Since its launch in 2020, CCAE Theatricals has won multiple artistic awards and a loyal following of ticket-buyers who appreciate the company’s adventurous spirit.

The Escondido-based theater company produces high-quality productions that have included regional and world premieres and shows that are rarely seen on local stages because they’re so challenging or expensive to stage. Now comes the tender and entertaining “Every Brilliant Thing,” a stripped-down solo play that relies on the simplicity of a good script, the communal magic of theater-making and fearless acting by its star.

Written by Duncan MacMillan and Johnny Donahoe, “Every Brilliant Thing” was born at an English fringe festival in 2013, which makes sense with its freewheeling, audience-interactive concept. The play is usually performed by one actor, but CCAE artistic director J. Scott Lapp has staged it with four different actors alternating performances: Steven Lone, Allison Spratt Pearce, DeAndre Simmons and Bethany Slomka. Each actor performs the same script but under his or her own name.

The central character — in the performance I saw, the actor was Spratt Pearce — invites members of the audience to help tell her story before the show begins (though participation is not required). Over the next 90 minutes, “Allison” recounted her life story from age 6 to sometime in her 30s, helped by audience members playing Allison’s father, husband, veterinarian and others who respond to prompts or speak lines written on slips of paper. The production is staged in the round with the house lights up at the California Center for the Arts, Escondido.

In the story, Allison is the daughter of a troubled mother whose debilitating depression has led to several suicide attempts — the first time when Allison was in grade school. In an effort to lift her mother’s spirits and keep her own demons and anxiety at bay, Allison begins obsessively assembling a list of “brilliant things” (in England, where the play was born, brilliant means “great”). The list begins with “ice cream” and “water fights” and continues to grow over the next 30 or so years of her life as she matures into adulthood, goes away to college, falls in love and begins experiencing her own mental health issues.

But this isn’t a play about depression. It’s about cherishing the wonderful things that make life worth living, like roller coasters, sunlight and palindromes. It’s also about the warm and gracious give and take between actor and audience. The actors work without a net, ad libbing when the audience members don’t quite remember their required actions or line.

Spratt Pearce convincingly plays a character aging from childhood to early mid-life. She sings, she plays music, she’s funny, she’s heartbreaking and she’s a natural with a live audience.

The simply staged production features scenery by Matthew Herman, sound and lighting by Coleman Ray Clark and props by Holly Lapp.

“Every Brilliant Thing” does more than entertain. By involving the audience in the telling story, the play creates a shared appreciation for all of the “brilliant” things in life.

‘Every Brilliant Thing’

When: 7:30 p.m. Fridays; 2 and 7:30 p.m. Saturdays; 2 p.m. Sundays. Through July 21

Where: Center Theater at California Center for the Arts, Escondido, 340 N. Escondido Blvd.

Tickets: $40-$50

Phone: (442) 304-0505

Online: theatricals.org