never does that. Actually, Stephen is incredibly successful, the character, the character Stephen, very high functioning, is is and actually, in many ways, really the prototypical human that is struggling with this disorder. It can be a very invisible struggle. So the play kind of dismantles some of those stereotypes by its very structure. Like Stephen is the host of our event. He's the one, he's the glue holding the story together, even as literally the glue is giving way and beginning to fracture in front of us. So, I mean, and then practically speaking, because not everybody has the, you know, the same kind of relationship with these questions that you know Allison and I do, um, Newlike partnered with uh Attack Addiction uh in Delaware. And at our very first rehearsal, we had a wonderful representative from the organization come in there and uh and talk about that. And I think that was really, really a helpful way to start framing our journey before we even even started it. And it did, and she even like she kind of did in her own small way in that one little talk the same thing the play does. She talked about policy and statistics, and then just shared a personal story of her own life about how her life had been impacted by addiction. And I think the play does that beautifully. So you start with a piece that already is recognizing the potential pitfalls with um kind of like showcasing that stigma, and then you just serve the story. And I think we're gonna, I think we're gonna be okay.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, I mean, I feel like we we've talked um, you know, in the beginning and then also, you know, through through the process at different points about just, you know, trying to tell this story honestly, for better or for worse, right? When it's funny, it's funny. When it's a gut punch, it's a gut punch. And, you know, not not shying away from from any of that in the depiction and the staging. And, you know, really just coming at it with empathy and with with understanding. Um, you know, these aren't caricatures on stage, you know, this isn't really like the kind of like after school special message that that you might get when you when you think about, you know, like the very special episode of something that where a character is, you know, dealing with addiction. It's it's just honest and it's funny, and I think it's very humane. Sean telling in in many ways his own story is a big part of that, right? He he really was very vulnerable. In putting so much of his journey out there. And I think that allows us to approach it with that same vulnerability and honesty.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah. I mean, I think also from an actor's perspective, in terms of like portraying a character who is drunk at points in the show, who is intoxicated, um, there's the old acting chestnut that like you don't play drunk, you play someone who's trying to look sober, which is so much of uh the story in the play. Is it is a we're talking about a high functioning addict who is still going to work for much of the play until things really fall off. And in terms of portraying the impacts of that addiction, I think treating it as an obstacle as opposed to a goal is a is a way to handle that in a way that like shows that the addiction is not something that you're sitting there going, Yes, I am so excited to choose to be drunk today. I'm so excited to choose it, it becomes an obstacle. It's a well, I have to get drunk today. My brain is screaming at me that I have to get drunk before I can do any of this, which lets us see that character, you know, who is addicted not as someone who's just trying to make their life worse at every turn, you know, as some political forces would have you believe about addicts, uh, but someone who is actively struggling against an enormous obstacle.
SPEAKER_03:Nina, why partner with a community organization for a show at New Light? And what does an authentic partnership look like between New Light Theater and these organizations?
SPEAKER_04:This sort of happened organically. Uh, we back in 2018, my co-founders and I decided to self-produce a production of Next to Normal. It's just a show that I really loved and I wanted to tackle. And at the end of it, after having been on that journey with those characters, we unexpectedly raised more money than we thought we would. And I wanted to not pay ourselves. So I said, How about we donate that to the Brain and Behavior Research Foundation since we're tackling mental health in this show and try to use that to make a difference? And then suddenly it felt worth starting a theater company. It felt worth all of the administrative headaches that we go through on a daily basis because it felt like it was, yes, telling art, but using that to make a difference in the world felt like a higher purpose for me that allows me to carve out that space in my life. Moving forward, we've decided to make all of those partnerships with local charities so that we can have them more involved from the beginning and lay a groundwork that really, as Charlie said, frames the work that we're about to do in this purpose and allows us to be better allies and advocates and to portray those stories authentically and respectfully and with the whole spectrum of humanity that's involved. So for us, a partnership means that we're talking to them in pre-production, we're asking them for any resources that they have so that we can educate ourselves before we even get to rehearsal. We're trying to amplify their work in the community. We bring them into the first rehearsal so that the cast and crew can hear a little training session, sort of an education evening about the work that they're doing and about the cause that we're exploring so that everybody's going into that with the goal of keeping things respectful and authentic. And then they're going to be present at all of the shows. So if this is sparking something in you that feels like you want to learn more, or there's someone that you recognize sort of in the stories that you're seeing on stage, we're going to have resources available in the lobby. We're going to have people who are trained to talk to you about that. And then on the other side, we also use the show to raise funding for these organizations. So everything that we sell at concessions goes directly back to the organization to help them in a tangible way as well.
