Every Brilliant Thing

NICHOLAS MONGIARDO-COOPER (Narrator) has dedicated his life to storytelling in character. Born into a family of performers, gathering to share music and art was an essential part of growing up. Ensconced in layered, deep, and sometimes broad character work for most of his career, he is deeply grateful to Jenny Sullivan and ETC for allowing him the opportunity to share himself in this life-affirming exercise. He has appeared Off-Broadway in Rothschild & Sons, Lonesome Traveler, and Julius Caesar. Regionally he has been seen in Sweeney Todd; Fiddler On The Roof (La Mirada); A Gentleman’s Guide To Love and Murder; Harvey (Laguna) A Wicked Soul In Cherry Hill (Geffen); Waitress (Moonlight); The Tempest (Alabama Shakespeare); The Play That Goes Wrong; Sherlock Holmes’ Last Adventure (Portland Stage); Once (Geva); Rounding Third (FST); House of Dreams (SDRep); Oliver!; Matilda (5 Star Theatricals); Sweeney Todd; Once; Shakespeare In Love (South Coast Rep); King Lear (Rubicon); Side Show (La Jolla); Of Mice And Men; Laughter on the 23rd Floor; Sherlock Holmes; Side By Side By Sondheim; and Words By (North Coast Rep). He’s appeared on television in “Law & Order: SVU” (NBC), “Dying For Sex” (F/X), “Ghosts” (CBS), “The Connors” (ABC), “Fairly Oddparents” (Paramount+), “Danger Force” (Nickelodeon), “Fuller House” (Netflix), “Superstore” (NBC), “Casual” (Hulu); and in the films: “Let It Stay Here,” “Diamond Bar,” “Goodbye Canarsie,” “0s & 1s” and the upcoming “Sin & Tonic.” He can also be seen singing “Oh What A Beautiful Morning” among the snow-capped mountains in a Coors Light commercial. He has performed in concert at the historic Lobero Theatre in Santa Barbara along with his fellow Lonesome Travelers. The Lonesome Travelers in Concert can be heard on all streaming platforms. Some of his brilliant things include: the oasis at Anza-Borrego, outdoor bathtubs, snowy owls, V & T Pizza, and clarinet solos.

JONNY DONAHOE (Playwright and the original Narrator in Every Brilliant Thing) was born in 1983 in Dublin, Ireland. While he is well known for many of his creative projects, he is best known for being the frontman for the comedy band, Jonny and the Baptists. Further showing his comedy chops, Donahoe frequently performs as a stand-up comedian. His writing career expands further than just his collaboration with Macmillan for Every Brilliant Thing. In addition, he wrote “30 Christmases,” which premiered at The Old Fire Station in Oxford and then moved to the New Diorama Theatre in London, and he has an podcast series called Josie and Johnny Are Having a Baby (With You), which is a collaboration between Donahoe and his partner, Josie, as they await the arrival of their first child. Donahoe is known for blurring the line between art and real life.

DUNCAN MACMILLAN (Playwright) is an English playwright and director. He is known for multiple plays he has written, co-written, or adapted, including Lungs; People, Places, and Things; Every Brilliant Thing; and 1984. His major plays usually deal with contemporary socio-political issues, ranging from addiction and recovery to depression and suicide. He grew up watching a lot of classic plays, but he didn’t decide to start writing his own plays until he read Far Away by Caryl Churchill. Macmillan counts many playwrights as having influenced him, including Churchill, Wallace Shawn, Robert Holman, Martin Crimp, Arthur Miller, Samuel Beckett, Bertolt Brecht, Anton Chekhov, William Shakespeare, Katie Mitchell, and Pina Bausch.

JENNY SULLIVAN (Director-SDC) is an award-winning theater and film director, actor, writer, and producer. Favorite directing gigs at: The Wallis Annenberg Theatre, Geffen Playhouse, Royal Manitoba Theatre Centre, The Acorn and Lucille Lortel Theaters Off-Broadway, Long Wharf Theatre, Williamstown Theatre Festival, Laguna Playhouse, Pasadena Playhouse, and Rubicon Theatre (where she recently directed 39 Steps). Jenny began directing for ETC in 2005! In 2026, Every Brilliant Thing is her 16th production! Other ETC productions include: Justice, The Children, Tenderly: The Rosemary Clooney Musical, Sleuth; The Legend of Georgia McBride, I Am My Own Wife (Indy Award), Baby Doll, Good People, Tea at Five, The Year of Magical Thinking, The Lion in Winter (Indy Award), The Mystery of Irma Vep (Indy Award), The Clean House (Indy Award), The Memory of Water and Dublin Carol (Indy Award). Other Santa Barbara productions include Marat/Sade, The Way We Live Now: Theatre for Our Lives in This Crisis Called AIDS (Center Stage Theatre) and Listen for Wings (Access Theatre); Nancy Nufer’s Food Confessions, Mother Earth/Father Sky, and The Shadow Box, all played at The Lobero Theatre. Jenny was a founding member of Santa Barbara’s “The Mime Caravan,” the creators of the annual Summer Solstice Celebration. Films: “Access All Areas” and “The Next Best Thing” (in which she had the good fortune to direct her father, Barry). Her film “I Know Catherine, The Log Lady” is currently being screened across the country. Jenny is most proud of the world premiere of her play J for J, starring Jenny, Jeff Kober, and the late great John Ritter.

