Jezebel s Got the Blues...And Other Works of Imagination is a series of performance pieces that puts a new spin on stories from the Old Testament. In Merrill Farnsworth s inspired telling Jezebel Cain Noah Delilah Lot s wife and other denizens of Bible history reveal themselves as people with very modern stories to share. Jezebel and her friends are true originals - taking readers (and audiences!) on a creative thought-provoking insightful ride. Author s Note: Jezebel s Got the Blues...is a collection of stories and paintings created over a nine-month period. As an artist I often go into the studio take up a brush filled with paint and begin making marks on paper or canvas letting the marks take shape and allowing shapes to emerge as they will. One day in September a face began forming and I followed the inclination to form a woman s face. In time I saw the face of Jezebel staring out at me and it occurred to me she looked frightened. I d always imagined her as defiant. As a daughter of the South I was warned about Jezebel and picked up on the notion she was a bad apple. I was told she wore too much rouge and knew she came to a bad end. Having gone through a period of life that didn t end so well I felt a certain compassion for Jezebel when she showed up that day in September. I began painting more and more layers of red on her cheeks thinking that somehow more red would keep her from feeling so blue. As I painted I began imagining a story about Jezebel told from the point of view of the rouge on her cheeks - a voice that became a strange witness to her story. That is how a series of stories and paintings came to be called Jezebel s Got the Blues...and Other Works of Imagination. After I finished the paintings and had written the stories I called upon friends all talented actors I d performed with over the years. I asked if they d join me to perform this series of monologues and dialogues. All said yes as did Phil Madeira who accompanied us with improvised blues on his guitar. It was a magical night for me. All my imagining became something real - to me my friends and to the audience gathered for the retelling of stories about a ragtag crew of characters who share a longing for grace to bend the notes of our blues towards love.