The Crowded Kitchen Players has prided itself on resurrecting obscure or forgotten dramas, with many of its stage productions Lehigh Valley and even Pennsylvania premieres.

With “The Fall Of Heaven,” the Crowded Kitchen Players have outdone themselves with the Nov. 6 - 15 production at Fellowship Hall, Trinity Episcopal Church, Bethlehem, believed to be only the second time the comedy by Walter Mosley has been presented anywhere.

The world premiere of “The Fall Of Heaven” was in January 2010 at the Playhouse In The Park, Cincinnati, Oh. Mosley, an American novelist, is known for a series of best-selling mysteries about African-American detective Easy Rawlins. Mosley’s first book, “Devil In A Blue Dress,” became a 1995 movie starring Denzel Washington.

“It’s the second time it’s ever been done, as far as I can tell,” says Ara Barlieb, director of “The Fall Of Heaven” and co-founder with Pamela McLean Wallace of Crowded Kitchen Players, based in Lower Macungie Township.

“I’ve never seen anything like it,” Barlieb enthuses about “The Fall Of Heaven,” in which Tempest Landry (William Alexander, Jr.), a street-wise young black man living in Harlem, faces the Pearly Gates. Saint Peter (David Oswald) sends him to hell. Tempest refuses to go.

Tempest is sent back to Earth with an angel, Joshua, (Roy Shuler). A battle of wills and good versus evil becomes what’s described as “a comedy of the human condition.”

Other roles in the play, stage-managed by Brian McDermott, are Bronwyn (Erica Baxter) and Alfreda (Felicia White).

“By refusing to go to hell, he’s [Tempest] taking a stand that the most of the laws we have favor white people, and that the circumstances in minority communities aren’t always the same as they are in white communities,” Barlieb observes.

“According to the play, it’s shaking the foundations of the universe. Tempest is conflicted because he doesn’t want to be responsible for opening the Gates of Hell, but he doesn’t believe he deserves punishment for doing things that as a black man he is forced to do to get by,” says Barlieb.

“The Fall Of Heaven” is the first production in the series, “Voices Of Conscience: Towards Racial Understanding,” a joint effort between Crowded Kitchen Players, Selkie Theatre, Allentown Public Theatre and the Basement Poets to provide a forum on racial discrimination.

“The Fall Of Heaven” has resonances with Ferguson and other instances of clashes between police officers and African-Americans in the United States.

“It is not in any way a piece that is a put-down of the police or authority. It very frankly addresses the stark differences between the various communities in the United States,” Barlieb says.

Barlieb thought that casting “The Fall Of Heaven” was going to be a challenge. “There aren’t many black actors in this area because there aren’t many non musicals with roles for black actors and we don’t have a black theater-going audience,” Barlieb says.

“Very few of the shows produced in the area speak to the black community and very few address issues that are of importance to the black community,” says Barlieb.

“He [Mosley] writes in what he calls a Southern African-American dialect. Rehearsals have been the most enriching because we’ve discussed literally every word in the script.

“It’s so illuminating and I hope it is for audiences, too,” Barlieb says.

“The Fall Of Heaven,” Crowded Kitchen Players, 8 p.m. Nov. 6, 7, 13, 14; 3 p.m. Nov. 8, 15, Fellowship Hall, Trinity Episcopal Church, Hall, 44 E. Market St., Bethlehem. Tickets, at the door, ckplayers.com, 610-395-7176