Ömer Yükseker

Hello Sunshine! is an accessible, absurdist, multi-disciplinary dance – and one-woman musical – about living with invisible disability.

The third of her memoir-based solos, Sara offers an account of experience living with Polymorphous Light Eruption (PMLE), an autoimmune condition that makes her acutely allergic to UV radiation (sunlight). Sara has lived with this worsening condition for 40 years, in search of treatment, strategies and comprehension. The show addresses the social, personal, and logistical challenges of negotiating the particularities of a life avoiding sunlight. The ubiquity of songs about sunshine provide a baseline soundtrack that moves Sara through a danced monologue about the ancient Greek stoics, a dialogue in which she breaks up with the sun, a dance naked in a transparent raincoat, and a recitation of the logistics of medical specialists as a time-pressured gameshow. The show includes original songs sung by Sara on her ‘therap-ukelele.’ Sara highlights the complexity of negotiating a condition not visible to anyone else, and plays against the pressure to put on a sunny attitude in the face of struggle.

Hello Sunshine! has been developed over the past three years in Toronto, Kitchener, Scotland and Norway. Created with international Blind artist Alex Bulmer as dramaturg, Hello Sunshine! is geared to appeal to a wide audience. Accessible specifically to Blind audiences, the production provides prepared audio description, a touch tour of the set, and a Q&A after the show. Additionally, all design and marketing materials are created to be accessible.

“Urgent, emotionally mesmerizing and deliciously fun. Irreverent and soulful, Sara Porter is magnificent. I’m awestruck!”” – Niegel Smith, Artistic Director, The Flea Theatre, New York City

Choreographer, Writer & Performer: Sara Porter
Co-Producer: Alex Jodi Verge
Technical Director: Franco Pang
Stage Manager: A.J. Morra
Lighting Designer: Rebecca Picherack
Sound Designer: Stephen Joffe
Video/Projection Designer & Choreographic Collaborator: Linnea Swan
Disability Dramaturge & Creative Collaborator: Alex Bulmer
Creative Consultant: Katherine Duncanson
Visual Art Contributor: Elaine Whittaker
Accessibility Facilitator: Lorna Craig
Administrative Assistant: Cass Cabral Pucci
Audio Describer: Lindsay Zier-Vogel