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A SAMUEL FRENCH, INC. TITLE
Full-Length Play, Dark Comedy / 2w, 3m
Samuel D. Hunter
In the bleak, corporate break room of a craft store in Idaho, someone is summoning the Rapture. Samuel D. Hunter’s A Bright New Boise is an earnest comedy about the meagre profits of modern faith.
Image: 2023 Signature Theatre Company Production (Joan Marcus)
Winner! 2011 Obie Award for PlaywritingNominee: 2011 Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Play
In the bleak, corporate break room of a craft store in Idaho, someone is summoning The Rapture. Will, who has fled his rural hometown after a scandal at his Evangelical church, comes to the Hobby Lobby not only for employment but also to rekindle a relationship with Alex, his brooding teenage son, whom he gave up for adoption several years ago. Alex works there along with Leroy, his adopted brother and protector, and Anna, a hapless young woman who reads bland fiction but hopes for dramatic endings. As their manager, foul-mouthed Pauline, tries ceaselessly to find order (and profit) in the chaos of small business, these lost souls of the Hobby Lobby confront an unyielding world through the beige-tinted impossibility of modern faith.
A Bright New Boise is the play that kick-started Samuel D. Hunter’s career; it was commissioned and first produced by Partial Comfort Productions at the wild project in New York City in September 2010. The production was directed by Davis McCallum. In October 2011, John Vreeke directed a second production at Woolly Mammoth Theater Company in Washington, D.C.
A windowless breakroom of a Hobby Lobby in Boise, Idaho; the parking lot of the Hobby Lobby.
“A humorous and touching exploration of faith and family.” – NYTheatre.com
“Nothing is pretty about A Bright New Boise, a play that marches in the footsteps of Sam Shepard’s acid comedies, set in the weird American West... Hunter has such highly sensitive antennae for the look and rhythm of mundane places that A Bright New Boise develops an authentic texture, separate from other pieces in its genre.” – The Washington Post
“Samuel D. Hunter has offered us a humorous and touching exploration of faith and family.” – NYTheatre.com
“This clear-eyed comedy will lift your heart.” – Time Out New York
“Samuel D. Hunter has effectively rendered himself a playwright to watch with A Bright New Boise... a quietly affecting drama that delves into the always thorny issues of faith, forgiveness, and second chances with great eloquence and compassion.” – TheatreMania
ON BREAKING CHARACTER
Samuel D. Hunter In Five Playsby Concord TheatricalsMarch 31, 2025
A Bright New Boise: Questions of Ambition and Faithby Amy Rose MarshFebruary 10, 2015
Samuel D. Hunter – Advice on Producing His Plays
Samuel D. Hunter on A Bright New Boise
Samuel D. Hunter is an award-winning playwright, screenwriter and producer whose deeply human stories explore faith, family and the American experience. In 2025, Hunter made his Broadway debut with the critically acclaimed play Little Bear Ridge Road, starring Laurie Metcalf ...
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