Rings of the Tree tells the story of Diana Applesong, a Victorian woman who has experienced tragedy after tragedy in her life. So eventually, after dealing with so much grief, she cloisters herself and her servants into her mansion, essentially cutting herself off from the world. However, a group of explorers stumble upon her secretive existence and set off a chain of events that places her face to face with that which she is most afraid of… love.

“She has experienced a lot of loss and pain in her past,” said Jaclyn Hales who is playing the lead role of Diana Applesong, “Her default reaction is living like a porcelain doll. Everything is beautiful and protected on the outside, but inside she’s nothing… she’s numb. She has nothing left to give… or so she thinks.” Hales is recently making headway in her career with starring roles in films like the upcoming Unicorn City, but she took a break from her film pursuits in LA to work on this show, for which she has expressed a lot of fondness and excitement. “As far as everyone here in the Utah audience, it’s going to be innovative,” said Hales, “It’s super creative and will keep the audiences’ attention and awe factor at a high the whole time.”

Rings of the Tree is not a new story to Utah audiences. It was originally produced at Utah Valley University to very positive audience and critical reaction, and Stewart’s screenplay version of the story won first place in last year’s LDS Film Festival’s Screenplay Competition (which screenplay Imminent Catharsis Media has optioned and plans on making a feature film, once funding is in place). This production of the play, however, is very different than the one that premiered at UVU. Zion Theatre Company and Imminent Catharsis Media are taking a multimedia approach with the show, meaning that in staging it they are also incorporating film and other mediums. The production has required several film shoots, the composition of original music, the use of projection, digital devices and theatre magic.

“This version of the script is much closer to the screenplay than the original stage play,” said playwright Stewart, a Utah native who is currently getting his MFA is Dramatic Writing at Arizona State University. “There is a lot more emphasis on the visual element, the spectacle, the magic. In the past, I’ve focused on language. This time around, although that beautiful language is still a vital component, yet I tried to make room for spectacle… for visions.”

Utah film actor, Danor Gerald, is taking one of the starring roles in the multimedia production, but is also one of the show’s producers. Along with the production’s director Jyllian Petrie, they are creating the show’s film elements and creative multimedia effects. “Rings of the Tree pushes the creative boundaries of theatre, and narrative cinema.  Zion Theatre Company and Imminent Catharsis Arts & Media are working together to develop this groundbreaking work of art,” said Gerald, “After doing so many movies in Utah, this project excites me as an actor, and as a producer because it brings me back to my roots in classical live theatre.  That’s my first love, plus I get to integrate my new zeal for digital cinema and web-based media to tell this story.”

As indicated, there is a digital, intermedia element to the show which will surprise audiences. “We’ve all been warned at the movies or theatre to turn off our mobile phones and silence our devices,” said Gerald, “But in this show we expect and encourage the audience to bring your web-enabled tablets and smartphones.  Bring your headphones, and a splitter for your date.  You will want to take the chances we give to you to use them… We aren’t using these as gimmicks.  We are making creative technical choices to deliver each part of the story in the most valuable and enjoyable way.”

Director Petrie has both been invigorated and challenged by the production. “It’s been an eye opening experience. I’ve worked for years in theatre and years in film, but I’ve never had to do both at the same time. It’s been very difficult, but very rewarding, but we’re doing the impossible—we’ve basically filmed a movie and rehearsed a play in a matter of weeks! But I’m very excited, because when it all comes together, it’s going to be mind blowing.”

The Off Broadway Theater is located at 272 South Main Street, Salt Lake City. The Grove Theater is located at 20 South Main Street, Pleasant Grove. All performances of the show will be at 7pm. Tickets are $12 for adults and $10 for students/seniors. Tickets for the Salt Lake performances can be purchased at http://theobt.org/ or by calling (801) 355-4628. Tickets for the Pleasant Grove performances can be purchased at www.ziontheatrecompany.com .

Kathryn Little and Amos Omer in New Play Project's Production of _The Fading Flower_. Photo by Naoma Wilkinson.

I have written two LDS History plays, one called Friends of God (about the events leading up to Joseph Smith’s martyrdom) the other called The Fading Flower (about the conflict surrounding the LDS/ RLDS schism about polygamy, especially as it related to Joseph and Emma Smith’s family). I was criticized by some people for writing the plays (one family member even told me after seeing the play, that he thought I was going to go apostate). Some people thought that the plays brought up too many uncomfortable facts in Church history. They thought that presenting a less than ideal image of Church figures would be damaging to people’s faith. And, truth told, there are some people I know who struggled with both plays.
The irony, of course, is that I wrote the plays to build up faith rather than tear it down… I consider the plays to tell the faith of people who struggled, but were ultimately redeemed by those struggles, either in this life or the next. The plays clearly state God’s reality and love and show the Church’s leaders as inspired, although not perfect. I addressed hard questions, but I also believe I presented answers to those questions, if people were willing to put aside their prejudices and preconceptions. And that, more often than not, proved to be the case.

I had one actor who had gone inactive until he was in Friends of God and then decided to go on a full time mission as a result of being in the play and the Spirit he felt in being part of it. The plays opened up conversations with less active, former member, and non-member friends. I had numerous people come up to me (sometimes in tears) telling me how the play addressed issues they had been struggling with for a long time and that it had answered their prayers. I had people who came with thoughtful, faithful, spiritual experiences and we rejoiced together and were edified together. Both sets of casts, especially, felt spiritual uplift and a sense of mission with each play, even to the point where we had spiritual experiences in feeling presences and angels assisting and participating with us in our work. I won’t go into too much detail there, for its sacred ground for me, but I felt spiritual assistance in bringing those plays to their fulfillment. Again and again, I felt why the Lord had spurred me on in these projects.

However, there was one instance where I doubted myself on this front. The Fading Flower was accepted as part of BYU’s “Writers/Dramatugs/Actors Workshop,” which workshops new plays before producing a staged reading of the piece (I was excited about this since I wasn’t even a BYU student). The play, which deals with some pretty heavy historical realities, especially regarding the practice of polygamy in the 19th century by the LDS Church, hit a couple of the students pretty hard.

One of the students was a wonderful, intelligent, young woman and a feminist who strongly disliked my portrayal of Emma which, fortunately, we fixed to her satisfaction, for I have always been a strong proponent of Emma (I consider myself a kind of feminist myself, by the way). The practice of polygamy in any fashion was something that worked against this young woman’s feminist tendencies, so it was bound to be an uncomfortable topic for her, but she was smart, knowledgeable, and I wasn’t afraid that anything presented was going to take her out for good.

The experience of the other young woman was much harder for me to bear, though. She was a recent Hispanic convert of a couple of years, and had been taught a pretty simplistic version of the Gospel. She had sacrificed a lot, going against her family’s Catholic traditions and moving from Texas to go to BYU and be close to the Church. Her experiences at BYU ruffled her, as she confronted (at least from her perspective) intolerance, judgmentalism, and even some thinly veiled racism. Then there came this play of mine, presenting Joseph Smith as a polygamist (plus other hard facts), all information that she had never encountered before.

Her and I exchanged some long e-mails about the subject, and I did my best to give the context of the issues involved. A good friendship came out of it. However, some time later she later informed me that she had left the Church. She made it sound that it was due to a lot of the other issues she was specifically encountering in the weird culture that is BYU, but I had the feeling that my play certainly hadn’t helped.

I had written the play because of a vivid and prophetic dream I had that spurred me. I felt good throughout the process of writing it and when it was actually performed I, the cast, and many audience members told me the spiritual experiences they had surrounding it. But why then should I even write a play that could inadvertently damage some one’s fledgling faith?

I struggled with that question, but the more I thought and prayed about it, the more convinced I was performing the work the Lord had guided me in. There was a deeper problem at work here… we do not prepare the Saints for the information that is bound to fall in their laps.

