One Candle in the Night

Historical drama in two-acts

Franz Jägerstätter refuses to serve in Hitler’s army. In his struggle against the very core of National Socialism, Franz must find his own definitions of duty, courage, faith, and patriotism.

God’s law is pitted against man’s law, good against evil, courage against cowardice, sainthood against betrayal, life against death. Franz was sentenced to death and executed in 1943 for saying no to Hitler.

It is one of the ironies of history that Franz Jägerstätter and Adolf Hitler came from the same region in Austria. Their native villages are only 20 miles apart.

One Candle in the Night was produced and performed by DramaCentre in May 1998. The play was endorsed and supported by Kultur Austria and the Austrian Cultural Institute.

Note: In June 2007, Pope Benedict XVI issued an apostolic exhortation declaring Jägerstätter a martyr. In October 2007, he was beatified in a ceremony held by Cardinal José Saraiva Martins at the New Cathedral in Linz.

Four Queens

Musical Drama in two acts performed as a Madrigal Feast

Act One takes place at the court of Queen Marguerite of Navarre who seeks to mediate peace between protestants and catholics at her court and wonders if one day a woman will sit on the throne of England. Period music presented at her court is French, Italian, and Spanish. Navarre borders both France and Spain.

Act Two takes place at Hampton Court where Queen Catherine Parr, sixth wife of Henry VIII, is greeting her guests at Christmas festivities with two future queens at her side—Mary Tudor, daughter of Henry VIII by his first wife, and the daughter of Anne Boleyn and Henry VIII, the future Elizabeth I. The madrigals and music presented during the play are period pieces including a composition by Henry VIII himself.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Four Queens was performed by the Centre College Music Program in 1995, 1996, and 2005 under the direction of Dr. Barbara Hall.

The Wedding Dress

This short one-act play won a playwrighting contest and was performed by the West T. Hill Community Theatre in Danville, Kentucky in 1994.

Requiem for a Grand Piano

A short one-act play that won a playwrighting award and was performed by the West T. Hill Community Theatre in Danville, Kentucky in 2009.

During the Bosnian war in February 1994 several actors seek refuge from intense shelling in the basement of the National Theatre of Mostar where they gradually burn theatre props to keep warm. While the shelling continues, one brave musician dons wool gloves and plays the grand piano until it, too, is sacrificed for survival.

A critique: “I think it is quite remarkable that the play could accomplish so much in ten minutes: capture a moving incident–or series of incidents–while embodying serious political and artistic ideas within a shaped dramatic structure, and poetic language.” —Roberta White