Presented to: Thomas F. Rogers
For: God's Fools: Plays of the Mitigated Conscience
[Also published by Eden Hill; Midvale, Utah: Distributed by Signature Books, 1983.]
According to the awards committee, "All of these plays center on two fundamental themes: 'the consequences of unrighteous dominion and our concomitant need for what the Romans called "filial piety."' Rogers's characters confront the necessity of making strong moral choices which, when made, will forever after alter relationships with individuals and institutions. Posing difficult questions and challenges, Rogers unshrinkingly probes the consequences of standing for Truth in a world of ambiguities. In offering these plays, Rogers's contribution to Mormon letters is inestimable, and he joins therewith a small group of distinguished LDS playwrights in offering to thoughtful Latter-day Saints moral dramas which resound more with the echoes of Gethsemane and Carthage Jail than those of Added Upon and the Ward Road Show tradition. In this volume, Rogers has stirred Mormon drama to a giant leap forward."