It is not my fault that Joseph Smith was a polygamist. I did not create that fact. If you believe him, not even Joseph Smith is at fault for that fact. He was doing as the Lord directed. Yet in the Church we often build up this veil of secrecy, of enforced ignorance. Many of us frown on those who would discuss the less than savory elements of the Gospel and its history.

And it doesn’t only extend to Church History. The Book of Mormon, the Old and New Testaments have own fair share of faith challenging stories. I read a talk once where Elder Jeffrey R. Holland commented on how it said something about the Lord that he put Laban’s death by the hand Nephi within the first eight pages of the Book of Mormon. God wasn’t going to coddle us, he wanted us to face the facts and realize that discipleship in His Kingdom had a price. I look at the graphic and often disturbing stories in the Standard Works and realize that religion– real religion that hasn’t been watered down– is often a hard lesson in the rough nature of truth.

My play The Fading Flower is based on my research about the family of Joseph Smith, years after his martyrdom, especially centering on Emma Smith and her youngest son David Hyrum Smith. Joseph’s widow Emma strived to protect her sons and daughter from the principles which had caused her so much pain in her personal life with Joseph… the principle of polygamy and the “Brighamites” who practiced it. I made a lot of this issue of Emma’s protectiveness. Emma did not want to expose her children to the things and people that had caused her so much struggle. Essentially she wanted to protect them from the truth.

This, in the end, is the cause for the grief and downfall of Emma’s family. It’s Emma’s tragic flaw, this unwillingness to confront the full truth. It’s particularly catastrophic to her youngest son David Hyrum Smith, who not only loses his faith when he confronts the truth about his father’s polygamy, but also loses his sanity and spends the rest of his days in an insane asylum. Near the end of the play, I have David’s adopted sister Julia say, “David did not lose his sanity because he was told the truth in the end. David lost his sanity because he was not told the truth from the beginning. If he hadn’t a false world constructed around him, he would have been able to endure the real one.”

I certainly believe that people still need to learn “line upon line, precept upon precept,” and that we should get “milk before meat.” But I’m saying it now, as I’ve said it before, our enemies are not going to be kind to us in this regard. In this age of easy information, they’re going to shove that meat down our throats and hope that we choke on it. And I have seen just that, time and time again. We’re still feeding the full fledged adults milk, and I’m nervous about the day when they meet some one who has information to give them (without the context) and that our friends and neighbors, and sibling and children, our spouses and parents, they’re going to choke and their faith is going to die.

We often really don’t trust the Lord when He said, “The Truth will make you free.” We take that as some kind of statement about general, esoteric truth, not really applying to the nitty gritty of history and theology and science and anthropology. Yet the Lord makes it painfully clear that if we take that evasive, luke warm track, we are deluding ourselves:

I give you these sayings that you may understand and know how to worship, and know what you worship, that you may come unto the Father in my name, and in due time receive of his fulness….And, verily I say unto you, that it is my will that you should hasten to translate my scriptures, and to obtain a knowledge of history, and of countries, and of kingdoms, of laws of God and man, and all this for the salvation of Zion. Amen (Doctrine and Covenants 93: 19, 53).

To know “what you worship”… that’s a pretty big deal. “And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent” (John 17:3). Yet these are not what many people of faith are being led to. They are told to cover up, not to seek too deep into the mysteries… yet Joseph Smith responds to this kind of reasoning with some unequivocal sayings:

The things of God are of deep import; and time, and experience, and careful and ponderous and solemn thoughts can only find them out. Thy mind, O man! if thou wilt lead a soul unto salvation, must stretch as high as the utmost heavens, and search into and contemplate the darkest abyss, and the broad expanse of eternity—thou must commune with God (Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, p. 137).

That communion with God doesn’t come cheap, and it doesn’t come without some struggle. All the experience I have to base this on are my own, but I know that every experience with the Divine I have had has come like Jacob wrestling with the angel… the Lord tries me, tests me. He forces me into a corner, sometimes making me struggle with conflict, even doubt. But after that tempest, the lights emerge from the darkness and enlightenment comes.

I won’t lie. In writing the about hard questions in Mormon History, I have often had to shed my cherished cultural assumptions like snake sheds his outer skin. Underneath, however, I find scales of armor that have been tempered into a true strength and resilience. I know the history, I know the doctrine, I know the context. I’m no longer afraid.

I’ve always felt very connected to the marginalized. As a child, I remember choosing a stuffed rabbit at the store that was missing its arm because I knew that no one else would buy it. I felt great love for that disadvantaged toy. As I grew older, and I became interested in comic books, outsider heroes like the X-Men, who were hated because they were different, really resonated with me. I had number of childhood friends who were minorities and, more recently, I have a number of  friends who are specifically African-American. So the subject of Civil Rights, racism, and equality have always had a strong resonance with me from the time I was a young child and realized that people were treated unkindly for the most superficial and unjust of reasons.  

While reading these books, my thoughts often turned to my African-American friends:

 I thought of Mika Julien, who was a very close friend of mine in my old singles ward. I still remember her telling me her frustrations about the attitude many members had that she should marry within her own race. She was embarassed when people would try to set her up with other black Mormons who had nothing else in common with her except the color of their skin.

My thoughts turned to Cat Taylor, a friend from my high school theatre group, whose monologue from A Raisin in the Sun touched and impressed me so deeply that I looked into the play over a decade later and decided to direct it as my first production as a high school drama teacher. I have had my other classes read and watch it as well and it has become one of my favorite plays.

I thought of Cooper Howell, an actor friend from UVU’s Theatre Department. I thought of how appalled I was when a few of our fellow actors in The Tempest  used highly offensive, racist  epithets with him as “jokes.” I asked Cooper about it later and realized that, although he was laughing with them at the time, it was surely no laughing matter in his aching heart.  I also remember how frustrated Cooper became when he felt like he wasn’t able to get the roles he wanted at the department, even in one of my own plays, because he felt that the roles were all written for white people.

I thought of my friend Danor Gerald, one of the best actors I’ve ever known, who has worked in a number of professional film and theater projects. I thought of how proud I have been of Danor and impressed with how much he has been able to accomplish in his career as an actor. He and I have been working on some projects together lately with our friend Jaclyn Hales Lasseter. I don’t know whether he has felt the same, but from the moment I met him, I felt a deep connection and kinship with him.

I thought of  Quiana Arnold, who helped with costumes at UVU Theatre Department, and then afterwards took roles in the Department’s productions of Adam Slee’s Echoes of American Slavery and Carl Arrington’s Queens of Birdland, which, in the latter, Quianna played the powerful role of Tina Turner. She gave the show it’s most powerfully emotional moments.

I thought of many of my students who I currently teach and our production of A Raisin in the Sun last year. I got some complaints from a few students. A few of the caucasian students were miffed that, for our first production as a school, we were doing  a play that so many of the caucasian kids couldn’t get into (although we actually did end up having two non-African-Americans in the cast). I thought of the powerful experience the kids had with the text, even though the production itself was somewhat marred by the antics of an immature cast member. I also thought of how the subtle, and often destructive, race relations and politics that I see working in the microcosmic world my students.

I especially thought of  my friend Aaron Vaught, who has been my best, kindest friend in Arizona. He and his beautiful family live in one of the apartments across from us. In a time where we have been very lonely because of the move here from our previous home in Utah, his family have been a great haven of friendship and kindness for us. I sometimes only half-joke to my wife Anne that we should have an arranged marriage between our son Hyrum and their daughter Sophia. If we lived in a time of arranged marriages, it wouldn’t be a joke at all, for their daughters are absolute sweethearts.

