Tags
Abraham J. Heschel, Chick-fil-A, Dan Cathy, Dramaturgy, Faith and Art, Faith Matters, LGBT, New Play Development, NPR, Playwriting, PR, Radio, Religion, Texas Tech Theatre and Dance, The Prophet Darla, The Prophets, Theatre, Theatre and Religion
Last week my dramaturg Evangline Jimenez and I appeared on the radio show “Faith Matters,” a mainstay on our local NPR station, KTTZ 89.1 FM, to discuss The Prophet Darla. The show is run by Pastor Ryon Price of Second Baptist and Monsignor David Cruz of Our Lady of Grace, both of whom were excellent hosts and seemed very interested in our project and what it has to say about faith, religion, and the journeys therein. Father Cruz made a particularly interesting point when he brought up that fact that he had seen a production of Equus some years ago, a play which he saw as a powerful critique of organized religion; I have long been aware of the spiritual/religious matters handled in that play, but never considered it in connection with my own work.
We discussed the play and its process for a while, which allowed me to talk about Darla’s origins as “Darrell,” a good-natured slacker in the Jeff “The Dude” Lebowski mold; how different things might have been had The Prophet Darrell been done instead. The conversation did take a turn towards the Chick-fil-A brouhaha (thanks to me, of course), which I at first regretted because I felt it might drudge up something that should be long dead and would inevitably distract from what we were really trying to talk about…but in the end, perhaps there were connections and comments to be made. Of course, this is the only section of the conversation that has made it online at this point; give it a listen here and make up your own mind:
http://kttz.org/post/faith-matters-jared-strange-evangeline-jimenez