The off-Broadway play "The Good Faith" was written by New York City playwright Harold Dean James and follows the life of Richard Rawe.

Grand Coulee native Rawe is the son of the late Dave Rawe, the co-owner of Grand Coulee's Rawe and Rauch Hardware Store that longtime residents remember well.

James said there are 10 songs in the play, which is a mixture of comedy and seriousness, he said. If he did not mix the two, people couldn't handle the serious side, he said.

Rawe, who now lives in Soap Lake, was a Jehovah's Witness for 35 years.

He said his mother, grandmother and brother were all Jehovah Witnesses as well.

He and his wife Frances were disfellowshipped, or banned, from the church in 1975.

James said 28 years later the whole area is still upset about how they were treated and he thought that would make this a good story.

Richard Rawe said James first talked to him about three and a half years ago. He said he read about the Rawes' story on the Internet and wanted some new material for a play.

James, also a former Jehovah Witness, said the Rawe's story appealed to him.

"I thought what they went through was extraordinary," said James. They still seem deeply hurt, as do a lot of other people in the area, he said.

Richard Rawe said James did a good job of boiling his life down to an hour and a half, although he knows a lot was left out.

Dave Rawe first moved to the Grand Coulee Dam area in the early 1930s and Richard was born in May 1934.

The play includes a monologue by a religious leader about an alien coming to earth and meeting man for the first time. James said the monologue is intended to show that people are drawn into religion for the love of God and each other.

The play introduces Rawe at 6 years of age, when he and his mother answer the door to meet a Witness who was going door-to-door in 1940 throughout Grand Coulee.

The play also ends the same way, with Francis and Richard opening a door when a young man in a robe knocks on it.

James said he ends the play that way so people will have to come up with their own answers as to what happened.

After Richard and his mother become Witnesses, the play shows resistance by area residents to the religion while he and his mother go door-to-door looking for support.

From there, it moves to his frequent fights at Grand Coulee Grade School because of his anti-war stance during World War II.

Jehovah Witnesses do not believe in wars or bearing arms.

Richard said he remembers running down the big hill on Spokane Way while people would throw rocks and fight him.

"I learned to be a pretty good fighter," he said.

From Grand Coulee, the play shifts to Ephrata, which is called "Sheep City." Richard moved there in 1952 after high school because of the resistance in Grand Coulee to starting a congregation and the support for one in Ephrata.

He worked as a special pioneer, or congregation overseer and met and married fellow W itness Frances there in 1962.

Church leaders "Brother Reap" and "Brother Sow" are then introduced, and the play explains how the Rawes were disfellowshipped through Reap's and Sow's actions.

According to the play, a disfellowship means that other Witnesses are not allowed to talk to, eat with or have a friendship with the person disfellowshipped.

Richard said Reap and Sow are based on top Witness individuals George Holland and Oroville Schempp.

He said they always got along until 1975, when, Frances said, they tried to get rid of people they didn't like.

So when Holland and Schempp called her into a committee meeting, she secretly taped the meeting. Frances recorded on the tape that they accused her of adultery, stealing and other offenses.

She said Richard and other members of the Kingdom Hall were also accused of the offenses.

Frances said she looked for spiritual guidance and when Holland, Schempp and others would not talk to her, she realized they weren't good Christians because they were not coming from God.

But when the two were disfellowshipped, Richard said, they appealed and won, something that had never happened before.

That disallowed the disfellowship and led to some media interest at the time, Frances said. But later they were disfellowshiped again.

Richard said he no longer believes in the Jehovah Witness religion, but he still believes in the Bible.

Near the end of the play, Richard suffers a stroke after the disfellowship and asks God if he is testing him.

"The Good Faith" is playing now at a theater called La Mama in New York.

Because of Richard's strokes, the Rawes will be unable to attend the play. So James said he would send them a videotape of the play.