“Someone cries and Someone knocks

On a door that’s always locked.

Please comfort me and keep me near,

Charge my faith not to fear,

Change me for all the world to see,

Leave no trace of what used to be.

Someone cries and Someone knocks

On a door that’s always locked.

Please grant these humble prayers, I pray,

Dismiss me not another day.

Give me the strength to let you in,

Believe in you I have a friend.”

These words are also the lyrics to a song inspired by her play, “Who’s There.”  Playwright and author, Sandra Jones Cropsey explains her inspiration: “I have always been intrigued with the Bible verse: "Behold I stand at the door and knock. . . .," she said.  “While Christ knocks on the door of each person's heart, only that individual can open the door. No one else can open it. People can tell you "There's someone at the door," and they can even take you to the door, but they cannot open it. Only that individual can open that door.”

Sandra’s play will be performed by the Main Street Players from February 25^th through March 7^th, 2010. Who’sThere? is an absurd southern comedy peppered with characters that are funny, sad, absurd, but most of all memorable.

Each day, on a chicken farm in the rural south, Momma, Sister, and Ivylee have a bizarre memorial service for Bunk’s amputated leg, which they otherwise keep in the freezer. Each looks for love and each waits. Someone knocks, but Momma’s beliefs are not strong enough for her to answer. So she looks for signs to help her understand who’s there. 

When asked about the absurdity of the storyline, Cropsey said, “I think southern author Flannery O’Connor summed it up best when she responded to a reporter in New York who asked why it was that southern authors always seem to write about the grotesque—‘Maybe we’re the only ones left who still recognize it.’”

“And not only do we recognize it,” says Cropsey, “We celebrate it.”

Who’s There? is a celebration, a sort of cross between Joseph Kesselring’s Arsenic and Old Lace and Samuel Beckett’s Waiting for Godot, but with a southern flavor.”

Cropsey's characters are so bizarre that it is nothing short of amazing that she is able to make them believable beginning with the opening line from the novel—“Seemed harmless at first for Momma to keep Bunk's amputated leg in the freezer.” 

Who’s There? was a 2008 finalist in ForeWord Magazine’s “Book of the YearAwards” as well as the “Georgia Author of the Year Awards.” 

The Main Street Players are located at 115 North Hill Street in Griffin, Georgia.  For tickets and other information, please call 770-229-9916, 770-233-0578 or visit www.mainstreetplayers.org.

This program is supported in part by the Ingram Foundation and the Grassroots Arts Program of the Georgia Council for the Arts through appropriations of the Georgia General Assembly and in partnership with Arts Clayton.

To learn more about Sandra, please visit her website at www.sandracropsey.com

Hope Whispers is available through Amazon.com, BN.com and www.whisperingangelbooks.com.