And, more painfully, I thought of my dear friend Jessica LaMay. Jessica is as white as I am, but when she was investigating the Church when we were in high school, it was the Church’s previous race exclusion policy that really provided one of the biggest roadblocks to her joining the Church. I was very involved in the process of her investigating the Church, having been the one to invite her to consider it, and was there when she was taking the missionary discussions. I was thrilled when she had committed to baptism. I felt very personally invested and involved, as I considered her one of my closest friends. However, a week before her baptism she cancelled it, and has been at arm’s length from the Church ever since… and, honestly, I totally understand where she’s coming from.  

As I read Standing On the Promises, I re-lived all these memories vividly in my mind. As Young and Gray described the painful experiences of these historical, powerful, African-American Mormons,  it brought even more personal names and faces to my mind.

For those who are not aware of the basis of this series, it tells the historical stories of African-American Mormons. It begins in the days of Joseph Smith and shows how in the pre-Utah days, there was no race exclusion policy in place regarding the priesthood (as one African American Mormon named Elijah Abel received the priesthood from Joseph Smith himself and was ordained a Seventy).  It showed that Joseph Smith championed against slavery publicly when he ran for president, and tenderly cared for the few African-Americans in his own flock privately. That personal care included Jane Manning James, who he and his wife Emma personally invited to live with them when they discovered she had no home to go to, and they later invited her to be sealed to them as their adopted daughter (an offer she didn’t take up at the time, but regretted later).

But after the death of Joseph Smith, race became a hotter and hotter issue in American scoiety (these are the decades leading up to the Civil War). Things changed after the Mormon pioneers were forced to move to Utah and the leadership of Brigham Young implemented the priesthood exlusion for members of African descent. This is when the story starts to get really painful. We see things change from the way they were under Joseph Smith… not perfect, but inclusive, progressive… and then we see the culture of the Saints take a step back. And, frankly, from the context of the story, it had a lot less to do with any supposed revelation from God given to Joseph Smith (for there is no such revelation on this issue, and quite a bit from Joseph Smith that contradicts it), and has a lot more to do with the racist rhetoric which we inherited from the other Protestant Churches at the time, especially the stinking theory of the African race being cursed through Cain and Ham.

I’m not going to lie. A lot of stories in this series shocked and appalled me. When I found out about a lynching happening in early Utah, which I first discovered in Margaret Young’s play I Am Jane, ( and which Margaret Young and Darius Gray deal with again here ) I wanted to scream. I was equally horrified when I read that slavery was allowed in Utah (I simply didn’t realize this, and I’m pretty up on my Mormon history). But the horror became more somber as I realized a lot of that racism remained in Utah through a good deal of the 20th century.

When I read about how the very few black Mormons were treated at BYU and in Utah society even as recently as the 1960s and 1970s (to valiant souls who had already given up so much by joining a Church that excluded them from its priesthood leadership), I was deeply offended and had an uncomfortable rumbling in my soul, as I wanted to scrub away all the injustice and change the history to something more fair. But that’s the thing… I couldn’t. It’s all there, in our history. I can’t ignore it, I can’t pretend it didn’t happen. It’s there, on our permanent record, and we have to learn how to deal with it and make sure that we never allow such a blindspot to go away unchallenged again.

I once was naive enough to believe it was just the priesthood policy that was our issue, but that otherwise Mormons were kind and fair to their fellow human beings, that the policy was a thing that was forced on us, a thing we really didn’t believe deeply in our souls. Of course we knew that God created all people equal. And for many Mormons, I’m sure that was the case. But then it’s been proven to me that many Mormons became very ugly and sinister when it came to race. Their behavior did not live up to their religion. And I’ve had an even more jarring realization as I’ve gotten older that it’s still a problem for some Mormons.

In this supposedly enlightened period of the Church, I have still heard those horrible things that were said to African American friends, I have still heard Church members (even some of my own friends!) denigrate and stereotype other races, I have still seen the subtle and not so subtle racism that exists in many of our attitudes.

And, let me tell you, it’s not just the Mormon Church, and it’s definitely not just religious people, just as it has never been. Among my high school students, among the religious and irreligious, I’m horrified at some of the things they say to and about each other. And, living in Arizona, I’ve seen the stereotypes that are hurled against the Hispanic community among the general population here, especially with the immigation debate becoming so highly concentrated here. Sure, we’ve come a long way in recent decades, especially in the Church, but Zion is still far in the distance.  We have a lot of changes to make before we can deserve the title “pure in heart.”

But the injustices are only one aspect of these books. The flip side of the coin is the glory that these African-American Mormons had gained in their Lord, Jesus, and the bountiful, spiritual blessings they received in accepting the Restored Gospel… even if many of its less inspired members thought there was no place for them in it. It was inspiring reading about Jane Manning James having a vision of Joseph Smith so clear that she recognized him upon meeting him… after she had walked 800 miles on bloody feet to get to Nauvoo to join the Saints!  

It was equally inspiring reading about Elijah Abel who was Joseph Smith’s personal friend and risked his own life to go help Joseph when he was being captured by his enemies. And it was wonderful to read about this same Elijah Abel being ordained to the priesthood by Joseph Smith himself.

It was spiritually moving to read of Green Flake, a Mormon slave, who remained strong in his chosen faith and continued to be an inspiration as a pioneer in the vanguard company who was honored by black and white Mormons alike.

It was beautiful to read of more modern pioneers like Aidan Darius Gray who, although ostricized by some Mormons for being black, and ostricized by some blacks for being Mormon, stood up for their beliefs and their race and knew that Jesus Christ honored them for their multitude of sacrifices and had exaltation waiting for them.  

It was also wonderful to read that not everyone was blinded by prejudice, and that there were many Mormons, including a large number of its leaders, that were pushing for progress. Joseph Smith. Emma Smith. Eliza Partridge. Joseph F. Smith. Heber Grant. Lucy Gates Bowen. Marion Hanks. David McKay. Gordon Hinckley. Thomas Monson. Boyd Packer. And, of course, Spencer Kimball, whose courageous and inclusive leadership, and humble submission to the Lord’s Spirit, led to the revelation that extended the priesthood to all races. Although they were imperfect people who were still limited by their own culture’s boundaries, it took such visionaries to break off the chains of false tradition and usher in the new revelations of the Lord, a tradition begun in the Church by Joseph Smith himself.  

It’s a rather personal and sacred experience, but I feel prompted to write of a dream I had several years ago. It relates very much to what I’m writing here.  Some people get nervous when other people relate spiritual experiences, but as Mormons I believe we need to be more open with each other about these sort of things, for that is the life blood of the Church… revelation and spiritual gifts. It’s what makes us distinct from so many other faiths.

In this vivid dream, I was being led down a street by a guide, a beautiful, African-American woman. I remember being struck by her beauty, which was characterized not only by her inner warmth, intelligence, and kindness, but also of her outer beauty. She was beautiful, in every sense of the word. And she was Mormon, that much was clear from our conversation as we walked down the street, discussing our faith. Then she led me to a wall, or vision, or panorama… it’s difficult to describe, but I was seeing a number of individuals, all of them African-American. They were from various time periods. But some of them were very angry, seething with the injustice that had been placed upon them. I was confused why I was being shown such anger. After reading and learning all that I have since then I now understand that the anger, and understand that it was justified.

I awoke from that dream with the powerful feeling of the Holy Ghost pervading me. It has stuck with me since then, and I have strived to learn more about African-American history and culture. The Civil Right Movement, the Harlem Rennaissance, Civil War history and pre-Civil War African-American history fascinates (and at times discourages) me. I admire and honor such revolutionary Civil Rights activists as Frederick Douglass, Sojourner Truth, W.E.B. DuBois, Rosa Parks, and Martin Luther King, Jr. I love reading the work of writers and playwrights such as Langston Hughes, Zora Neale Hurston, Lorraine Hansberry, Maya Angelou, and August Wilson. I love listening to soulfulness of Ragtime, Jazz, the Blues, MoTown, and even some R&B. I have no rhythm, I’m a white boy from Utah, really as white as they come, but the words and sounds and images and passion of the African-American culture has been making its way deep within me for the past several years and have made a deep impact on me.  

