About the Play:

Because Their Hearts Were Pure (or The Secret Of The Mine) is a full-length melodrama by Morland Cary. The play follows coal mining heirs Goodwin Dalrymple and Melody Truelove, who get foreclosed on by evil banker Sebastian Hardacre. Will our hero be in time to save the mine and rescue his true love from the villainous (Boo-Hiss) banker?

Because Their Hearts Were Pure focuses around Widow Dalrymple and Widow Truelove, two worthy widows whose livelihood depends on a coal mine that has been left to them by their husbands. The lovely Melody Truelove, daughter of Widow Truelove, is engaged to the gallant Goodwin Dalrymple, son of Widow Dalrymple. Life seems to be going well for this soon to be happy family, until the villainous banker Mr. Sebastian Hardacre, who holds the mortgage on the mine, says he is going to foreclose. Melody must now seek a job and become a teacher at the Spring Glen School House. She works alongside the uptight Miss Hatchett who hates men and two sad and lonely school board members Mr. Bleakly and Mr. Grimstone. To also help his family, Goodwin goes to work as a sailor, but is soon given up as lost at sea. Everything seems to be falling apart because these families are all separated and the Widows are about to lose their mine. Meantime, Sebastian Hardacre, seeking not only to get the mine (in which silver has been discovered) into his hands, but the heroine as well, has spun his wicked web so cleverly that he is on the point of success – or is he? Just in time to save the widows and their children, amazing events take place which bring success and happiness to all who so richly deserve them. It's a plot that inspires plenty of audience hissing, booing and cheering – especially with outrageous events like missing babies and memory loss.

Because Their Hearts Were Pure (or The Secret Of The Mine) was first produced in 1941 under the direction of Hugh Nevill at the Barnstormers Theatre in Cragsmoor, New York. Especially designed for high school and community theatres, this is a family friendly show that features the characteristic plot and stock characters that have entertained audiences for decades – a good, old fashioned melodrama!

Cast: 9 female, 6 male, plus several extras

About the Playwright:

Morland Cary is a pseudonym of theatre actor, director and playwright Hugh Nevill who captured the art of the melodrama in the 1940s. He is the author of two old-fashoned melodramas Love Rides The Rails and Because Their Hearts Were Pure, which were first presented in a number of summer theatres in 1940 and 1941 respectively.