This Beautiful City

This Beautiful City was written by Steven Cosson and Jim Lewis, with music and lyrics by Michael Friedman. The play was written from interviews by Emily Ackerman, Marsha Stephanie Blake, Brad Heberlee, Stephen Plunkett, Alison Weller and the authors.

It is a play with music, created from interviews with actual persons, that explores the Evangelical movement and its unofficial U.S. capital. Because of the presence of several national Evangelical headquarters, the influential megachurch New Life (formerly led by Ted Haggard), and numerous and diverse churches, questions surrounding religion and civic concerns are brought to the foreground of everyday life in this city. The Civilians’ project looks at Colorado Springs as a microcosm of issues facing the country as a whole–the shifting line between church and state, changing ideas about the nature of Christianity, and how different beliefs can either coexist or conflict within a community. This play is recommended for high school students and older.

The Humana Festival of New American Plays is an annual site of pilgrimage where theatre lovers from around the world converge to get the first look at the future of the American theatre.