Dramaturg's Statement

The Stonewater Rapture was published in 1998, it was written by Doug Wright. We set it in 1988 in a small town somewhere in west Texas. The time period was chosen for the political issues going on at the time such as, abortion, and homosexuality. These issues still exist today but in 1988 they were on the forefront of everyone’s mind. This play involves abortion, rape, teen lust, and religion . Here at Sam Houston we strive to show audiences the plays that involve raw emotion and the controversy , instead of the happy-endings because in life there are not always happy endings, though we do show a whole range of plays. Stonewater rapture is just a taste of what life can be for teenagers in a small religious town, in 1988 the presidential election affected religion everywhere. George Bush and Michael Dukakis were running in the presidential election, the main issues that the church was concerned with was abortion and the death penalty, Bush was against abortion but for the death penalty and Dukakis was for abortion but against the death penalty, so the church was at a crossroads, so abortion was a major issue at this stage in the U.S. Also in 1988 we have the issue of abortion which is still a raging issue even today, but in 1988 people were far less accepting of ones preference to sexual orentation, if thought to be a homosexual in the year 1988, you were considered an outcast and treated as such. Homosexuality was sometimes approach with violence, also families were known to send their children to degayification instutes to cure their so called disease. This show is very biblical, every few lines there is some quote from the bible, and we research everyone, seeing its specific significance, to the surrounding dialogue and to the scenes outcomes. Each phrase is followed by an action directly connected with the meaning, so the biblical research was extensive. We also didn’t want to weigh to heavily on the religious aspects of the play but also delve into the emotional degrees of the play such as: Teen lust, and rape. In the first scene we start with innocence then get thrown into lust and then to guilt, but in scene two we start with guilt then go to the story of rape and then back to guilt then we end with disappointment. We end with nothing resolved because our issues are never ending, thus nothing gets resovled but we see we can always end with something. We want you the audience to be transported back to your highschool days and remember the issues around your experience, the issues in the play have happened to many people maybe not to this degree but everyone can level with the emotions of the characters on the stage.