10/05/2026
OTHER PATHS TO GOD starts Oct 9! Want to know where this play concept came from and how it developed?
From playwright Kelundra Smith:
"In 2021, Horizon Theatre Company commissioned me to be part of a cohort, The New Georgia Women Project: Black Women Speak, featuring nine Black women playwrights living and working in the South. The project was the brainchild of the theatre’s then associate artistic director, Marguerite Hannah, who wanted to see more new plays by and about Black women in the contemporary South. Through a series of coffee chats with Black women—covering everything from s*x to racism to parenting—we listened and gathered ideas for our new plays. The coffee chats that resonated with me the most were about religion and work. In America, when someone asks who are you, most people respond with their occupation or vocation. I struggled with this in the past, particularly around the time I started writing this play.
As part of my research for the script, I interviewed nurses across the country. I also looked for scriptures and passages about labor and righteousness, which are present in almost every religious text. Then, I created characters inspired by women I knew (and wish I knew) who embodied various faiths, beliefs, struggles, and hopes. I wanted the play to move like an episode of your favorite medical drama but also feel deeply personal.
Other Paths to God is a play, but it’s also a spiritual reckoning about the way we tie our value to our labor. For Black women whose ancestors were brought to this country for their labor, the idea that our work is the only thing that pleases God is ingrained in how we live. Because of this, it can be easy to forget that it’s okay to rest, reset, and reconsider.
It’s a healthy exercise to ask ourselves, in the absence of demand for our labor, who are we? Is the way our labor is valued in the marketplace on par with how we see ourselves? If our labor is our legacy, what do we do when it’s not enough to fulfill us? If we never worked again a day in our lives, could we just be content to enjoy the planet and dream?
Each character in Other Paths to God is at a critical point in their lives. Whether it’s the end or beginning of a relationship, searching for a new calling, or learning how to show up authentically, these characters learn that the real work happens inside while no one is watching. God is pleased with us if we never lift a finger. May we never again forget it.
