Wakeful Sleeper takes its title from the Anglo-Saxon poem "Beowulf." The ancient idea of a hero, one who could triumph over monstrosities, was to be a "wakeful sleeper." A teenaged girl is accused by her father of being gay. She's a sleepwalker. Her father is a committed Christian and struggles, agonizes over what is the right thing to do. Ultimately, despite the tearing apart of an otherwise loving family of mother, father and three children, he decides his daughter must choose between her homosexual leanings and her place in the family. The play takes a gut-wrenching twist when it's exposed that it is not the daughter who is gay. It's the mother. This modern family goes through a crucible of spirituality, loyalty, family and conformity as it unpacks one of our society's most fraught issues.
Keywords:Â Teenagers, Youth, Education, Parenting, Pain, Stress, Therapy, Homosexuality, Intolerance, Spirituality
Running Time: 110 minutes
Male Cast: 5
Female Cast: 5
Double Cast: 4
Suitable for School Productions: Students Age 14+