And now I can add these beautiful books as part of that journey and exploration of a culture that is not my own, but which has been slowly adopting me in my heart. Standing on the Promises  are beautifully written and a soulful exploration of the tragedies and victories of the race issue in Mormon culture. They have challenged my thinking, while never detracting from the core of my faith. Aidan Darius Gray and Margaret Blair Young have been anxiously engaged with the race issue within the LDS Church for a lot of years now. Go ahead, Google their names. You’ll find documentaries, interviews, articles, plays, and books by them, all dealing with this same issue, striving to tell the neglected African-American-Mormon story. Their names are becoming synonymous with Jane Manning James, Elijah Abel, and Green Flake. What these two novelists/playwrights/filmmakers/activists/pioneers create is beautiful, not only because of its skill and craftsmanship with which these projects have been made, but also because of the sense of mission behind all of it. I do not lightly talk of people being called of God to perform a mission, although I fervently believe that is the case with many people. However, I have no doubt that these two beautiful individuals, Margaret Young and Darius Gray, have a mission. The Spirit pervades their work.     

Some call the Book of Mormon a racist book, because of the division that occurs between the Nephites and Lamanites within its pages. But when you look deeper, you find the opposite message, of how racial tensions destroyed one nation physically and the other culturally, and that only when those two nations cooperated and loved each other, there was lasting peace. I believe it must be the same way within the modern Church, if we’re ever to build any lasting sense of Zion. In the Book of Mormon, the section 4th Nephi tells us about the most lasting peace that ever occurred in the Mormon book of scripture, the time when Zion was truly upon them after Christ’s visit to the Americas:  

And it came to pass that there was no contention in the land, because of the love of God which did dwell in the hearts of the people… There were no robbers, no murderers, neither were there Lamanites, nor any manner of -ites; but they were in one, the children of Christ, and heirs to the Kingdom of God.

And then earlier in the Book of Mormon we have my personal, all-time favorite scripture, which is one of the most clear condemnationsin Holy Writ of prejudice, in all its varieties:

For none of these iniquities come of the Lord; for he doeth that which is good among the children of men; and he inviteth them all to come unto him and partake of his goodness; and he denieth none that come unto him, black and white, bond and free, male and female; and he remembereth the heathen; and all are alike unto God, both Jew and Gentile. (2 Nephi 26:33)

In his memoir Adventures of a Church Historian, Mormon historian Leonard Arrington quotes the past Church President David O. McKay as saying that the priesthood race restriction was a “policy, not a doctrine.” I fully adhere to President McKay’s view on the priesthood restriction, that such division are created by men, not by God. As Nephi stated “none of these iniquities come of the Lord,” and I’m so grateful to literary pioneers such and Margaret Young and Darius Gray who continually remind us of that fact.

_I Am Jane_ at the Covey Center for the Arts, July 22-23.

The Grand Theatre in Salt Lake recently finished their run of Margaret Blair Young’s I Am Jane, but I am very glad that the show is also going to the Covey Center for the Arts in Provo, UT, on July 22-23.  I am glad because I want to shout from the rooftops to everyone who will listen to me, “Hallelujah! Go see this show!” Really, this may be your last chance.  If you’re in driving distance of Provo on those nights, please, do yourself a favor and go see it.  You’ll be a better human being for it.

Now the production isn’t perfect, nor is the script, and I’ll detail why that is later.  But, in the end, my criticisms of the show don’t matter, because there are some productions that are simply important.  Despite any flaws such shows have, the marred parts are overshadowed and outshone by the glory.  And glory, as hyperbolic as that word can be, is the right word to use for this show.  Glorious.

I Am Jane tells the story of a group of African-American Latter-day Saints, most notably the title character Jane Manning James and, to some degree, Elijah Abel.  For those who haven’t brushed up on their Church History, Jane and Elijah, and those associated with them, were important because they were part of the very small group of early Mormon black pioneers.  Jane and her folk joined the Church in Nauvoo, and Elijah joined in 1832.  One of the peculiar things about Elijah Abel, and one of the things I have found that most Mormons simply don’t know, is that he was ordained to the priesthood by Joseph Smith, and became a seventy.  That’s interesting (as most of the readers of A Motley Vision should know, unless they’re completely new to Mormonism) because people of African descent could not receive the LDS priesthood through most of the Church’s history, until President Spencer W. Kimball received the revelation in 1978 that all worthy male members, no matter their racial descent, could receive the priesthood.

This is one of the most fascinating, if not uncomfortably tragic, issues the play brings up. In Nauvoo, under Joseph Smith,  African-Americans seemed not only to have had a better time in the Church, but seemed to have been welcomed with open arms, especially by Joseph Smith.  Jane was asked to be sealed to the Smith family by Emma and Joseph (a temple/priesthood ordinance which would later be denied to African Americans), and Elijah, as previously mentioned, would receive the priesthood office of a Seventy and was considered a good friend of the Prophet. The play also shows Joseph Smith’s views against slavery that can be read in his political platform for president.

But things change drastically after Joseph Smith’s martyrdom… under Brigham Young, temple and priesthood ordinances are denied to African-Americans, and racism runs rampant in Utah, including mob violence, excommunication and blatant racism against African-Americans who don’t accept their “place” and are not “satisfied” with the “blessings already given them.”

So the set up is quite a poignant, painful juxtaposition of what could have been. Under Joseph Smith, we see a tolerant, joyful acceptance of people of all races.  In Utah, things become dark regarding racial progress and we find policies changing and injustices served and we see the prejudices inherited from the American culture of the time seeping in among the Saints and even effecting the leadership of the Church.  I have heard some argue, including Church leaders, that Joseph Smith instituted the racial policy.  I have not found convincing evidence of that. Even Brigham Young had more tolerant views of racial integration within the Church at the beginning.  It doesn’t seem to be until Winters Quarters that the winds shift (for a good, general overview of these issues, I found this Wikipedia article surprisingly helpful, offering pieces of information I had not read or heard before).

Most people will find the information presented uncomfortable, even deeply disturbing, especially if they have not heard it before.   Especially if one takes the view of a Prophet’s infallibility (which I don’t, and neither did Joseph Smith), it will create dissonance.  However, if one believes that even good, powerful men such as Brigham Young and John Taylor can make mistakes and be influenced by the culture of their time, even in regards to Church policy (note that I use the word policy, not “doctrine.” I agree with David O. Mckay who said the priesthood ban was a policy, not a doctrine), then this play should be no obstacle to anyone’s faith (quite the opposite!), despite its tragic nature.  Especially as, throughout the play, we see the powerful faith, endurance, sacrifice and soulful beauty of the title character, Jane Manning James, and those associated with her.

So these have been some of the issues surrounding the story. Let’s dwell a moment on the actual production:

I have mixed feelings about much of the cast and their performances. I found most of the African-American cast very capably portrayed, while much of the Caucasian cast to have had some strange casting choices attached to them. This is the deep irony in Utah where, due to demographics, it should be much easier to cast a white role than a black one. More on the portrayals later.

