It was a harrowing event with an unexpected outcome: in 2006 in Nickel Mines, Pennsylvania, a man entered an Amish schoolhouse and shot 10 girls. The Amish community responded with instant forgiveness for the murderer, even giving aid to his family.

Playwright Jessica Dickey movingly explores the entire incident (through fictional characters so as not to offend the traumatized families) and the idea of radical forgiveness in The Amish Project, which opens Friday (November 6) and runs till November 21 at the Pacific Theatre.