Bright Comet Theatre new company focused on promoting underrepresented artists, punk rock musical ‘Lizzie’ plays with all-female cast

Founded by a pair of 20-something theater artists, Bright Comet Theatre is a new nonprofit hoping to bring opportunities to those who are too often underrepresented in Spokane’s theater community.

Co-artistic directors Taylor Cummings and Dominique Betts struggled for several years to break into Spokane’s theater scene before founding their company earlier this year.

“It got to the point where I couldn’t keep waiting around for opportunities to come to me. I couldn’t keep crawling on my hands and knees begging for stuff and then it not coming. So I wanted to make it for myself and make it for us,” Cummings said.

In their new venture, the pair hopes to foster an environment of safety for their actors and crew.

“The theater scene in Spokane can be very hard to be in,” Betts said. “I think there’s a lot of hard stuff about it where people are not treating each other well, and you’re expected to behave a certain way and give all of yourself for no pay and a really hard experience.”

Cummings noted that community theater often forgets that “what we do as theater artists is really silly and supposed to be fun.”

The pair have produced two shows in their first season – an all-women and nonbinary production of “Lord of the Flies” and a production of the punk-rock musical “Lizzie,” which is being staged at the M.A.D. Co. Lab Studio.

Both shows have featured all-female casts. That is because a core tenant of Bright Comet is to provide opportunities for those often underrepresented in theater, like women.

“More often than not, there’s never good role for a woman to play in theater. Plays are not written for women. And when they are, they’ve usually been written by a man. They’re just a plot device, and I think we’re trying to break the boundaries of typical casting,” Cummings said.

As a novel, “The Lord of the Flies” tells the story of a group of adolescent boys trapped on an uninhabited island. Bright Comet’s February production of the theatrical adaptation asked what changed and what stayed the same when that story was told by a group of women rather than men.

“I believe gender really ought to go out the window when it comes to casting,” Betts said.

“We want who is best for the part and not rely on what at the end of the day is just appearances. I can promise we will go away from tradition. Theater can be a lot of things. So especially for theater that already exists, why are we not telling the stories in a different way?”

Betts advocacy for gender-blind casting in some ways comes from her experience as a transgender woman who has seen in her personal life how thin the barrier between genders can be.

Betts is directing the production of “Lizzie the Musical,” which tells the story of infamous accused killer Lizzie Borden.

Partly steeped in the actual history of the case and partly a campy fantasia reimagining of it, the musical features a pop-rock score and a lot of blood. The musical has been Betts’ “dream show” since she was a teenager – fascinated how the show uses the tropes of a ‘90s punk rock girl band to bring Lizzie into the present day.

“It’s not just a story about a murderer who is basking in their murderous tendencies,” Betts said. “It’s about someone who made a really hard choice to escape their situation and to change their circumstances. And it wasn’t the right choice. But it was a choice that needed to be made.”

Audiences may come into the show with preconceived notions about Borden.

“I hope that audiences come to this show and experience a newfound power. But then after the show I want to spark a conversation about why we make the decisions we make and about how we treat other people.”

That intimacy with “Lizzie” is aided by the small nontraditional performance space in the M.A.D. Co. Labs, a multidisciplinary artist studio in a rehabbed loft in the middle of Spokane’s industrial district. Audiences can expect to sit mere inches from the performers and may be interacted with directly.

“An untraditional space adds to the experience of what you’re doing. This is a gallery where art is meant to happen. With our show you are still seeing art but in a different facet. And that’s exciting,” Betts said.

Once Lizzie’s run ends this week, Bright Comet Theatre will take a moment to regroup before hopefully announcing their second season this fall. The pair teased their next show, which will likely be another equally dark musical – this time directed by Cummings.

“This one is my dream show,” Cummings said. “Dominique got her dream show and now I get mine.”

The final two performances of “Lizzie” will be at 7:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday.

Cummings and Betts warned those in the front row may get fake blood on their clothes.

“There will be blood and we’re certainly trying not to cover everybody, but you will probably get a little bit on you,” Betts said.