It took me a moment to warm up to Tamu Smith, who played Jane.  Her performance seemed muted compared to the lively performances of fellow actress La Shanda Hill who plays the smaller role of Jane’s sister Angeline.  However, as the play progressed and I started understanding Jane’s character better, and picking up on the subtleties and nuances of Smith’s portrayal, I became more and more impressed and simply accepted her as Jane.  It would seem to me that Smith would be very well suited to film, where these nuances would be more accentuated.  As the play progressed, her portrayal rolled a deep seated pain, a shyness, an emotional depth.  These could have been projected even more, considering the needs of a large theater as opposed to a small black box or a film screen.  However, that’s a small concern considering what Smith was able to deliver in terms of soulfulness and tragic beauty.

Abe Willis was very capable as Elijah (which will be played by Danor Gerald at the Provo performances), portraying the role with verve, energy, pathos and humor. Keith Hamilton, who also acted as executive producer for the show, also had a strong performance as Jane’s husband Isaac.  However, I would have liked a little more variance in the levels of his character.  What he did, though, he did very well.  Other major supporting roles played by Jenny Rock, Brandon Day, Peggy Matheson and Emmet C. Gill  were all strong.  I was also surprised that many of the actors who impressed the most had some of the smallest roles… Rita Martin, Danor Gerald, La Shanda Hill and Lauren Livingston could have all powerfully carried much larger roles than they were given.

This, however, had as much to do with the script as anything.  Too many roles were brought on, only to be discarded without further development.  I do not mind large casts, despite the problems it causes to a production in filling so many roles with competent actors, especially if you’re paying your actors and what that does to a budget.  Heck, I’ve written a number of large casts myself, with varying degrees of success.  What I was concerned about was how many of those roles were subsequently thrown away in the script.  If you’re going to write a role, find out the reason you’re writing it, and if it’s not an important reason, then find a way to do without that character.

What would constantly happen in the play is that we’d see a character in one scene, and they would be set up with some importance, and then we would never see them again. Three examples I can immediately think of are the characters of Eliza Partridge Lyman, Samuel Smith and the mysteriously named “Orson” (which “Orson”? Orson Hyde? Orson Pratt? A fictional Orson?). This “Orson” appears in one scene, and could have been easily replaced by a character who we have already met. Her serves no real purpose in the play, except to tell Isaac that there are some finally black women in Nauvoo who he can court. And the inclusion of Samuel Smith mystifies me!  He’s there for one very short scene, to declare (somewhat anti-climatically) Joseph Smith’s martyrdom.  If it wasn’t for the program, a person wouldn’t even know it was Samuel Smith, because he isn’t even named in the dialogue. And the scene, which carries very important information, wasn’t developed. It’s sole existence seems to be to tell you that the Prophet is dead, without any of the needed emotion or gravitas that needs to accompany that information.

Eliza Partridge Lyman, on the other hand,  is initially set up as an important character when we meet her, as she is declared as one of Jane’s best friends and Jane gives her some food which prevents Eliza’s family from starving.  First, Eliza Lyman was miscast.  Being one of Joseph’s younger plural wives (not that the point is brought up in the play), she would have been much more youthful than portrayed in the play. However, more important than a small detail like that, Eliza is declared as Jane’s good friend, one of her best. Yet their dialogue together is stilted and uncomfortable, filled with exposition-laden details that the two supposed friends should have already known about each other.  And since she was set up as such an important friend, the audience is left to wonder, where was Eliza before this point in the play?  Where is Eliza when Jane is enduring her hardships later on? If she’s such a good friend where is she? If I had read the script before hand, I would have promptly told Young to either excise the character completely, or to build her up to be a more important character.  As it is, she serves as a minor plot point rather than a developed character, a vehicle to show Jane’s kindness rather than a vital part of the story’s overarching narrative.

These examples point to a deeper problem in the script… Young doesn’t necessarily know how to adapt this story into a theatrical format.  Young, chiefly a novelist (and a talented one at that), doesn’t seem to understand the needs of the stage. In a novel, or even a film, throwing in one scene characters who don’t serve a pointed use to the plot or major characterization can be all right, because you have much more room to play with.  But on stage, you only have a couple of hours to tell the story, and to go on wild goose chases, whether to fulfill minor historical details (and I sense was often the case here), or to provide convenient exposition, is problematic.  You at least have to double cast such characters (which no effort was made to do here), otherwise the amount of actors, costumes and investment placed into the play exponentially increases.  I’ve had to learn this lesson the hard way in some of my plays, a lesson I’ve had to learn especially hard when I’ve also been a producer or a director.

But, for the most part, these roles were ably filled, especially the African-American roles. However, as I said before, some of the casting of the Caucasian roles on a whole gave me pause, especially the roles of Joseph and Emma Smith, small but vital roles in this story. Now with the casting of Joseph and Emma, I couldn’t tell if my issues had to do with the acting, the directing, the writing or the combination thereof.

Benjamin King, who played Joseph Smith, is a very strong actor.  I’ve known him for many years and his performances rarely fail to impress me.  Ironically, I have even cast him as Joseph Smith myself, in my play Friends of God, and thought that he did a fantastic job with the Prophet in that show. But something about this version of King’s “Brother Joseph” seemed off to me. King had a good friendliness, energy and mode of expression.  But this portrayal of the Prophet, in the end, seemed very one dimensional.

Part of the problem had to do with the script, which surprised me, since I enjoyed Young’s presentation of the Prophet in her novel One More River to Cross.  In the novel (which pretty much covers the same ground the play does) Joseph Smith seemed more three dimensional, more rugged, more human and thus, ironically, more likable.  This Joseph seemed simplified, stiff, overly concerned about about fitting someone’s pre-conception, and thus not fitting anyone’s pre-conception.  The Prophet became a talking point, quoting historical passages rather than having real conversations, preaching sermons rather than interacting as a human being would.  Again, I can’t put my finger on where the root of this problem is in the production, but it was a indeed a problem, and became a disappointing distraction from some very important parts of the narrative.

However, Joseph in the end, was at least set up as a symbolic beacon showing the approach the Church should have taken with race. We end up siding with him, and loving what true semblance  there is of him. The portrayal of Emma Smith, on the other hand, seemed to accidentally undermine the good that this approach was trying to do.  Again, I couldn’t tell if this problem came from the script, the director’s instructions, or Valaura Arnold’s portrayal of Emma, but Emma came off as stiff and unlikable.

For example, there is a scene where Emma tells Jane that her and Joseph want to spiritually “adopt” Jane into their family, by sealing her to them.  This could have been a powerful moment, showing Joseph and Emma’s intense love for this beautiful saint.  However, with how it played out in the production, Emma seemed somewhat awkward and even condescending with the scenario, which created a different sort of racism, albeit a more benign one.  I felt no true spark in the relationship, rather Emma set herself up as a superior over Jane, who needed the Smiths’ guiding hand, instead of being perfectly suited to being sealed to her own family.  To understand the views of sealing people to the Prophet in those days is complex, and one has to understand that it happened to many people in early Church History, but no such context is given and instead it comes off as slightly offensive, if not well meaning.  It tasted too much like the Native American placement program in the Church several decades ago, for my comfort, or the similar program of Australian Aboriginal children being adopted into white families, as chronicled in stories like Rabbit Proof Fence. Now, knowing Margaret Young’s impeccable reputation for race relations in the Church, I know this was not her intent.  However, in future drafts and productions of the script, I would recommend something on some level be fixed to avoid that sense in that scene, because it does not support the message of the beautiful story being told.

I think the flaws that mar this otherwise beautiful script are a shame because of how easily they could have been avoided. It is evident that Young is a very good writer, and this script could have benefited from the tightening a trained playwright, dramaturg or a director accustomed to working with new scripts could have given.  These issues could have been addressed and easily fixed.

