Characters: 4 male, 1 female with doubling Unit Set Winner! LA Weekly Award for Best New Play Award-winning playwright Jim Leonard's latest, Battle Hymn, is the story of 16-year-old Martha's epic pregnancy and her incredible search for motherhood, meaning, and love in a war-torn American landscape. After being abandoned by her father, losing her true love and witnessing the horrors of the Civil War firsthand, Martha settles on one incontrovertible fact: She will not raise her baby in a blood-soaked, violent country. And so, Martha keeps traveling in search of a better world and a safe place to bring forth her child...this is easier said than done. From the mud and the blood of Fort Sumter to singing cows, San Francisco and the summer of love, Martha's journey embodies the tragedy, humor and hope that have helped shape the last 150 years of U.S. history. "Refreshingly original, smart and engaging." -LA Times "Sinfully rich theatrical adventure infused with profoundly resonant social satire that produces visceral wonderment." -Backstage West "Leonard's writing is rich and often humorous, and he's skilled at creating memorable characters." -Variety

Drama / Characters: 4 males, 5 females / Set Requirements: Simple

The award-winning author of The Diviners, And They Dance Real Slow in Jackson, and Crow and Weasel describes his newest play as "A children's story for adults." When June's father dies, she prays for a healer to come to the small town of Gray, so that no one will ever suffer again; the next thing she knows, there's a tornado, and a man in a balloon blows into town claiming to be a doctor. At first, the new doctor cures anything and everything, but soon the town's preacher takes ill with a mysterious plague. And then the plague begins to spread. Set in Indiana during the late 1800's, deals with death, loss, love, and healing in a unique coming of age story.

Drama / 6m, 5f / Unit set w. platforms Winner of the American College Theatre Festival, this marvelously theatrical play is the story of a disturbed young man and his friendship with a disenchanted preacher in southern Indiana in the early 1930s. When the boy was young he almost drowned. This trauma and the loss of his mother in the same accident has left him deathly afraid of water. The preacher, set on breaking away from a long line of Kentucky family preachers, is determined not to do what h

Through short stories, poetry, journal entries and reflective narrative, Debra Davis Hinkle and Jim Leonard have created a rich and unique expression of the range of emotions, spiritual questions and insights, which accompany grief. Whether it is the death of a loved one, beloved pet or pre-death losses like Alzheimer's. Their writings show the capacity of the human spirit to resolve and evolve. They also illustrate how writing can be a source of comfort and inspiration. The authors movingly guide us through the diverse passages of grief and along the way tears turn to laughter. Keep it by your bedside.