Solo Dramatic Performer of “A View from the Underside”

Ideal Use : racism, the Holocaust, Christian anti-Semitism, nationalism, peace, justice and the relationship between church and state

Since 1988 Al Staggs has performed his one-person drama, “A View from the Underside,” on the life of Dietrich Bonhoeffer for audiences world wide. He has been selected for numerous college lectures and has presented the play to more than 100 college and university audiences throughout the U.S. and Canada. In 1998 he performed the play for President and Mrs. Jimmy Carter in Plains, Georgia. It also aired on national Catholic television and the Kaleidoscope Network. Al’s presentation has received acclaim from Vidal Sassoon, Martin Marty and the late Eberhard Bethge, Bonhoeffer’s best friend and biographer, who said of the performance, “It is astonishing fullness of both the personality and the message of Dietrich.” Bill Moyers said, “When I watch Al Staggs as Dietrich Bonhoeffer, I am confronted by the deepest moral questions of what it means to be a witness and how I am using my life.”

The moving one-hour drama addresses issues of racism, the Holocaust, Christian anti-Semitism, nationalism, peace, justice and the relationship between church and state.

Al Staggs holds a B. A. from Hardin-Simmons University, an M.R.E. degree from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, a Th.M. from Harvard Divinity School and a Doctor of Ministry degree from Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary. He was honored as a Charles E. Merrill Fellow at Harvard in the spring of 1983 with major emphasis in Applied Theology under the direction of Harvey Cox. Al also completed a year internship in Clinical Pastoral Education at Baylor University Medical Center in Dallas, Texas. Al served as Baptist minister for twenty-four years prior to becoming a full-time performance artist.