Looking for a Miracle

Mike and Kerrigan Sullivan on the set of "WillJee" at The Lynn Theater, Brightpoint Community College in Midlothian.

Originally published by Style Weekly
by David Timberline
January 21, 2025

World premiere “WillJee” finds a comedic twist in a story about death, psychosis and faith.

In talking about the upcoming world premiere of the play “WillJee,” Kerrigan Sullivan reflects on a moment roughly 26 years ago.

“When Mike and I were first dating, he was going to his sister’s wedding and he said, ‘Wanna go on a road trip?’,” recalls Sullivan, who is the producing artistic director for the Lynn Theatre at Brightpoint Community College. “It’s one of those things where we didn’t think at the time, ‘oh, this could turn out really badly.’”

The “Mike” that Sullivan is referring to is her husband, who wrote “WillJee” under the pen name M. Mary Sullivan. The adventure the couple are on now is bringing his first play to life on the Lynn Theatre stage with Kerrigan directing.

Having weathered decades of marriage and raising kids, both Sullivans feel confident the challenges of staging a world premiere won’t derail them.

“It’s actually really great to be working with someone where you have respect for each other’s creativity and autonomy,” says Kerrigan. “There’s some wonderful work that comes out of that, I think. Mike is not shy about saying what is on his mind, and I’m not shy about telling him whether I agree with it or not.”

“WillJee” tells the story of Will who is facing the impending death of his little sister and becomes convinced he can tap into a miraculous inner power that will heal her, helped along in that belief by a steady diet of edibles. The story is based on Mike’s life: He lost his sister to colon cancer in 2020. Even with the intensity of the subject matter, both Sullivans insist it is a very funny play.

“My sister had just a wicked, wonderfully dark sense of humor,” Mike says. “After we got the call [about her diagnosis], I went to live with her for four months and she was trying to make sure everybody didn’t get depressed as hell over what was going on.”

Early on, Mike started stockpiling darkly comedic anecdotes, thinking he was going to write a stand-up routine about the situation, a plan his sister heartily endorsed. After his sister passed, Kerrigan pointed him to the Pipeline New Works Fellowship program offered by Cadence Theatre. Playwrights in the program work with Pulitzer Prize-winner David Lindsey-Abaire to develop new works.

*Will (Alex Harris) and Shay (Bailey Clark)*

“I originally sent in a totally different piece that got me accepted into the program,” says Mike. “But we were pitching ideas and I described this story about a brother dealing with drug addiction and his sister dying, and psychosis, and about having faith in miracles.

“Everyone said, ‘Wow, that’s really interesting’ and they threw out all my other ideas.”

Mike honed the script for months. “It got to the point where David said I needed to get a reading done to really hear it,” remembers Mike. “And I thought, well, I have access to this wonderful resource at Brightpoint.”

Kerrigan helped organize a staged reading for “WillJee” at Brightpoint in December of 2023 but, even then, there was no guarantee the school would arrange for a full production.

“When we did the reading, my creative team, people who have worked with me for years, they’re like, ‘We’re doing this one, right?’ says Kerrigan. “My whole team was really, really excited.”

*Will (Alex Harris) and St. Francis (Joshua Clay)*

The show will be part of Brightpoint’s Studio Series that involves having professional actors and designers working in collaboration with students. Kerrigan has cast Alex Harris, who starred in last year’s “Roman a Clef” at Firehouse, as Will and Terri Moore, who won a Richmond Theatre Community Circle award for her performance in RTP’s “Cake” in 2020, as Will’s mother.

As rehearsals progress, Mike says the process has given him a number of unexpected gifts.

“From day one, you have these actors who are talking through scenes from your life and experiences you’ve gone through and they’re hitting it, right? They’re hitting it exactly,” he says. “It’s certainly been cathartic, but also beautiful and healing.”

“WillJee” will be performed on the Lynn Theatre stage on Brightpoint Community College’s Midlothian campus, 800 Charter Colony Parkway, from Jan. 24 to Feb. 6. Admission is free but donations are welcome. Details can be found at www.brightpoint.edu/theatre.