MYLA LICHTMAN-FIELDS

In 450 A.D. Ireland, the Druid CHIEF DUBTACH of Leinster simultaneously fathered a son [BACENE] by his wife, CONDLA, and a daughter [BRIGID] by his bondmaid BROCESA. Condla insisted that the pregnant Brocessa be sold and sent away to Connacht. Irish law demanded that the children of slaves be returned to their original owners upon reaching the age of eight. After the King ordered Dubtach to give 15 year-old Brigid her freedom, she took her vows to become a Sister in Christ. Along the Great Road on her return to help her mother in Connacht, Brigid met other Sisters and discovered how miserable and isolated the women were. She vowed to help them by creating a monastery community for women. Brigid's dream of a monastery (convent) for women is glimpsed within the context of the play's dream sequence. Women in Brigid's community would establish scriptoriums , hospitals, communal farms, and nurture art and music [women would sing Gregorian chants].

THE SCANDALMAKERS offers a unique view of MARY WOLLSTONECRAFT GODWIN and the exorcizing of her Frankenstein story during the summer of 1816, while she was a member of the English literati group that was scandalizing Geneva.

"FAUSTINE" begins in 1996 at All Soul's College at Oxford University, England, where Faustine White, L.L.D. is a graduate student working on a comparative study "SCIENCE VERSUS RELIGION". With this controversial topic, she's summoned the Devil's attention and forced herself to explore problems existing at the threshold of the 21st century, where technologies have outpaced human sociological development. The Devil forges a contract with Faustine for her soul. In Faustine's fantastic adventure, Faustine drinks a magic potion prepared by a gaggle of Walpurgis Night witches, then travels to a swank London nightclub, where "The Seven Deadly Sins" provide the floorshow. She travels through time and comes to see the importance of the media, of science and religion in helping to shape our image of ourselves in our world.

The African mytho-drama WAGADU tells the story of a West African father (BANTU) and his son (BAMAKO) who search for the spiritual salvation for their drought-stricken tribe. Their quest is triggered by Bamako's dream commanding him to search out the four Wagadus--in the west, in the north, in the east, and in the south of Africa.

This theatrical Romantic Comedy tells the story of NIKKI JOHNSON, a young gifted writer from Salina, Kansas, who travels to New York City in the early 1970s to meet with the highly regarded publisher CHARLES RESTON, president of his own company. Nikki is laying it all on the line for this meeting hoping Reston will open a door for her in pursuing her dream of becoming a novelist. Moving in with ANITA JOHNSON, a high fashion graphic designer in her early 30s, works perfectly for Nikki's plans. That is, until Nikki unexpectedly falls for Anita's boyfriend JAKE ROTHMAN. Nikki is on the ropes and is forced to choose between possibly the love of her life and a professional writing career, in a time when women were forced to choose between a career or a personal life. There is humor and pathos in this love triangle. (Finalist Panowski/Forest Roberts Theatre Award and presented in the Norris Theatre New Play Discovery Series.)

This stage play about pioneer women enduring the hardships and the rewards of crossing the plains and the Continental Divide to reach Colorado is a story depicted in the Women's Gold stitchery that hangs in the Colorado statehouse in Denver. The play presents a rainbow of women pioneers who helped to tame the West. It chronicles their tribulations and their triumphs.

During the 1990s, outside the village of Connemara in County Galway, Ireland, resides the elderly Padric and Schirley Kilhara. Padric is receiving his last rites as the play opens. The lightning bolt that illuminates the large standing stone outside his thatched-roofed cottage is perhaps the finger of God summoning Padric back to life in order to complete the work that must be done before Padric's soul will be freed to meet its maker. Padric, a carver of stones, is overcome by the vision to bring forth "the mists of legend" and his Irish heritage from the imposing stone sentinel.

