Program Type:
Performing ArtsProgram Description
Event Details
Mark Turner's original play, "Ray of Lightning," is the story of RayAnne Damping, a young woman famous for her extraordinary preaching and miraculous healing ministry in America's heartland pre-World War II, and her love for Eddie Noble, her ministry's young African-American music director... The story unfolds in flashbacks, as recalled by two feisty residents of a Southern California retirement home, one Dr. Allen DeMark, a well-known African-American film score composer, and Grace, a 94 year-old with no living relatives... Whose memory reveals the truth of what happened all those decades ago...?... What happened to RayAnne and Eddie...?... Could society accept their relationship...?...
This thriller of play, while fictional, is an historical love story that tackles themes of racism, religion, and redemption. The staged reading is directed by the La Jolla Theatre Ensemble's John Tessmer and stars Deborah Gilmour-Smyth of Lamb's Players Theatre and veteran actor, columnist and poet Ernie McCray.