In Chicago, the theater world is a tight-knit community. It's like everyone knows each other.
So, when Kelly O'Sullivan and Alex Thompson, co-directors of the new film “Ghostlight,” were thinking about who to cast in their new project, they started close to home — with longtime Chicago theater actor Keith Kupferer.
O'Sullivan, who also wrote the film, is herself a former Chicago theater actress. She starred with Kupferer in 2014 in The Humans, a critically acclaimed play produced by the American Theater Company that won a Tony Award for its New York run after leaving Chicago. “He played my father,” O’Sullivan said. Knowing that her script called for a paternal, blue-collar type in the central role, “I was like, 'Keith is believable this way.'
“Ghostlight” will make its Chicago debut Friday at the Music Box Theater in Lakeview before opening nationally next week. Chicago theater actors make up almost the entire cast of Ghostlight, but the film is more than just an ode to theatrical art. The film is a family drama centered around a traumatic event, addresses complex discussions around mental health, and depicts theater as a tool for healing, healing, and a way to build community.
In real life, Kupferer isn't sure whether theater has that power. But he admits that people who have seen the film have approached him with stories of family trauma similar to what his on-screen character suffers. He also says that performers can work through “real-life baggage” if it connects to the story they're telling — which is exactly what his character does in the film.
Keith Kupferer plays a grieving construction worker who finds a new community in “Ghostlight.”
Having grown up as a theater kid in Arkansas before becoming a professional onstage in Chicago, O'Sullivan sees theater as a space ripe for therapeutic experiences. “It's a place where you can go and let out the weirdest parts of yourself,” she said. “And it's celebrated there. For me, it's always been a place of freedom.”
The film is a family affair for O'Sullivan and her stars. The co-directors are life partners and new parents: O'Sullivan gave birth to the couple's first child, Milo, right after filming.
The family at the heart of the drama also plays a real Chicago family. Kupferer's daughter, Katherine Malin Kupferer, has worked on screen and on the Chicago stages, and his wife, Tara Malin, is the founder and artistic director of the Rivendell Theater. “It was a blast,” Malin said. “(The film) is a love letter to the theater community in Chicago.”
Teenager Daisy (Katherine Malin Kupferer) is at odds with her parents in Ghostlight.
O'Sullivan's story follows Dan (Kupferer) and his grieving family as they try to move forward in the wake of a tragic event. The audience meets the fictional family in a secluded location. Although they live in the same house and eat dinner at the same table, emotional misunderstandings are evident. As daughter Daisy seeks solace in therapy, her father eventually finds an outlet in an unexpected place for a middle-aged blue-collar construction worker: a community theater.
O'Sullivan, a millennial, created Dan with parents like her in mind – a generation known for its opposition to traditional forms of therapy. “I think there are a lot of men of this generation, who I know and have witnessed, who are told that treatment is for the weak and expressing grief is weak,” she said.
In the film, Dan experiences anger and outbursts at work until, when he is at his lowest, he is pulled onto the stage and thrust into a role in Shakespeare's “Romeo and Juliet.”
This is where the film really finds its groove. The real-life theater actors who fill out the cast create a nurturing community that welcomes Dan, and eventually his wife and daughter, into their world. Remarkably, the film finds a way to make Shakespeare, one of the most inaccessible playwrights, relatable in a new way.
Malin believes that theater has a profound effect on audiences. “I believe stories have the power to heal, and give people a place to express their big feelings, their grief, their hurts,” she said. “That's why we tell stories culturally. That's why we have theater.”