However, as I mentioned before, these are small concerns when compared to the mighty things done in I Am Jane. Despite the somewhat flat nature of the white folks’ dialogue, the more important African-American characters’ dialects and dialogue is authentic, natural, specific to type and culture and filled with genuine pathos and humor. It was more like hearing the wonderful dialogue of an August Wilson play, rather than the white, culturally Mormon woman that I know that Margaret Blair Young is.  The African-American characters are fully developed, powerful and dynamic, especially Jane. Young seems to “get” this culture, even perhaps more than her own, which I think is very interesting.  She has been working for a long time within the African-American, Mormon community and it really shows by her passionate advocacy for the community’s causes.  Supported by a talented design team (the costumes and set were awesome), a great, dedicated group of actors and a production staff that obviously love the story and have a mission, they’ve helped Margaret Blair Young bring off a story that, though flawed, simply burns away those flaws with the fire of the spiritual Pentecost that the play ignites.

As I said before, this play is important. Too many Mormons do not understand, nor even seem to want to understand, the issues addressed in this play.  As faith promoting and inspirational as this story is, it in the end it comes off to me as a tragedy.  Jane Manning James, Elijah Abel, Sylvester James, the beautiful African-American-Mormon minority that surrounded them… these were real people.  And many injustices were heaped upon them.  And people like them still live today, facing the same issues that their forefathers did.

As a people who have historically suffered many injustices ourselves, Mormons should be more sensitive and knowledgeable about these issues.  We should know these stories.  We should not be afraid of analyzing our own souls, and trying to root out the remaining vestiges of racism and discrimination that remain there.  We’ve gone a long way as a Church and as a people.  But subtle intolerance and a lack of true charity are still shadows we need to address.  I’m surprised about the racist attitudes I still encounter among some otherwise good people in the Church.  Many Mormons still have not put away the cultural mythology concerning African-Americans, whether it is the “curse of Cain” or the “less valiant in the pre-existence” excuses.  I think at one point we need to come to grips that we are just as guilty, and just as influenced by the racist inheritance that many others in the world received.  We’re better than we were, but we’re not done yet.  Yet productions like I Am Jane go a long ways in helping us bring that mirror to our souls and force us to have a long, honest look at what we see there.

Tickets for I Am Jane can be purchased through The Covey Center for the Arts.

Sensitivity Rating: I Am Jane frankly addresses many offensive attitudes and actions concerning race, including the use of the “n” word.  Although culturally important to the story, parents should be prepared to have long, honest discussions with their children about what their children see and hear in the story. There is also brief references to rape, polygamy and violence in the play, although in tasteful ways not shown on stage.

Farland chooses to tell the story of the Willie handcart company through the eyes of three of the company’s most historically grounded members: Captain James G. Willie, educated non-Mormon British immigrant Eliza Gadd, and guileless Dane Baline Mortensen. Rotating through the three character’s perspectives Farland brings to light not only the struggles of the destitute handcart pioneers but struggles central to the adoption of the LDS faith.

Captain Willie, as Farland recreates him, struggles as leader of the handcart pioneers when temporal concerns (fresh water, food, weather) don’t bend to his spiritual authority. As much as Willie wants to get his pioneers across the plains before winter sets in and lives are lost, what he really wants is to keep their faith in God intact. When faced with a massive storm and nowhere to hide, Willie doesn’t pray for the elements to be tempered so that the company can avoid hardship but so that the non-member Eliza Gadd will become a believer. As the trek continues and apostles glide through in comfortable carriages leaving only inspirational speeches and broken promises Willie’s own testimony comes under fire. He asks himself, is it okay to doubt the words of an apostle? Is the seemingly cursed trek and the ever-rising death count really God’s will? Are all trials evidence of sin? Why does God let bad things happen to good people?

Eliza Gadd’s spirituality acts not only as a catalyst for Captain Willie’s questioning but also as an entry point for modern readers who may not be able to comprehend why the handcart pioneers set out at all. As the only non-member of the company Eliza isn’t afraid to point out the strangeness of polygamy and other Mormon beliefs or the heavy reliance on charismatic leaders in place of logical thinking. And while her overall character arc seems a little forced, she poses probably the most important question for a modern reader: does asking questions make a person essentially unfaithful? Is there a way for a “thinking person” to accept an essentially non-rational religion?

Baline Mortensen is everything Eliza Gadd and Captain Willie are not. She doesn’t doubt, question, or over-think. She prays for guidance and acts on her feelings, convinced that even though she is only ten years old she is powerful enough to be angel to others in the handcart company and speed them to Zion. It is Baline, however, who ends up paying the ultimate price for her faith. Captain Willie suffers severe frostbite and loses his pride. Eliza loses her husband and several children. But both survive the trek and both receive spiritual boons. Baline–who pulled cripples through mudbeds and gave up her ration for a best friend with dysentary–freezes to death while searching for firewood in a snowstorm and gnawing on her own knuckles to stave off starvation. She is the ultimate Saint, consecrating her all and lending substance to the somewhat frightening idea that a true religion requires its people to sacrifice everything.

In the Company of Angels is at turns inspiring and gruesome (Farland doesn’t flinch at details of Indian attacks or rampant disease) and will likely offend some readers. Other readers will be offended by the book’s frank discussion of the personal failures of priesthood holders. Also, it is not without flaws: the characters lack subtlety and there are times the prose could use finessing. The book is self-published and there are sections with quite a few typos. But In the Company of Angels is clearly the work of a man who has grappled with the dilemmas of a faith-based life and loves his religion and will therefore resonate with many readers. In writing this novel Farland has secured himself a place with Mormon literary mainstays like Gerald Lund and Orson Scott Card and In the Company of Angels will likely be widely read and appreciated.

First, one from AML’s Nan McCulloch, who is one of my favorite theatre reviewers (and not just because she’s generally very supportive of my plays). Nan’s just one of the more insightful and intelligent theatre critics I’ve come across… and it doesn’t hurt that she always seems to “get” my plays. :] Here’s the link to her review on the AML discussion board:

http://www.forums.mormonletters.org/yaf_postsm1967_STEWART-Farewell-to-Eden.aspx#1967

Second, one from the Deseret News. For the record, although the reviewer Sharon Haddock thought the play lacked some “hope,” I would respectfully disagree. I just think the hope in the play is more subtle than she would have liked… perhaps she would have preferred a more wrapped up ending, so we’ll just have to disagree artistically. Otherwise, she was very complimentary. Here’s the link:

 http://www.deseretnews.com/article/705359376/Farewell-to-Eden-absorbing-but-bleak.html

  For those who are interested in seeing the closing performances, you can make reservations by sending an e-mail to zion.theatre.company@gmail.com , with your name, how many tickets you want, and for which performance you want. Performances start at 7:30 on evenings, and 2 pm for the matinee.

Books I wish I owned:

Byuck by our very own Theric, er, I mean, Eric Jepson. This is the best link I could conjure up for this quirky never-published novel about the fight to stay single while attending BYU. So sad it never made it into print. Maybe if we’re all really nice Theric will serialize it on his blog!

No Going Backwards by Jonathon Langdon. Gay Mormon teen. Need more? Then check out the website.

Slumming by Kristen D. Randle (To read my interview with Randle click here.) What I loved about this book was how uncompromisingly Mormon it was and how uncompromisingly national market it was. Okay. It wasn’t exactly Gossip Girl, but the fact that the book works in both worlds made me so happy.

Breaking Rank by Kristen D. Randle. This one had closet Mormons but the teenage protagonist’s decision making process was so true to teenage Mormons. I loved it.

Harvest: Contemporary Mormon Poems I had no idea how awesome Mormon poetry was until I bought this. It was truly the best forty-six cents I ever spent!

The Year My Son and I Were Born: A Story of Down Syndrome, Motherhood, and Self-Discovery by Kathryn Lynard Soper. If you know a Mormon mommy who loves memoirs and haven’t bought this book yet for her, then now is the time. Seriously beautiful book.

