Today I’m delighted to announce that Rabbit Room Press is now making available two original plays by National Book Award-winner Walter Wangerin Jr.
These are “mystery plays,” but don’t confuse that term with “plays about Sherlock Holmes.” Click the link for more information, but mystery plays are a venerable tradition of presenting Bible stories in the form of stage drama. Rachel Weeping for Her Children is written for Epiphany and tells the story of Herod and the Magi. It’s beautiful and tragic, harrowing even. The second is written for Palm Sunday: The Way of the Cross (The Cry of the Whole Congregation), and it draws the entire audience into the story. One could think of it as a sort of liturgy, or an amped up responsive reading. Think about Holy Week and imagine the parts the congregation might play. It promises to be a powerful experience, and if either of these sound familiar it might be because you’ve seen them before. They’ve been performed all over the country.
Both of these plays are now available in the Rabbit Room store. We are offering them both as low-cost evaluation copies, so that you can read the material to decide if it’s right for your theater or church, and as performance copies, which grant rights for reproduction and live performance.
I hope some of you will let us know when your performance happens. I’d love to attend, and if anyone takes pictures, please forward them to me so that I can share them with Walt. Easter is coming up quickly. It’s not too late to get started!