“Saints on Stage”

“Mormon” drama has had a long and winding road from Brigham Young's advocacy¹ (beginning in the late 1840s) and Orson F. Whitneys' prophetic: “We will yet have Miltons and Shakespeares of our own” (1888).² If you are amongst those who do not know the history (and vision) of “Mormon” drama, playwright Mahroni Stewart's, Saints on Stage: An Anthology of Mormon Drama is a good place to begin. If time is limited, the preview found here³ gives a flavor of that long and winding road.

Here are two quotes from Part 4: “Yet to Reveal Themselves”: The Future of Mormon Drama:

Stewart's concluding paragraph before the anthology begins is:

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1. One example: Brigham Young: “Upon the stage of a theatre can be represented in character, evil and its consequences, good and its happy results and rewards; the weakness and the follies of man, the magnanimity of virtue and the greatness of truth. The stage can be made to aid the pulpit in impressing upon the minds of a community an enlightened sense of a virtuous life, also a proper horror of the enormity of sin and a just dread of its consequences. The path of sin with its thorns and pitfalls, its gins and snares can be revealed, and how to shun it. // ... I wish those who perform to select a class of plays that will improve the public mind, and exalt the literary taste of the community.” Journal of Discourses, Vol.9, pp.243 & 245
2. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orson_F._Whitney ; also http://mldb.byu.edu/homelit.htm 
3. URL: https://books.google.ca/books?id=9qGCAwAAQBAJ&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false