Keepers of the Dream
By Jaqueline Moscou

The Cast
Terri Bridgett (Ensemble)
Wabei Siyolwe (Ensemble)
Bonita Thomas (Ensemble)
Karla Washington (Ensemble)
Mayme Almeta Williams (Ensemble)

Director's Notes
The project grew out of a 1991 commission from the Museum of History and Industry in Seattle. The museum was hosting Brain Lanker's photographic exhibit of seventy-five portraits of influential contemporary African American women, from his book I Dream A World. Looking for a way to bring the portraits of these women to life for middle school children who were visiting the exhibit, the museum commissioned a friend of Moscou's to develop a play, and the two collaborated on the project, with Moscou directing and performing in the work. "We had complete freedom to chose which women we wanted to portray and how. The theme we selected was service, responsibility and respect. All things we think are sorely lacking in our young people today. We interspersed monologues with songs to keep it lively." Adults, as well as kids, were interested in the show and the play enjoyed a long life, touring churches and schools for the next six years.

The play's success inspired Moscou to expand it, shaping it more toward adults, while retaining the spirited, interactive style of the play and its structure of monologues, interspersed with song and verse. Where the original I Dream A World play was designed as an educational journey, Mouscou reworked the text to make it an emotional journey from Africa to the present, and titled the new work Keepers of the Dream: A Celebration of Significant Sistahs! "I took our facts and accomplishments and replaced them with more universal threads of humor, wisdom, and talent." She sees Keepers of the Dream as portraying the arc of Black history, "it is really saying that we've had bad times and better times, but at no time are we not human. Keepers is a thank you note to those who came before us and, I hope, encouragement for those of use who believe that service today for a better tomorrow is neither futile nor out of date."