In time, Turlough O'Carolan would come to be heralded as the National Composer of Ireland and the Father of the Jig. AN IRISH SONATA plays out the "sonata" that was Turlough O'Carolan's life. Despite the adversities of blindness and poverty, Turlough bequested an indelible mark on his countrymen. Over one thousand people have come to County Roscommon in Ireland of 1738. Most of these pilgrims are camping out in the fields around Alderford house, where the wake celebrating the life of blind Irish harper Turlough O'Carolan (aka Carolan) is in progress. For four days, harpers play continuously day and night, as the "sonata" that was Carolan's life is replayed. At the age of 18, the strapping red-headed, six-foot-tall iron worker would lose his sight to small pox. In 18th century Ireland, the only occupation open to the blind was playing the harp. Thus, Turlough was taken to Mary Dahl (Blind Mary) to be taught by her to play the metal stringed instrument. When Turlough complains to Mary that his hands are too big and that he knows no music, Mary tells him: "Turlough, you play the instrument you have." Turlough would spend the next 50 years of his life traversing Ireland's roads on horseback with his sidekick Giola (Guide). Carolan would perform his original compositions (he dubbed "jigs") and reciting fabulous stories-even imparting the story to Jonathan Swift that would become the basis for Swift's Gullivers Travels. Carolan performed in big houses of both Catholic and Protestant landowners-a feat for his times, when Catholics were being persecuted and the clergy forced to live underground. Turlough refused to relinquish his Catholic religion, believing that music was a unifying force. Forever the ladies man, Turlough managed to father children throughout the Emerald Isle. Always the prankster, Carolan never stopped playing tricks on his fellow harpers. By the time of his death, Carolan had married (at age 50) and fathered 7 legitimate children. After his wife died, Turlough reunited with his first love, the lovely heiress Brigid Cruise in a chance encounter at Lough Derg, where he'd gone to do penance. Despite the adversities of blindness and poverty, Turlough bequested an indelible mark on his countrymen. In time, Turlough O'Carolan would come to be heralded as the National Composer of Ireland and the Father of the Jig.

Set in the Smokies of 1910, LORD OF THE SMOKIES is a reimagining of the Phaedra myth, telling the story of moonshiner mountain man Thadius Steed who, after his first two wives died in childbirth, is marrying young Fate O'Dare.. Following the consummation of his marriage, Thadius is pursued by Federal Agents, forcing him to flee the mountains. Thadius asks his younger brother Hyram to take care of Fate for him until he is able to return home. The pregnant Fate falls in love with Hyram. Thadius returns home and all hell breaks loose as the tragedy plays out.

"LEARNING TO DANCE IN THE RAIN" tells the story of a mother who is forced to say goodbye to her own mother and to let go of her son who is permanently disabled by mental illness. It chronicles the grandmother's gift of love to her grandson when she enables him to be the only person who can release her from her suffering to thereby regain his own sense of self-worth.

CLARA & JOHANNES follows the relationship between composer/musicians Johannes Brahms and Clara Wieck Schumann over a time period of 35 years. The play is based on the letters of Clara and Johannes.

SARAH ALDEN RIPLEY was the whetstone for 19th Century Transcendentalists RALPH WALDO EMERSON, HENRY DAVID THOREAU, and NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE. Together, they shared the environs of Concord's Old Manse. Their spirits are trapped within this historic house built in 1770 and they cannot be released until their "secrets" are shared with a living audience.

The theme of this play is TOLERANCE. ANNE MARBURY HUTCHINSON lived from 1590-1643. She was the daughter of Reverend Francis Marbury, mother of fourteen children, midwife and herbalist, and she was tried twice for heresy in Massachusetts. She believed that good works were the keys to salvation. Although she was excommunicated from the Puritan Church and was banished from the Massachusetts Bay Colony, she managed to evade the gallows noose through her superior verbal acumen and Scriptural knowledge. The entire action of the play, (except for Anne's final courtroom rebuttal speech), takes place in Anne's prison room during early March of 1638. "Apparitions" who pass through Anne's prison room are: Goody Hawkins, Mary Dyer, Faith Hutchinson, and Elizabeth Cotton.

THE PEACEMAKERS is a two act play about the REAL armistice agreement between two warhorse Generals from opposing sides who risked court martial to meet in secret and broker the peace agreement that ended the American Civil War.

FELIX & FANNY provides a look into the loves and career frustrations of the musician-siblings, Felix and Fanny Mendelssohn. This two person dramatic play explores the sexist and anti-Semitic German society of 1821-1847 that prevented Fanny Mendelssohn Hensel from developing concert skills like her illustrious brother Felix, who published many of Fanny's compositions under his own name.

"THE WETBACK" tells the story of Ernesto Sanchez, a 16 year-old undocumented farm laborer accused of murdering his employer's son. The story is presented as a juvenile hearing in two-act dramatic form that takes place over the course of a single day in July of 1976 against the backdrop of the United States Bicentennial.

In 1840 Leipzig, Germany, after four years of being refused the hand of Friedrich Wieck's daughter, Robert Schumann was finally forced to take legal steps--required by Saxony law -- in order to win a court dispensation giving him permission to marry his beloved virtuosa interpreter of his music, Clara Wieck. In the ensuing courtroom battle, Clara's two male counterparts --her father and her lover -- project their contrasting visions for Clara upon her being.