Howling, Texas

by Katie Bender

In the wake of Hurricane Harvey, in the small town of Howling, local pastor Deborah Lewis has started receiving text messages from God, a prophecy for the next phase of human evolution. It does not look good. It looks hard. Also, she's gonna need a volunteer to help with the technology. Karen, a stranger to Howling, has upended her life to come live with Johnny. The sex is good, and dammit, she’s not ready to...

In the wake of Hurricane Harvey, in the small town of Howling, local pastor Deborah Lewis has started receiving text messages from God, a prophecy for the next phase of human evolution. It does not look good. It looks hard. Also, she's gonna need a volunteer to help with the technology. Karen, a stranger to Howling, has upended her life to come live with Johnny. The sex is good, and dammit, she’s not ready to settle down. Thrown together, Karen and Deborah confront prophecy, change, and their role in shaping the future. Howling, Texas is a comedy about faith, sex, marriage, and monsters.

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Howling, Texas

Recommended by

  • Malena Pennycook: Howling, Texas by Katie Bender
    “

    Damn I love this play. Katie's writing is vivid, sharp, funny, surprising. This play lives in the off-kilter place we go when we need something too big to make clean sense of -- something to believe in, someone to love. It's intuitive logic at it's best and I'll be thinking about it for a long time (especially the e-mail writing in person scene). Can't wait to see it on its feet.

    Damn I love this play. Katie's writing is vivid, sharp, funny, surprising. This play lives in the off-kilter place we go when we need something too big to make clean sense of -- something to believe in, someone to love. It's intuitive logic at it's best and I'll be thinking about it for a long time (especially the e-mail writing in person scene). Can't wait to see it on its feet.

    ”
  • Sarah Saltwick: Howling, Texas by Katie Bender
    “

    A thrilling and sensual play about desire, faith, and domesticity crashing together. There are theatrical images here that will stick with you for a long time. These images and gestures unfold to reveal the inner lives of the characters but also seek to burrow into the mind, hearts, and guts of the audience. A riveting text.

    A thrilling and sensual play about desire, faith, and domesticity crashing together. There are theatrical images here that will stick with you for a long time. These images and gestures unfold to reveal the inner lives of the characters but also seek to burrow into the mind, hearts, and guts of the audience. A riveting text.

    ”
  • Jenny Connell Davis: Howling, Texas by Katie Bender
    “

    There are plays that enter you through your head, plays that enter you through your heart, and plays that enter through your gut. This play, for me is one of the latter -- it's unapologetic, unafraid, deliberately side-stepping a more intellectual logic in search of the kind of truth you find in your bones.
    Yes, it has a story, character relationships -- in a lot of ways, it "works" in very traditional ways! But Bender is asking questions about faith, sexuality, our inner monsters in ways that will challenge and delight.

    There are plays that enter you through your head, plays that enter you through your heart, and plays that enter through your gut. This play, for me is one of the latter -- it's unapologetic, unafraid, deliberately side-stepping a more intellectual logic in search of the kind of truth you find in your bones.
    Yes, it has a story, character relationships -- in a lot of ways, it "works" in very traditional ways! But Bender is asking questions about faith, sexuality, our inner monsters in ways that will challenge and delight.

    ”

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