Refuge: An Unnatural History of Family and Place by Terry Tempest Williams. I read this one for an ecobiography writing seminar and I was glad. TTW is a controversial and watershed figure not only in Mormon environmental writing but also in Mormon feminist writing and Mormonism as a culture and not just a religion. This book, part memoir and part ecology lesson, is a great place to start with her.

Long After Dark by Todd Robert Petersen. This book really pushed my litmus test, making me extremely uncomfortable in the process, but I felt like it was done artfully and purposefully and that made me glad. Read my interview with Todd Robert Petersen for more.

The Conversion of Jeff Williams by Douglas Thayer. This book about a California teen’s summer in the heartland of Mormonism is the novel that will shut the mouth of all the your Mormon fiction naysaying friends. Beautifully written, intensely thoughtful, this is one that demands repeat readings.

Sun and Moon, Ice and Snow by Jessica Day George. For you readers who love teen fiction (it’s okay to admit it; I do too!) or just enjoy having a thought provoking book to read with your kids, this creative amalgam of Norse mythology and the Cupid/Psyche myth will delight. George is popular for her Dragon Slippers series and if you liked those you will LOVE this one.

The Candy Shop War by Brandon Mull. I love tween literature that encourages questioning and viewpoint broadening without being all Lord of the Flies or One Fat Summer about it. By creating an old lady of dubious motivations who makes candies that give kids super powers Mull does a great job of entertaining and pushing kids to think about consequences without preaching or settling for easy answers. I’m still waiting for a ten year old to read this book so I can chat with them about it. Really well done.

Books that were worth the inter-library loan:

Benediction: a Book of Stories by Neal Chandler. (Not everyone loves this book. A lot of people find it offensive. But I thought it was such a great parody of some of the wilder small town personalities I grew up with. Read my original post here.)

The Only Alien on the Planet by Kristen D. Randle. (Basically a novelization of the old “Cipher in the Snow” story. Interesting!)

Secrets by Blaine M. Yorgason (Quintessential Deseret Book “issue” novel. Tackles an important subject but tends to gloss over the difficulties.)

People of Paradox: A History of Mormon Culture by Terryl L. Givens (Probably the most important book for Mormon culture scholars and you should read it. But you might not tackle it more than once.)

A FUTURE FOR TOMORROW – Surviving Anorexia – My Spiritual Journey by Haley Hatch Freeman (Read my original review here. I also believe that this book should not be read without also reading Michael Greenberg’s Hurry Down Sunshine–just to give some context the psychotic break of it all.)

Books that are worth reading if someone hands it to you:

Circle Dance by Sharlee Mullins Glenn

Hold On, the Light Will Come: And Other Lessons My Songs Have Taught Me by Michael McLean

Abinadi by Heather B. Moore (For more of my thoughts on this book read here.)

River Secrets (The Books of Bayern)River Secrets (The Books of Bayern, #3) by Shannon Hale

Longshot: The Adventures of a Deaf Fundamentalist Mormon Kid and His Journey to the NBA by Lance Allred (My original review.)

Austenland: A Novel by Shannon Hale

Dragon Flight (Dragon Adventures) by Jessica Day George

All this has got me wondering, what Mormon books did you read this year and what did you think? Any you enjoyed enough to shell out money for? I need recommendations for next year!

I love the form; I’ve always have a, always had a love/hate relationship with comics: I love the form, but some of the content are not to my liking.

Yeah, I’ve read you’re not a big superhero fan.

No, I’m not. I’ve done a lot of superheroes, but basically I’d rather have more uh, less fantastic stories.I  read — I read also that you, um, prefer war stories over other types because of the Cuban Revolution? Would you agree with that?

Well, not really, what I said is I prefer war stories because having been raised in the 1930s in Cuba and having seen a lot of fighting, a lot of terrorism around me. The first memory of my life was my house being surrounded by a mob —

Oh dear.

— and shot to pieces by a mob.

Mmhmm.

When I think of war stories, of the children, I think of the grownups going through all that horror and it is very real to me; and superheroes flying in the air are not very real to me, frankly.

I can understand that.

Yes. So, you know, and, uh, also, during my teens, that was the time of World War Two, and the movies and the newsreels and the air just sizzled with the idea of winning the war against the Nazis.

Mmhmm.

And so so that’s very much in my consciousness. And the two kinds of stories that I like are either war stories where you see an ordinary person become a hero —

Mmhmm.

— or stories of uh human relations.

Last time, Ric Estrada told us that his work, though not strictly “Mormon” in content, contained “a certain amount of compassion and a certain amount of . . . spirituality.” And he found that, generally, such were easier to do within the confines of real life, than, say, when inventing Power Girl.

Unfortunately for Brother Estrada, this past century has been a century dominated by superheros. If the (admittedly incomplete) list of comic credits at the Comic Book Database is correct, his output was roughly two superhero stories to every more realistic outing. Of course, that ignores comics work like the New Testament Stories he did for the Church and his editorial cartoons and book illustrations (which a quick Google Book Search reveal to be quite literally voluminous), to say nothing of his journalism and prose fiction. His heart was always grounded in the real.

But real in content. His style has never approached the photorealistic, nor did he wish it too. In a 1996 essay I’ve not been able to track down (but which is quoted extensively here), Estrada said, “My so-called ‘lyricism’ stems from my approach to drawing as flat design rather than as three-dimensional bulk.”

Don Mangus, the author of the essay I lifted that quotation from, says that “perhaps because of [his] extensive fine arts training . . . Estrada continued experimenting and questing for personal and artistic growth” — all the while maintaining his distinctive cartoony style.

As Estrada told me, “Of course I have several styles: the comic-book style, the goofy style for books, the advertising style for advertising . . . .”

Below appear three examples of his work courtesy of blogger Daniel Best who owns this original art. All three are superhero-free, stories that take place in the real world, but all three are quite different as well. Behold:

This is the closest of the three to superheros. No questions that these helmeted musclemen will be superheroesque in their capacity for violence. But no flying, no running near the speed of light. This is violence that reflects reality. To lift another Estrada quotation from Mangus (this one originates from the essay “War, You Said?”), “I grew up in Havana in the 1930s, amid terrorist bombs, shells shrieking overhead and rifle fire cracking in the streets. My first memories are of bullets biting into the walls of my home and houses burning in the night. Memories of fear and imminent death, of men’s hatred and children’s dread.” Which does not sound that far removed from hordes of maurauding Mongols sweeping down from the steppe to leave death and destruction in their path.

I’m a little nervous to psychoanlyze myself, but this is, no question, my favorite Estrada drawing yet. Their hair hasn’t aged well, but two beautiful people in pain surrounded by some of the cutest pigeons ever put on paper — what’s not to like?

Yes. That is Weclome Back, Kotter. If you’re about ten years older than me, this was your favorite show and you may even have this comic in a box in your mother’s garage.

Ric Estrada’s oeuvre represents, more than anything, two things:

1. His need and love for the act of creation.
2. His willingness to take any job to support his family, even Batman.

This intersection between art and family will be the subject of the next portion of this series. But while I’m finishing it, that might provide a good point for discussion: For the professional artist, working to feed the family, which sort of jobs should be accepted? Which lines that the artist draws are reasonable? Which are moral? Which are artistically unacceptable? Which are merely petty snobbery? When your passion is also your day job, how do you know when you’re doing which?

Well?

But before I go full steam into the review, I should make a side note. The problem with my theater reviews is that I often attend closing night, so people can’t attend the show even if I have heartily recommended it. The good thing about Hancock County, however, is that it is part of the upcoming Saints On Stage: An Anthology of Mormon Drama which I’m currently editing for Zarahemla Books. So, although Westminster College’s production of it is finished, you can watch out for the play in Saints On Stage in the next several months.  

