Skylark Dreams
Genre: DramaLength: full-length
Parts: Nine actors (6 male, 3 female)
Synopsis: Skylark Dreams is a play about finding the courage to face who we really are, then finding the strength to start all over. Denise is the owner and head mechanic of an auto garage originally run by her father. Obsessed with the dream that a mysterious customer whom she fell in love with will one day return for his Buick™ Skylark, she continues to work in the garage that has not only become a lot for abandoned vehicles, but also of abandoned dreams. Everything is set into motion when her brother, Darrel, who has recently been released from prison, expresses interest in the car as a means to escape his situation. With the help of EJ, an elderly relater of tales, both Denise and Darrel find the courage to overcome their fears and discover the power to create their own destinies.
(Image from Herberger College of Fine Arts production, 2006)
Production History:
New York City Repertory Theatre/NYC Rep, Brooklyn, NY. Directed by Anthony Wills, Jr., 2010 (staged reading)
Herberger College of Fine Arts New Works Festival. Directed by William Partlan, 2006
Skylark Dreams Director’s Notes
What happens if you get your car stuck in someone else’s dream? Skylark Dreams is Wind Woods’ exploration of the traps we find ourselves in when we try to fulfill someone else’s expectations, to inhabit a dream that wasn’t really of our own devising. The best-laid plans of the father can become the best-laid traps for the next generation.
In Wind’s play, the magic elixir that frees these young people from the bonds of family expectations to seek out their own future lies in the stories of a man who has searched for and perhaps found himself. In our research for the play, we lighted on the image of the Griot, an African tribal storyteller, revered by his people and possessed of the capability to sing the stories of collective tribal history. Wikipedia defines him as a West African poet, praise singer, and wandering musician, considered a repository of oral tradition. Griots today live in many parts of West Africa, including Mali, Gambia, Guinea, and Senegal, and are present among the Mande peoples, Fulbe (Fula), Hausa, Tukulóor, Wolof, Serer, Mauritanian Arabs and many other smaller tribes.
When E.J. says to Denise, “That’s your story, D. I just told it in a way that you had forgot how to,” he is performing the function of a modern-day Griot, a mechanic for the soul. With the naming of Javier he passes on the dream of owning one’s own garage to the next disenfranchised group of American dreamers who will build their own future.
In Skylark Dreams, playwright Wind Woods becomes the storyteller who shows us the power of dreaming.
Bill Partlan