A Bright New Boise

An earnest comedy about the meager profits of modern faith ...

In the bleak, corporate break room of a craft store in Idaho, someone is summoning The Rapture

Will, who has fled his rural hometown after a scandal at his Evangelical church, comes to the Hobby Lobby, not only for employment, but also to re-kindle a relationship with Alex, his brooding teenage son, whom he gave up for adoption several years ago

Alex works there along with Leroy, his adopted brother and protector, and Anna, a hapless young woman who reads bland fiction but hopes for dramatic endings

As their manager, foul-mouthed Pauline, tries ceaselessly to find order (and profit) in the chaos of small business, these lost souls of the Hobby Lobby confront an unyielding world through the beige-tinted impossibility of modern faith

"Nothing is pretty about A Bright New Boise, a play that marches in the footsteps of Sam Shepard's acid comedies, set in the weird American West ... Hunter has such highly sensitive antennae for the look and rhythm of mundane places that A Bright New Boise develops an authentic texture, separate from other pieces in its genre" ~ The Washington Post

"This clear-eyed comedy will lift your heart" ~ Time Out New York

"Samuel D. Hunter has offered us a humorous and touching exploration of faith and family" NYTheatre.com

" ... a quietly affecting drama that delves into the always thorny issues of faith, forgiveness, and second chances with great eloquence and compassion" ~ TheatreMania

Characters

WILL - Late thirties, male
PAULINE - Late thirties to early forties, female
ANNA - Late twenties to early thirties, female
LEROY - Early to mid-twenties, male
ALEX - 17, male
TWO MALE VOICES ON HOBBY LOBBY TV