c. 1999 Religion News Service
NEW ORLEANS _ Terrell Green, a 29-year-old mother of seven children and a victim of childhood abuse, said she saw much of her own story on stage: occasionally funny; sometimes almost too painful.
Others saw the stories of damaged friends or cousins, of women making bad choices and indolent or violent men taking advantage.
So at the close of a recent performance of the gospel play”Woman, Thou Art Loosed,”when director Tyler Perry asked hurting men and women to stand to receive the fervent prayers of everyone else in the audience, dozens of people rose to their feet in the darkness of the Orpheum Theater.”Let us pray for God’s angels”to soothe those souls, said Perry, who directed and wrote the adaptation of Dallas-based evangelist Bishop T.D. Jakes’ best-selling book.
The play, which premiered in Chicago in July and has been performed in cities across the country, is one example of how Jakes’ Pentecostal ministry continues to morph into new media and new products.
Jakes has a special emphasis on consoling women who feel abused, trapped or shamed by manipulative bosses or boyfriends and their own self-destructive choices.
Part comedy, part drama, part musical,”Woman, Thou Art Loosed”is the tale of the damage a desperately lonely mother allows an abusive boyfriend to inflict on her daughter. It preaches a message of healthy self-esteem and Christian redemption, even from the hell of some households.”Very touching, very real,”said Green, of New Orleans, who talked about it on the way home with her mother and aunt, who accompanied her to the theater.”There’s a lot of that out there.” The title comes from Jesus’ declaration in the miraculous cure of a woman sick for 18 years, told in the 13th chapter of Luke. The stage play is derived from Jakes’ best-selling book of the same name, which in turn is derived from his experiences counseling women, beginning when Jakes was hardly more than a storefront preacher in 1980, freshly laid off from his job as a chemical plant worker in Charleston, W.Va.”He’s so strong conveying to people that no matter where you’ve been, God loves you no less than anybody else,”said Carla Expose, a physical therapist assistant who caught the play with her husband, Hayward, and 14-year-old stepdaughter, Ashley.
In August, the play was performed in Atlanta in conjunction with Jakes’ personal appearance at a three-day”Woman, Thou Art Loosed”conference. Jakes drew 81,000 people to the Georgia Dome on July 31, surpassing the previous single event stadium record held by evangelist Billy Graham.
The play continues to tour across the country, with upcoming performances in Raleigh, N.C. (Sept. 26), Greensboro, N.C. (Oct. 1-2), Baltimore (Oct. 5-10), and Dallas (Oct. 19-26).
DEA END NOLAN
