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 HISTORICAL DRAMA 1
Katherine Luther:
A Burr To A Top Coat
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The most notable of my historical plays and the one most useful to congregations would be "Katie Luther: A Burr to a Topcoat." Through Katie, this play deals with Reformation themes and history. This play received recognition for “Best Script” in the 1982 Episcopal Foundation for Drama national competition held in St. Louis. It was originally produced by Muhlenberg College to tour area churches, and has been produced by numerous churches and colleges.
With the narration of Herr Kopp, the pickled herring delivery man who helped Katherine Von Bora and other nuns escape the convent, we hear the story of “Katie,” Martin Luther’s wife. Martin Luther never appears in this play. Rather, it is about Katie’s struggle to live a faithful life to God after having broken the vow she had once made. We witness her wrestling with marriage, the death of a child, the stubbornness of her husband, the anger of a peasant, and much more.
This play is available in two versions ... a full version (45 minutes) for multiple actors, and a single actor monologue version suitable to be performed during a worship service such as Reformation Sunday. Please specify when ordering. 
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HISTORICAL DRAMA 2
A Twisted Cord
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"A Twisted Cord" is a play about Henry Muhlenberg and the beginnings of the Lutheran Church in America. It tells the story of a fictitious meeting between Henry Muhlenberg and an itinerant preacher named John Stoever, whom Muhlenberg did not respect, on the evening before the beginning of the historic first meeting of the Pennsylvania Ministerium more than 250 years ago. This event marked the official beginning of the organized Lutheran Church on this continent. Stoever is threatening to disrupt the assembly to which he is not invited, even though he has faithfully worked in the mission field of Pennsylvania. However, Muhlenberg challenges not only his confessions, but also his piety. Through their encounter we examine the issues that were at work in the beginnings of our church, many of which still exist.
"A Twisted Cord" was commissioned for the 250th anniversary of the first Ministerium meeting, and was performed at the South Carolina Synod Assembly in 2007. It soon will be published by Erdman’s Publishing Co.
For information about possibly bringing a production of this play to your location, please call or 
e-mail.
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HISTORICAL DRAMA 3
A Good Blink
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This play was requested and produced by the South Carolina Synod in honor of its 175th anniversary. 
It was performed at the Synod Assembly in Greenville in 1999.
With a mysterious narrator leading us, we journey through the years of the Synod, seeing simple farmers talking of calling a pastor, a woman challenge a pastor on the steps of the church regarding his support of the civil war that has claimed her sons, a woman argue with her husband about the growing role of women in the church in the early 1900s, and many more scenes that tell the story of this diverse Synod. It is only in the end that we realize that this narrator who has witnessed all of this, and been a part of each scene, is herself the Holy Spirit, active in the history of the church and the lives of its people. To her, these 175 years have been a mere blink of an eye, but it has been a good blink.
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HISTORICAL DRAMA 4
The Deal |
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This play was requested by and produced for the 50th anniversary of Lutheridge, the camp and conference center for North and South Carolina. What is the history of Lutheridge? Is it the story of buildings built and directors hired? Or is the history of what Lutheridge has done in the lives of those who have been shaped by its ministries?
In this play a bumbling burglar encounters a couple early one morning, demanding money that he knows is hidden somewhere, but everything is turned upside down when they discover that they all went to Lutheridge. The couple has gone there all their lives. The burglar was sent there as a kid for two quick weeks. The money the couple is saving is to send their children to Lutheridge again this summer. Will the burglar take it? Will he be changed by his encounter with this couple, and thereby have Lutheridge finally make a difference in his life? Can this couple reach him with grace and mercy, as Lutheridge has reached so many children and adults over the years?
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HISTORICAL DRAMA 5
Nature, Truth And No Humbug |
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This play is about John Bachman, pastor and naturalist, and was commissioned for presentation at the John Bachman Symposium by Newberry College in Newberry, SC, upon the occasion of the college’s 150th anniversary.
Newberry College was begun under the leadership of Pastor Bachman of St. John’s in Charleston. Bachman was known throughout America as one of the foremost naturalists of his day, and he was a friend and contemporary of John Audubon. The play centers on a true event late in Bachman’s life as he and his daughter fled Charleston in fear of Union troops and found themselves at the rural home of a Mrs. Ellerbe. While there, yankee soldiers arrive and confront Bachman and the others as they look for hidden monies. However, added to the story is the union doctor who recognizes Bachman for his scientific work. The soldiers even beat and threaten to kill Bachman. The doctor wants to debate with Bachman regarding evolution and the “science of man,” but what is really at stake is the doctor’s soul.