Before I talk about the merits and the detractions of the production, however, I would like to mention my thoughts on the play and the playwright.  Tim Slover is one of Mormonism’s most talented playwrights and Hancock County is my personal favorite of his work. Slover has a penchant for historical plays, his most famous play being Joyful Noise, about Handel’s composing of The Messiah. However, he has also has written plays on Shakespeare, Benjamin Franklin, Butch Cassidy and Alexander Hamilton (not to mention the Emmy award winning film A More Perfect Union, about the drafting of the U.S. Constitution), so his love for history, and his talent in fashioning it into a riveting story, is plainly evident.

Hancock County is an extension of Slover’s historical tradition, this time narrowing in on his own Mormon roots. The play is about the murder trials of after the deaths of Joseph and Hyrum Smith. Governor Thomas Ford (often suspected of being part of the conspiracy himself) has pushed hard for a trial to redeem his image after Joseph and Hyrum’s martyrdom, and has assigned Josiah Lamborn as the prosecuting attorney. Lamborn is a hard drinking man whose image has been tarnished because he was caught accepting bribes on cases. Lamborn is also out to redeem himself. Seeking witnesses, most of whom are reluctant, he finally zeroes in on Eliza Graham, a woman who was  once a Mormon, but is “not much in the Church these days,” for reasons that are disclosed in the play.

Rounding out the cast are Ann Fleming, Eliza’s “kin” whose abusive husband forces her to go against her conscience; Brigham Young, who has inherited the leadership of the Mormon Church and all the burdens that go with that mantle; Orville Browning the once friend and lawyer of Joseph Smith (he was also a close friend to Lincoln and a founder of the Republican party), but who is now the lawyer defending Joseph’s murderers; Thomas Sharp, the rabidly anti-Mormon newspaper editor for the infamous Warsaw Signal, who is on the list of the defendants; and Richard Young, the judge assigned to the case whose true desire for Justice and his plans to run for the Governor’s seat (with its accompanying PR campaign) are often at odds with each other.

It’s a dynamic group of individuals who all represent the interests of different, competing groups. But even more fascinating than the community dynamics are the individuals themselves. A bright red thread through many of Slover’s works is the theme of the sinner who yearns to be redeemed.  In the play, which really centers around the non-Mormon Lamborn, we find Lamborn as a fallen man. His reputation is torn into ribbons, and his professional and personal future looks bleak. Your heart goes out to him as you see that, tainted as his actions made him, he is a lovable man, even a good man. Through the play, you see him trying to shed his flaws in trying to help the Mormons get Justice, only to find that it’s not Justice that any of them need… it’s Grace.

Near the end of the play, after finally getting his first real glimpse of the man whose murder he is trying to avenge, Lamborn has an epiphany which not only summarizes the play, but most of Slover’s work:

LAMBORN: … murder just ain’t murder if you happen to dislike the victim.  Well, I want to tell you, you’re doing the right thing. Oh, not because of Joseph Smith’s morals or his militia—hell, you all got one of those. No. It’s his ideas. (Holds up the manuscript) I’ve been reading them. And they’re so dangerous and pernicious that you folks had no choice but to kill him. Just listen to what he wrote: “Hold out to the end, and we shall be resurrected and become like Gods.” As far as I can make out, this man believed that human beings can turn into gods. How’s that for blasphemy, members of the jury? But just try to grasp it for a moment if you can. All our meanness and our fear, and our little hatreds, and our weakness, all turned into glory. (He begins to laugh, a low chuckle.) Now imagine someone actually believing that.

The path to redemption is often a long, painful one. When we encounter our sins and fears and dark blots, it’s not easy… we all know that. And Slover handles this tender, often heart wrenching subject with a masterful, personal touch filled with both humor and pathos. Slover is at his best when he is handling characters whose lives are riddled with imperfection and sin, but who long for something more.

Now onto the actual production. It is only fair to note that my first exposure to this play was BYU’s masterful premiere several years back on the Pardoe Theater. That production had a superb cast, whose veteran actors inlcuded the likes of Marvin Payne, Bob Nelson, Scott Bronson and Stephanie Foster Breinholt, whose polish and professionalism was born from decades of acting experience. And BYU always seems to have a sizable budget, so the set and costumes were also top notch, even when they took a minimalistic approach.

So, in comparison, Westminster’s production could be seen as lacking, since its cast was chiefly made up young (some of them largely inexperienced) actors, and that it had an evidently shoe string budget (the costumes were the most glaring evidence of this). Lack of funds will take off at least some of the polish from any production (I know this since my own plays have had various kinds of budgets, from the lavish, to the penny pincher).

But to boil it down to that would be a disservice to the fine effort and passion that went into this production. Although Westmister’s cast was young, and in consequence some of the acting was either overwrought or underwrought, yet there was a heart and dedication in many of the performances that showed an inner fire that even BYU’s production couldn’t match. Of particular note were several excellent performances from actors, who with some more training, could truly become forces to be reckoned with.

The most polished performances came from Stephen Williams, who played Judge Young; and Gordon Dunn, who played Orville Borwning. Their experience and steady presence lifted the production to another level whenever they were on stage. However, the most dynamic performances (although at times not as professional) came from John Armstrong, playing Brigham Young; Connor Montgomery, playing Josiah Lamborne; Christie Porter, playing Eliza; and Pania Seeley, playing Ann Fleming.

Armstrong played one of the most interesting Brigham Young’s I’ve ever seen (which is saying a bit, since I’ve seen James Arrington’s masterful portrayal). Armstrong’s Brigham was sensitive, even emotional. He added a sincerity and a spirituality into the role that was born from a believer’s perspective. Although his performance was certainly not flawless, he really made you care for Brother Brigham.

Montgomery displayed some real fireworks in his portrayal of Lamborn. Although at times overwrought, yet he had a clear, powerful character. His passion and fire gave the play some of its most moving and funny moments. Certainly a joy to watch.

Christie Porter as Eliza Graham had an eye for detail and a talent for understatement. Although her vocal work could have used more variety and range, yet her performance was one of the most honest and  nuanced. Her honest reactions are especially to be commended.

Pania Seeley had wonderful instincts. Expressive and emotional, she did some excellent work. However, her performance would have seemed more honest and less staged if she had pulled back bit and kept the same emotion and expression in a more contained manner.

Overall, although the production was flawed, like its Grace craving characters, the passion and power of the actors hearts and their love for performing made the play soar into moments of beauty and glory.

Although Stewart said that this play holds special significance for him personally, “The work of C.S. Lewis has had a meaningful influence upon me since I was young. It is due to him that my work is as religious as it is. To borrow Lewis’ own words, he ‘baptized my imagination.’”

The play centers around Lewis’ conversion to Christianity. “People are surprised when I tell them that C.S. Lewis was once an entrenched atheist,” said Stewart, “He became such a powerful advocate for Christianity that people have a hard time seeing him as anything but. But the reason he was such a powerful voice was because he had been on the other side. He knew their arguments, he felt the weight of their reasons.”

Although the play has strong religious content, Stewart assures that the play is neither saccharine, nor didactic. “It is a conversion story, no doubt about it, but the men that effected Lewis’ conversion were no intellectual lightweights. People like Hugo Dyson, Owen Barfield and the famed J.R.R. Tolkien were powerful, extremely intelligent individuals. They had tremendous impact on the change that happened in Lewis. I have strived to write this play with that in mind — to make it visceral, emotional, intellectual, lyrical, real.”

Where: Provo Theatre Company, 105 E. 100 North, Provo
When: 7:30 p.m. May 16, 17, 19, 23, 24; 2:30 p.m. May 17, 24
Cost: $10/$8 students, seniors
Phone: 830-4553
Web: www.newplayproject.org/tickets