SPEAKER_03:No doubt you all mentioned that a topic like this, or really any theater production, lends itself to the idea that there are further conversations or further actions that can be made. You guys are doing some talkbacks and post-show engagement. What does that look like? How do you think those conversations are helpful rather than performative? And what do you hope that people that stick around for those get out of those situations?
SPEAKER_04:We don't do an open talkback for most of our productions. Sometimes the cause doesn't lend itself to feeling like there's an immediate need to unpack that with some of the audience members. The last time that we had a series of sort of like open talkbacks after performances was Othello. We partnered with the Delaware Coalition Against Domestic Violence. And so we wanted to make sure there was a safe sort of talk space for that. And so this is sort of the same, the show really centers on this issue. And because it is such a common issue, because it does ultimately affect pretty much everyone in some capacity, we want to make sure that we have those resources like really open and advertised for folks who are thinking, I'd like to see it, but I don't know how I'm going to feel afterwards. And now they know that they're going to have a safe space to talk about that. Our talk back on the 8th is just generally open to the public who are seeing the show. And it's going to be moderated by Allison, who uh is here as our co-director and also has some experience of the recovery community. And so she'll be able to talk to sort of both sides of that. And then we will also have representatives from Attack Addiction on hand too, so that we make sure there are folks who are really trained to answer those deeper questions. We also have been doing a teen night for the last few years. So there's a teen night specific talk back as well. And the teens come in pre-show and we give them pizza and we have sort of pre-show programming to sort of set them up for what they're going to see and talk about some things they can look for. And then after the show, they'll have the opportunity to have their own talk back with the cast and crew. And we'll also have folks from Attack Addiction at that one as well.
SPEAKER_03:Someone's nervous to attend because this topic is deeply personal. What would you say to them and what support is available around the production?
SPEAKER_04:So Charlie and Owen and I had the opportunity to also talk to the playwright, Sean Daniels, who was able to give us a little bit of insight into the creation of the show and how that was going through workshops and through the production ultimately hearing how much joy there was and how much humor there was, and how much folks, especially who have experience of the recovery community and process found it to be so funny and were the ones who are laughing the hardest, makes me feel like they're going to feel like they're wrapped in a safe space where they're seen and where the full humanity of this experience is embraced and celebrated. And then, of course, there are folks who maybe haven't taken that journey yet or who are recognizing some things in a loved one that they hadn't really connected the dots on before. And so the fact that we have the resources available in the lobby to learn more. We're even going to have like little bathroom cards. So if you're not ready to take a pamphlet in front of people in a crowded lobby when you go to the bathroom, you can just slip that into your pocket and you can reach out later and figure out what you want to do to start that conversation. So I think we're trying to really just embrace that everyone's on a different point in the journey and celebrate and support that.
SPEAKER_03:Lena, tell us about dates of the show, where to get information, all that jazz to make sure that those that are listening actually make it out to see the show.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, absolutely. So the White Chip is running in Wilmington at Opera Delaware Studios in their black box, March 6th to the 15th. Tickets run from$15 to$35, and they are available on our website, New Light Theater dot com. And then the talkback that we mentioned is after the March eighth performance, and our teen night is March 13th.
