I had a very interesting meeting with a student I've been working with. Her name is Colleen Hughes. She's a graduate student in the BU playwriting program. I directed a stage reading of her play "The Prayer Bargain" which is a really fine piece of work, if I do say so myself. It's a semi-autobiographical piece about a deeply human and messed but Boston Irish family in Somerville. It's funny, awkward and difficult. She's preparing it to send around and I'm helping her with the final revision before it goes out.
While we were talking, I asked her if she was thinking about any new subjects for plays. She mentioned this story. It's really unbelievable, the appalling double standards that the Church seems to have no trouble living with - priestly pederasty must be managed and covered up, but a nun who chooses to save the life of the mother rather than let both mother and fetus die - BOOM! - excommunicated. And my understanding is that excommunication means not only that she can't be a nun anymore, but that, in her world view, she's damned for eternity. How the Church decides what is black and white and what is a grey area is really stunning. And I think it will make a terrific play.
