August 12, 2014–Dezi Gallegos is a playwright who is searching for God. He’s only 18 years old, but says he’s already lived through numerous tough life experiences that led to him asking the question: is there a loving God? And if so, why are these bad things - plagues, he calls them - happening to me and my family?
His new play, “God Fights the Plague,” explores his search for answers. He talked to 16 people from nine different religions, and portrays each of them onstage- the Christian fundamentalist, the Jewish rabbi, the Muslim imam, the feminist Wiccan, the atheist, and the Buddhist, among others. I asked him why he decided to put a struggle that’s so personal on a public stage.
DEZI GALLEGOS: We live in a world where irrational and pointless things can happen to us all the time, and that propelled this search of ‘how do I respond to these things’, and some people respond with, ‘it’s all part of God’s plan’. I wanted to see how religion plays out in the lives of everyday individuals.
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