FROM THE PLAYWRIGHT
“This play is dedicated to the many orders of Catholic nuns
who devoted their lives to serving others in hospitals, schools,
and retirement homes. Though they have been much maligned
and ridiculed who among us has been so generous.”A play called “DOUBT” Sister Margaret McEntee, SC
He was six and I was twenty-one. We were both in first grade together.
He was beginning his schooling as a student, and I was beginning mine as a teacher.
We passed the grade and moved on.
Many years later we met again. He is a famous playwright and I am still a teacher.
His name is John Patrick Shanley and he has written several plays and movie scripts, such as MOONSTRUCK starring Cher and Nicholas Cage, and JOE vs. the VOLCANO with Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan.
His latest play entitled DOUBT was a sell-out at Manhattan’s City Center this past year.
Now it is on Broadway featuring four actors:
Cherry Jones as Sister Aloysius, Principal of a Catholic elementary school in the Bronx;
Brian O’Byrne as a young parish priest who is in charge of altar boys (no altar girls in 1964!)
Heather Goldenhersh as Sister James, a young Sister of Charity starting out as an eighth grade teacher,
Adriane Lenox who is the mother of an eighth grade boy.
This boy served a funeral Mass and returned to class late with the smell of altar wine on his breath. As the play unfolds several insinuations plus accusations are made which cast “doubt” on the integrity of the priest and his interaction with the boys.
The dialogue energizes the plot which unfolds gradually into a full-blown confrontation between the Principal and the Priest. The setting resembles the playwright’s own St. Anthon’s Elementary School. The prayer garden and walkway between the two buildings are staged realistically. Having lived and taught there for seven years it took my breath away to revisit it.
I have been in contact with John Patrick Shanley since last December. I enjoyed a happy re-union with him at City Center when I saw the play. I had no idea what he’d look like, nor he of me. I had a funny feeling he probably thought I was long dead or, at least, in a retirement facility!
But, we met and talked and shared a delightful walk down memory lane. He is charming, witty, intelligent, easy to be with and seems to possess a quiet ability to experience people and events on a deep level of inner perception.
It is a joy for a teacher to know her student shave moved beyond her over the years. Long ago a retreat Priest mentioned this thought that I often recall: “BE good to the ones you meet going UP< you’ll meet them coming DOWN!” On my escalator ride I am happy to have met John once again. He has a beautiful message in the Playbill that reads:
FROM THE PLAYWRIGHT
“This play is dedicated to the many orders of Catholic nuns
who devoted their lives to serving others in hospitals, schools,
and retirement homes. Though they have been much maligned
and ridiculed who among us has been so generous.”
See the play if you can. Less costly tickets can be ordered online via playbill. COM.
Without a doubt this re-connection between Sister James and little John Stanley of four decades ago has made an impact on me. For those readers who are or were teachers, it is good to know that the influence of the person-to-person relationship may outlive the course content.
“For those who teach others in the way of Justice
will shine like stars for all eternity.” Daniel 12:3
Little did I know that my “star” would be shining On Broadway through Heather Goldenhersh thanks to John Patrick Shanley’s ageless vision.
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