Women
Margaret – a preacher – asks her congregation to pray after a woman has come forward during the service with her sick child.
MARGARET: I want every soul under the sound of my voice to bow his head and pray silently with me as I pray. Dear Lord, we come before you this morning to ask you to look down and bless this woman and her baby. Touch his little body, Lord and heal him. Raise him up, Lord, and make him a good man and a comfort to his mother. Yes, we know you can do it, Lord. You told us if we’d just call, trusting in your promise, you’d be sure to answer. And all these blessings we ask in the name of the Father, and in the name of the Son, and in the name of the blessed Holy Ghost – Amen.
Sister Moore, a very proper member of the church, speaks to the congregation.
SISTER MOORE: Before we close out this order of service, I’d like to say, I praise the Lord for being here, I thank Him for my life, health and strength. I want to thank Him for the way He’s worked with me these many long years and I want to thank Him for keeping me humble! I want to thank Him for keeping me pure and set apart from the lusts of the flesh. When I come before my Maker, I’m going to come before Him pure.
Odessa is Margaret’s sister. Here, she defends her sister to other members of the church who accuse Margaret of misusing church funds.
Odessa: You ought to be ashamed of yourselves! You ought to be ashamed of your deceitful hearts. Liars, every one of you, and the truth’s not in you. Rugs on the floor cost money, robes cost money, and you people are just murder on hymnbooks, tambourines and Bibles. That Frigidaire is in my name. It’s the first new thing I bought for that house in I don’t know how many years – with money I made from scrubbing floors. Ain’t a one of you put a penny in it. Now. You satisfied?
Men
David is speaking to his mother, explaining why he needs to leave her and the church to pursue his own life and dreams.
DAVID: Mama, I want to be a man. It’s time you let me be a man. You got to let me go. If I stayed here – I’d end up worse than Daddy – because I wouldn’t be doing what I know I got to do. I’ve seen your life – and now I see Daddy – and I love you, I love you both! But I’ve got my work to do, something’s happening in the world out there, I got to go! I can’t stay home. Maybe I can say something – one day – maybe I can say something in music that’s never been said before. Mama – you knew this day was coming.
Luke speaks to his son, David. They have been recently reunited after years apart.
LUKE: Son – don’t try to get away from the things that hurt you. The things that hurt you – sometimes that’s all you got. You got to learn to live with those things – and – use them. I’ve seen people put themselves through terrible torture – and die – afraid of getting hurt. A man can lose a whole lot, might look to everybody else that he ought to want to be dead, but he can keep on as long as he’s got one thing. That one thing is him, David, who he is inside.
During the same conversation as Luke’s monologue above, David speaks to his father about his loss of faith and interest in the church in favor of jazz music.
DAVID: That’s when I stopped praying. I really began to think about it hard. And, Daddy – things started happening inside me which hadn’t ever happened before. It was terrible. It was wonderful. I started looking around this house, around this church – like I was seeing it for the first time. Daddy – that’s when I stopped believing – it just went away. I got so I just hated going upstairs to that church. I hated coming home. I hated lying to Mama all the time – and – I knew I had to do something.