Different Strokes! Performing Arts Collective presents Dear God

Hurricane Helene delayed the opening of Dear God, scheduled for late 2024, but almost a year later Different Strokes! Performing Arts Collective will present the world premiere of Lisa Langford’s new play.

Set in the “not-too-close, not-too-distant future,” Dear God packs a punch as aliens arrive on Earth, turning Rev. Vonnie Braxton’s life upside down. With her congregation spiraling into chaos, a distant husband, a nagging neighbor, and some deep personal struggles, Rev. Vonnie is faced with a tough choice when someone from her past unexpectedly shows up. Will she stick to her commitment to social justice or blend in with the new normal?

Introduced as a staged reading in November 2023, this thought-provoking play captured the hearts of audiences who described it as “deep,” “funny,” and “a good time.” One even hailed the clever use of aliens as a fresh way to tackle powerful themes like racism—especially in a world “where it doesn’t exist anymore!”

Two years ago Different Strokes! partnered with American Myth Center to create “A Different Myth,” which seeks to amplify stories that center Black voices and characters. After reading through submissions from 48 emerging Black Playwrights, co-founders Stephanie Hickling Beckman and Aaron Snook selected playwright Lisa Langford, along with two other playwrights, as members of their 2022 cohort and spent two years working with them to develop new works.

“Stephanie and I had the beautiful privilege of being on this developmental journey with Lisa as she penned Dear God,” says Snook.

Hickling Beckman added, “I had the immense pleasure of directing two staged readings of this play and am incredibly excited to finally stage and direct a full production. It is more than ready to be fully staged.”

Lisa Langford is an award-winning playwright from Cleveland, Ohio. She earned a BA from Harvard and an MFA in play-writing from Cleveland State University. Her play Rastus and Hattie received a Joyce Award (w/Cleveland Public Theatre), while her script The Art of Longing was a finalist for the Leslie Scalapino Award for Innovative Women Performance Writers. Her ten-minute play, The Bomb, about the Black Lives Matter movement, is published in the anthology Black Lives, Black Words.

Dear God is rated PG-13. We recommend ages 13 and up. Dear God runs Thursday – Saturday August 7-23, 2025, at 7:30 p.m. Catch a special matinee Sunday, August 24 at 3 p.m. Purchase tickets at www.worthamarts.org/events/dear-god.

For more information, please visit Different Strokes! Performing Arts Collective, differentstrokespac.org.