FRED KINNEY (Scenic and Costume Designer) marks his fourteenth production at ETC with this show. Previously he designed The Shark Is Broken, The Lehman Trilogy, Seared, Sleuth, It’s a Wonderful Life: A Live Radio Play, The City of Conversation, Amadeus, Looped, The 39 Steps, Loot, In the Continuum and Old Wicked Songs. Other credits include Sight Unseen, Ordinary Days, A Wrinkle in Time, Sunlight, Emperor’s New Clothes and A Year with Frog & Toad (South Coast Repertory).  Peter Pan and Wendy (Prince Music Theater); Intimate Apparel (San Diego Repertory Theatre); End Game & Taming of the Screw (Cutting Ball Theatre, San Francisco); A Picasso (Pittsburgh City Theatre); Serious Money (Yale Repertory Theatre); The Grouch (The Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey); Cats Talk Back, Suburban Stories (NYC Fringe Festival); The Good Daughter, The Adjustment, Color of Flesh, Winterizing a Summer House (New Jersey Repertory Company); Anna Christie, Tennessee Playboy, Ain’t Misbehavin’, Tartuffe, Angel Street, Sleuth, Proof, Noises Off, Steel Magnolias, On Golden Pond and Bus Stop (Triad Stage, North Carolina). Mr. Kinney has also worked on television productions such as “Dave Chappelle’s Equanimity” and “The Bird Revelation,” “Larry the Cable Guy’s Christmas Special” and “Jeopardy!.” He is recipient of the NEA/TCG Career Development Program for Designers and holds an M.F.A. from the Yale School of Drama.

RANDALL ROBERT TICO (Sound Designer) marks his nineteenth collaboration with this ETC production as sound designer and/or original composer. Additional ETC credits include Justice, The Children, Sleuth, The Legend of Georgia McBride, and Baby Doll (with director Jenny Sullivan); Measure for Measure, Everything is Illuminated, The Invisible Hand, and Macbeth (with director Jonathan Fox). Randy’s work with Sullivan also includes Jackie Unveiled at the Wallis, The Baby Dance: Mixed, 39 Steps, Twilight: Los Angeles, 1992 at Rubicon Theatre Company. Other notable credits include Anna Karenina, Astoria Part One & Two, Othello, Anna Karenina, Shakespeare’s Amazing Cymbeline, The Imaginary Invalid, and Snow Falling on Cedars. Credits with director Nancy Keystone and Critical Mass Performance Ensemble include Mariology, Alcestis and The America Play (Theatre @ Boston Court), After Iphigenia at the Getty Villa, Apollo at the Kirk Douglas Theatre (Garland Award and an Ovation Award nomination), Ameryka (2016 Ovation nomination), Antigone (Portland Center Stage for which he won a Drammy Award), The Ahkmatova Project, Dr. Faustus, The Rover, and Measure for Measure. Further works include Hamlet, The Winter’s Tale, the vocal score for David Hare’s version of Mother Courage, and music and sound design for The Glass Menagerie, all directed by Jessica Kubzansky.

ANTHONY M. COLOMBO (Prop Designer) is currently the Director of Production at Ensemble Theatre Company in Santa Barbara, a New Yorker by birth and Floridian by way of high school graduation where he snagged the coveted Young Floridian award for Drama. His journey then led him to IRSC on a performance scholarship and eventually to the University of Florida in Gainesville, where after graduating he served as a resident Stage Manager at the Phillips Center for the Performing Arts and Production Stage Manager for the Gainesville Opera Theatre Company for several years.  Not bad for a guy who started out in Brooklyn! Post-college, Anthony toured North America, hitting all of the lower 48 with shows like Annie, Beauty and the Beast, and Cirque Dreams: Holidaze, logging over 1,000 performances before heading west to sunny California. Anthony previously served as Technical Director at the Rubicon Theatre Company, where he also had the pleasure of designing sets and lighting for their Summer Education Program. At Ensemble, Anthony has overseen the production of more than a dozen shows, including audience favorites Dracula, Million Dollar Quartet, and A Night with Janis Joplin. He also serves as Technical Director for the award-winning touring production Eisenhower: This Piece of Ground, starring John Rubinstein, and regularly collaborates with Opera Idaho on shows such as Sweeney Todd, Thaïs, and La Traviata. An artist at heart, he moved to California to Act, Write, and tell jokes—but the theatre keeps finding him.  Anthony is thrilled to make his Ensemble design debut as Props Designer for Every Brilliant Thing.   Anthony is a proud card-carrying union member with both SAG and IATSE.  Anthony would like to thank his Cat Moose and Beagle Bella for all their support, and he dedicates all creative endeavors to his late best friend Zathy.

KRISTAL GEORGOPOULOS (Resident Stage Manager) has spent an inspiring season at ETC as Production Stage Manager and is excited to close out our finale production of the season with Every Brilliant Thing. This is Kristal’s fourth season with ETC, with previous selected credits including War of the Worlds: The Panic Broadcast, The Complete Works of Jane Austen, Abridged, The Shark is Broken, A Night with Janis Joplin, Dracula: A Comedy of Terrors, Million Dollar Quartet, Justice, Hamlet, Parents in Chains, The Thanksgiving Play, The Lehman Trilogy, and Selling Kabul. Additional selected regional credits include Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar and Grill, It’s A Wonderful Life: A Live Radio Play, Red Herring, and Sex and Other Disturbances (Portland Stage); Always… Patsy Cline (Firebrand Theatre); Side Show, The Addams Family, Grease, Steel Magnolias, and The Marvelous Wonderettes (Black Hills Playhouse); and Scary Poppins (Great American Melodrama). As the season comes to a close, she reflects on another meaningful year in Santa Barbara, where storytelling continues to blur the line between illusion and truth. She thanks her friends and family for their continued support.