Book & Lyrics
Laurel Klinger Vartabedian
Music
Bill Evans
Music Director
Julianne Merrill
Directed by Adam Hester
Choreography by Randy Davis
Scenery by Ryan McGettigan
Costumes by Amy Price
Lighting by Gertjan Houben
Photo Credit: www.appliedarts.us
About The Show
This show is a fantasy based around the ministry of Father Divine’s Peace Mission Movement and several other similar off-shoot religious movements, such as those of Daddy Grace and St. John the Vine, that prospered during the Depression Era.
However, we recognize that the social advances that were made, particularly through the Peace Mission Movement, were meaningful. This movement was a mixture of mysticism, capitalism, Christian doctrine, and socialism. Some of the ideas are admittedly strange by most standards—for example, that heaven was already on earth and Father Divine was God. The movement was a living example of integration in the 1930s and 1940s. So, let it be said, that while the movement had its detractors, it may be one of the least known, and yet most successful social experiments ever conducted in the name of religion. The hungry were fed; the homeless were housed.
One “what if” propels the tale...all of the other elements could have happened and a great many of them did.
We'll let the audience try to decide what is fact and what is imagined. LKV
www.motherdivinethemusical.com
This show is a fantasy based around the ministry of Father Divine’s Peace Mission Movement and several other similar off-shoot religious movements, such as those of Daddy Grace and St. John the Vine, that prospered during the Depression Era.
However, we recognize that the social advances that were made, particularly through the Peace Mission Movement, were meaningful. This movement was a mixture of mysticism, capitalism, Christian doctrine, and socialism. Some of the ideas are admittedly strange by most standards—for example, that heaven was already on earth and Father Divine was God. The movement was a living example of integration in the 1930s and 1940s. So, let it be said, that while the movement had its detractors, it may be one of the least known, and yet most successful social experiments ever conducted in the name of religion. The hungry were fed; the homeless were housed.
One “what if” propels the tale...all of the other elements could have happened and a great many of them did.
We'll let the audience try to decide what is fact and what is imagined. LKV
www.motherdivinethemusical.com
