Idaho Playwright Samuel D. Hunter Returns to Boise Contemporary Theater

Spring will bring lauded Idaho playwright Samuel D. Hunter’s work, A Case for the Existence of God back to Boise Contemporary Theater (BCT). Previews start Wednesday, March 5 and shows continue through Saturday, March 22, 2025.

A Case for the Existence of God is the latest in a long line of plays BCT has produced by the award-winning Samuel D. Hunter. In 2008, Ann Klautsch directed his I Am Montana in our 5X5 Reading Series. Other 5X5 readings of Hunter’s plays include (what would later become) Norway in 2010, The Whale which Samuel D. Hunter directed himself in 2011, A Bright New Boise in 2012, and The Few in 2013. The companion pieces Lewiston and Clarkston started as a 5X5 reading in 2015, but were fully produced on the MainStage in 2019. Other readings that became MainStage productions include the co-World Premiere of Norway with Phoenix Theatre in 2011, and later that year the World Premiere of A Permanent Image, directed by Kip Fagan.

Although Hunter lives in New York City now, he grew up in Moscow, Idaho and sets many of his plays in Idaho towns. BCT’s next Hunter play is no different- set in Twin Falls, Idaho in the cubicle of a mortgage broker where he and his loan applicant eventually discover that they are not so different after all. Although this play is not about God or religion, according to Amazon, “Hunter’s play ultimately affirms, if not the existence of God, then at least the possibility that something sacred can come from the connection between two people.” Hunter places unlikely protagonists in stark, nondescript, realistic environments familiar to ordinary people “and explores the human capacity for empathy” while his characters struggle to find “more meaningful human connections,” as the MacArthur Foundation explains.

“Boise Contemporary Theater is thrilled to bring Mr. Hunter's singular voice back to our stage. As one of the great playwrights of our time, we are honored to present this funny and poignant story of two seemingly disparate men from Twin Falls, and watch them discover they have more in common than initially meets the eye. It is a truly touching and brilliant play,” added Producing Artistic Director Benjamin Burdick.