Playwriter & Producer of Torn Between 2 Fathers and so many other

 

By: Lisa Ward

 

SM:  We at Secdum are happy to finally get up with you, Priest.  I have followed your career ever since your first play, The Tears of a Teenage Mother.   You have come a long way and I know your mother is just as proud of you as we all are.  How did you keep going after the death of your mother?

Losing my mom was definitely one of the hardest things for me to go through because I was very close to my mother.  However, I look at her death as a major transition in my life, because without a test, you can’t have a testimony.  It took my mother’s death for my life as a playwright to begin.  It was during her battle with cancer that God spoke to me and told me to write a story about her life.  So I went out and purchased a ton of Tyler Perry DVD’s and started to study his work so I could write my first play – Tears of a Teenaged Mother.  My mom was a teenage mother who worked hard to raise us and eventually went on to earn an educational degree. However, I lost my mom just two weeks before my first play about her life debuted, so she was never able to see the fully produced play.  Even with these challenges, the play continued to sell out, over and over again, and I found the strength to keep doing what I know God called me to do.  If my mom had not passed away, I would still just be an electrician or washing cars.  It was her death that inspired me to become a playwright.

SM:  We are in a time when the younger generation has very little respect for parents.  Do you feel you would be the man you are today if it weren’t for your parents and the lessons that they gave to you? 

Respecting your parents is so important.  Even the Bible says honor your mother and your father that your days may be long upon the earth.  It doesn’t say only honor them if they are good parents.  It says to honor them period – no matter what.  So, I would not be the man I am without my parents.  The one thing my mom didn’t tolerate was disrespect, and my dad was the same way.  They taught me to respect them and to respect myself and to have compassion for other people.  But now you have kids having kids and they don’t have the emotional or mental maturity to teach their children how to honor and respect authority. 

 

 

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