The Pennsylvania Shakespeare Festival (PSF) 31st summer season is underway with the one-person play, “Every Brilliant Thing,” which opened June 7 and continues through June 19, Schubert Theatre, Labuda Center for the Performing Arts, DeSales University, Center Valley.

It’s the final season for PSF Producing Artistic Director Patrick Mulcahy, who is stepping down and returning full-time to the DeSales University faculty after 19 years leading PSF.

The festival returns to full-capacity live indoor performances through Aug. 7.

“For me and for the festival, this is a season of both renewal and metamorphosis,” says Mulcahy.

“It’s regenerating to return to full attendance indoors, as well as moving forward again with productions planned for previous seasons.

“Our mission has always been to reach the widest possible audience with great theater and I’m pleased that my final season will reflect a further step to animate and actualize that mission,” Mulcahy says.

“Every Brilliant Thing,” written by Duncan Macmillan and Jonny Donahoe, examines a family’s resilience in the face of severe mental depression.

Festival veteran Suzanne O’Donnell stars in the one-actor play. In the role, she confronts joy and grief from youth to adulthood. Affirmation emerges in the accounting of life’s everyday blessings and discovering how to save the ones we love.

O’Donnell and director Anne Hering reprise the play at PSF after presenting it last fall at Orlando Shakespeare Theater. Hering has directed Shakespeare and other classic and contemporary plays at Orlando Shakespeare Theater where she is education director.

Hering says the play, which posits that laughter is the antidote to all things, “invites the audience to be vulnerable.

“That vulnerability often is expressed in laughter. We’ve all been through tragedy at some point and wondered if it was OK to laugh. This play gives us permission to find the humor in that sadness,” says Hering.

The title refers to when the main character is age six and her mother is in the hospital. When her father tells her that her mother finds it hard to be happy, the child makes a list of everything that’s worth living for, from ice cream to Kung Fu movies, and leaves it on her mother’s pillow. The list grows as the child progresses from adolescence to adulthood.

The play involves audience participation.

“I hope everyone leaves thinking of at least one brilliant thing in their life that they cherish,” Hering says.

The play is recommended for age 12 and up for mature themes.

“Every Brilliant Thing” speaks openly about depression, mental illness and suicide. If you or someone you know is thinking about self-harm or suicide, call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-8255. Resources from local health agencies will be available in the Labuda lobby before and after each performance.

Performances continue at 7:30 p.m. June 11, 15-17; 2 p.m. June 12 and 19; 6:30 p.m. June 14 and 2 and 7:30 p.m. June 18.

The 2 p.m. June 18 performance has open captioning for patrons who are deaf or hard of hearing and audio descriptions for patrons who are blind or visually impaired. Tickets are half-price for patrons using these services. Information: PSF Box Office Manager Kyle Schumaker, 610-282-3654, ext. 1.

Face masks are required for those attending PSF productions in Labuda Center.

Ticket information: www.tickets.desales.edu; 610-282-3192

“Curtain Rises” is a column about the theater, stage shows, the actors in them and the directors and artists who make them happen. To request coverage, email: Paul Willistein, Focus editor, pwillistein@tnonline.com