By Kat Dublin
In October 2020, OBU Sophomore Creative Writing major Elena Streett got an idea for a play and began drafting. The idea was first inspired by the photographs of Dorothea Lange. What began as a love story grew into a full-fledged, gut-wrenching musical called “Dreamers” that grapples with loneliness, grief, and growing up.
By August 2021, Elena had finished the first draft of the songs and script of “Dreamers.” Throughout the rest of 2021 and much of 2022, Elena worked on revising, redrafting and recomposing her work. Then, on October 7, 2022, Elena sent her script to directors C. Alex Webster and John Dement in the hopes of having her work produced by the incredible OBU Theatre Program. Dement read the script, and knew he wanted to put it on.
Webster loves new and original works as well as play development, so she agreed. “As I began meeting with Elena to discuss the show, listening to the work, and reading the work over and over, I realized that the charming musical was considerably mature and showed great promise,” Webster said.
In November of 2022, Streett and Webster began working on edits of the play.
In 2023, major developments to “Dreamers” were made, including stage readings at OBU and a revising round that cut many significant songs. But in December 2023, a contract was signed with Alex and John, and rehearsals of “Dreamers” began in February 2024. Edits to the play were made throughout the rehearsal process, up to April 18th, 2024, just a week before the show’s opening night.
“Dreamers” is a heartbreaking, Depression-era tale set in 1935 and 1940 Southern California. The story focuses on the character of Myrtle Greene, utilizing the unique literary device of having two interconnecting timelines—Myrtle’s past and present.
As the play opens, the audience watches Myrtle Greene, played by Josie Watson, at the train station as she grapples with life in a monologue that begins with the line, “Life is not like books.” She continues, saying, “With books, there’s some illusion of order.” From this scene, Myrtle is pulled to the back of the stage where she watches the play from afar, and a new story unfolds.
A spotlight is cast on a young Myrtle, played by Abby Zang, and the audience watches her meet Max, played by Cole Green, a young hobo who has just hopped off a train from Chicago. The two fight, but the chemistry is immediately tangible. Myrtle says that Max is a dishonest thief, but Max says, “Honesty is for people with food in their bellies and money in their pockets.” The two soon bond over a shared love of books and begin to quote from Wuthering Heights.
It is soon revealed that young Myrtle’s mother passed away just last year, and she lives with her older sister Diana, played by Madeline Carlson, her younger sister Sally, played by Jordyn Clinton, and their father, played by Zack Dickens. With their father perpetually either working or drunk, Diana is thrust into the motherly role of raising her sisters. But wild Myrtle is not easy to control. After revealing that she had an amazing dream, Myrtle exclaimed, “How do you breathe if you have nothing to hunger after?” Thus, a main theme of the play is introduced: dreams.
After spending more time together, Myrtle and Max fall in love. Myrtle, excited and confused by her immense feelings, exclaimed, “They call it love, how can one word mean so much.” The two decide to run away together.
Present Myrtle watched these scenes with an expression of both heartbreak and longing. Sometimes she chimed in, whispering a line before young Max did, demonstrating that she remembered everything, as though the memories were engraved on her heart and woven into her mind.
The story continued from there, and its ending is one that will stick with the audience for years to come.
Throughout the play, the characters break into song and dance both expertly written and choreographed. Zang, Green, and the entire cast demonstrated masterful voice control, hitting notes both high and low without fail. Elena Streett revealed her brilliant talent for both weaving words and composing music. “Dreamers” was a tale that embroidered itself into the heartstrings of its watchers while hitting all the right notes.
