A SAMUEL FRENCH, INC. TITLE

God's Heart

Full-Length Play, Drama  /  5w, 3m

Reaching into the darkness of American life at its extremes - from the lives of the wealthy and fortunate to the struggles of the invisible and neglected - this play follows three protagonists who share a dream.

  • Cast Size
    Cast Size
    5w, 3m
  • Audience
    Target Audience
    Adult

Details

Summary

Reaching into the darkness of American life at its extremes - from the lives of the wealthy and fortunate to the struggles of the invisible and neglected - this play follows three protagonists who share a dream. An African American teenager fights to overcome his family's cycle of despair and drug dependency, a thirty five year old white advertising executive with a new baby suffers from a deep sense of her own spiritual worthlessness, and a forty five year old documentary film maker, also white, is losing her African American lover to breast cancer. Using newspaper headlines, cyber chat rooms, online data bases and a dream like array of startling, sometimes beautiful, often terrible images carved from the nightmares of these disparate souls, God's Heart seeks compassion for those who cry out for connection, peace and kindness in the face of the unspeakable cruelty and exploitation that erode the heart of American culture.

History

God's Heart premiered at the Lincoln Center Theater in New York City in May of 1997 under the direction of Joe Mantello.

CARLIN - 15, black
JANET - 30, white
DAVID - 30, white
ANGELA - 16, black
AÑA - 21, Guatemalan
ELEANOR - 30's, black
BARBARA - 30's or 40's, white
CASHMERE - 16, black

In addition, a number of roles are doubled:
PASSERBY - played by ensemble
INTERACTIVE VIDEO VOICE - played by CASHMERE
NEWSCASTER'S VOICE - played by AÑA
DR. FARKAS - played by CASHMERE
MAN IN PURPLE HOOD - played by CASHMERE 
NIGHT NURSE - played by AÑA 
LAB WORKERS - played by ANGELA and AÑA 
REESE - played by DAVID
  • Time Period 1990s
  • Setting After dark in New York City
  • Features Contemporary Costumes / Street Clothes
  • Additional Features Multimedia
  • Cautions
    • Drugs
    • Gun Shots
    • Intense Adult Themes
    • Strong Language
    • Mild Adult Themes
    • Smoking

Media

REVIEWS 

"God's Heart is a play which dares to say very ugly things from a very moral place, which risks censure in an effort to reach an ugly truth; a play that's wise to its own inescapable shortcomings and addresses them as part of its subject; a play which ought to have been greeted with exhilaration and joy, for it courageously refuses restraint and risks everything to live up to its impossible-to-live-up-to title." -Tony Kushner, Civilization Magazine 

Licensing & Materials

  • Minimum Fee: $120 per performance

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Authors

Craig Lucas

Craig Lucas is a American playwright, screenwriter, theatre director, musical actor, and film director. He is currently Associate Artistic Director at the Intiman Theatre in Seattle.

Born on April 30, 1951, and abandoned in a car in Atlanta, Lucas was adopted when he was eight ...

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