Acting Up 1 (1970-1979)

The plays in this anthology begin with the transition decade, the 1970s, and include a wide range of themes. Some of the convergences between them will be noted briefly here. Most notably in this decade are Robert Hostetter’s provocative Cheyenne Jesus Buffalo Dream; Warren Kliewer’s probing A Lean and Hungry Priest, and the troubled and troubling The Booth Brothers; Merle Good’s Who Burned the Barn Down?; and James Juhnke and Harold Moyer’s musical, Blowing and Bending, explored Mennonite pacifism, and the musical, Chasing the Wind by Lyle Preheim and Lauren Friesen, examined the conflict between faith and power.Cheyenne Jesus Buffalo Dream is a highly regarded cross-cultural play that examines themes of violence, hope, and redemption between European settlers and Cheyenne cultures. With the musical, A Lean and Hungry Priest, Kliewer explores the struggles of a medieval mendicant priest who lives for God but relies on sustenance from a duplicitous world. Kliewer presents the coarseness of the medieval world as a strong contrast to the sanitized image of a heroic age where chivalry was common. The Booth Brothers is based on the historical conflicts between three brothers who made their careers in theatre until one of them, John, decides to assassinate the President. The tensions among Mennonites during the Civil War are played out in Who Burned the Barn Down? through the family and community discussions of the urgent decisions of whether to become involved in the war, or to hide from it. In Blowing and Bending, Juhnke and Moyer rely upon a historical incident during World War I where a Mennonite pacifist in Kansas was tested because of his faith. Political winds of the time caused many to bend, but the hero of the story, a Mennonite farmer named Solomon Unruh, remained faithful to his beliefs. Preheim and Friesen’s musical, Chasing the Wind, continues that theme with a fictional martyrdom narrative set in the early Christian era.