The Road to Carthage: Readers Theater Presentation for Wards and Stakes

The Road to Carthage is a Readers Theater presentation designed to be performed in LDS Wards and Stakes. As a metered drama, it is an attempt to portray the founding Mormon Prophet in a classical style with the conviction that only an epic framing of his essence will reflect the reverence which the audience holds for the Prophet. "To paint with words such thoughts words cannot speak, and thus explore the spiritual technique." A foreword by Michael R. Collings places the work firmly in the Mormon Epic tradition. The Road to Carthage also contains a synopsis, a essay to provide historical background, and instructions on how to produce the readers theater in a ward or stake setting. The Prologue takes place in the twilight between this life and the next where historians Fawn Brodie and Hugh Nibley argue the relevance of Brodie's biography of Joseph Smith. Soon Brodie's mentor, Lucifer, enters the fray, followed by Michael the Archangel who provides Nibley with his wish: a classic play to tell Smith's story beginning with the Martyrdom. A playwright is chosen and Nibley wagers that the play will make Brodie weep, otherwise he will admit she was right and accept defeat. With that wager, the play begins with conspiracy, entrapment, debated decisions, forebodings, surrender, troops, comic relief, trial, capture, charges of treason, arrest, jailing, preaching, prophesying, singing, strengthening, contemplating, and finally terror.