Road to recovery portrayed in CMC play opens Feb. 6, runs through Feb. 15

GLENWOOD SPRINGS – The Sopris Theatre Company at Colorado Mountain College will present “The White Chip,” a three-character play about addiction, recovery and self-reinvention. The play opens Feb. 6 and runs through Feb. 15 with live and livestream options.

The play follows Sean Daniels, author of a memoir adapted into the stage play. Daniels is a successful theater director and producer, whose life looks good on the outside but is unraveling privately due to alcohol addiction.

Drinking is woven into his professional world, his relationships and his identity until it stops working. After a crisis, he enters rehab and begins the difficult, humbling process of recovery.

The play’s name is taken from many 12-step recovery programs, where white chips are given to those new to sobriety, often just hours or days sober. It represents starting over, admitting powerlessness and choosing honesty for the first time. The title also signals this is a story not of being “fixed” but of beginning.

Funny (sometimes painfully so) and unsentimental, Daniels’ play is about denial and rationalization, the culture of drinking in creative and professional spaces, shame and secrecy, and rebuilding a sense of self without alcohol.

More than addiction, the play is about identity loss, learning how to feel again, asking for help and picking life when numbness feels easier.

Told with biting humor and heartfelt honesty, “The White Chip” is a sharply funny, deeply human story about addiction, collapse, the hard-won grace of recovery and the unexpected community that helps piece lives back together.

Directed by Julia Whalen and designed by Brad Moore, the cast is Scott Elmore as Steven, Rebecca Horn as Actor #1 and Calvin Parrish as Actor #2. The cast and crew have dedicated their work on “The White Chip” to the memory of recent CMC graduate Amanda Bryan.

The play will be performed at 7 p.m. on Friday, Feb. 6 and Saturday, Feb. 7, and at 2 p.m. on Sunday, Feb. 8; and 7 p.m. on Feb. 13 and 14, and at 2 p.m. on Feb. 15. All performances will be at the New Space Theatre, CMC Spring Valley, 3000 County Road 114, Glenwood Springs. The Feb. 7, 8 and 13 performances will also be livestreamed. Post-show conversations will follow the Feb. 11, 12 and 13 performances.

Live general admission tickets are $20 for adults and $15 for seniors, students and CMC faculty and staff. Livestream tickets are $20 per person or $35 per viewing party. To purchase tickets, call 970-947-8177 or visit CMC Theatre.