About the Project
Framed as a courtroom drama, BEFORE A FALL is an ensemble play about the patriarch of a Southern Church suspected of molesting his granddaughter, the high-school teacher who tries to intercede, and the community that turns a blind eye. Bonnie Davidson has returned to her Southern roots, nursing her wounds after a nasty divorce. She takes a job teaching at her old high school where she meets 18-year-old Darla, and Darla’s grandfather, Reverend Jack Hawkins. At the top of the play, Darla is on trial for murder. Moving back and forth in time and place, from courtroom to classroom to the little church in a barn, secrets and sickness that have kept a family locked together are slowly revealed. BEFORE A FALL was a finalist for the 2012 Goldberg Prize and was written by Lily Mercer, an award-winning writer for her screenplay “Falling Into Place.”
Production Team
