Dream It Into Being

My sleep between Sunday and Monday delivered one of the most detailed, exciting dreams I’ve experienced in my lifetime. Throughout my 66 years, I’ve frequently experienced vivid, powerful dreams; most often the stories/memories/content of the dreams is about musical theater, my cherished career. I dream in color and in some dreams, I can smell, almost touch. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve awakened trying to shovel a piece of warm chocolate cake into my mouth ... so real, I was disappointed when I awoke. Monday night’s dream was so specific, I forced myself awake at 5:45am to remember as much as I could of it on a conscious plane of existence. My mind was racing with the idea presented in the dream, so I got up and wrote down what I could remember.

 

Like many dreams, it was a kaleidoscope of brief, shifting scenes, but there was a theme that connected the scenes and it contained a big idea. As I slept, I appeared at an audition in Seattle. I was nervous because it was my first audition for The 5th Avenue Theater in over a decade. It mattered immensely to me that I do well, show I still had skills.

 

I was auditioning for Bill Barry, Jamie Rocco and Ian Eisengrath. I don’t remember what I sang or what role I was reading for, but they liked my audition and were encouraging. After I finished, Bill, Jamie and Ian and I chatted a bit. I was given the opportunity to describe a project I was pondering. It was called “The Julian Patrick Project” (Julian, a well-respected, well-known opera bass, played Ben Franklin in a 2001 production of “1776” in Seattle in which I performed; he became a great friend, a mentor). 

 

I envisioned a year-long creative writing initiative where 62+ composer and lyricists would be paired to create new musical theater pieces focused on bringing “senior” musical theater performers back to the stage in leading roles. Casting would be age-blind and for the differently-abled. Topics would be those most relevant to the aging experience. The folks in my dream were enthusiastic.

 

Now, here is where the dream became weirdly specific. Bill suggested I write a comic musical piece about incontinence. (Cue memories of Robert Goulet wearing adult diapers onstage during a tour of Camelot in the late-1980’s.) I was reluctant to participate since I hadn’t written a show that had been produced since 1991. (Bill, Jamie, Ian, if you read this, I doubt you know I’ve written two scripts that were produced and performed.)

 

As the dream shifted, one scene melding into another, I came up with a name for a comic musical, “The Pampered Perennial”. (Perennial is my name for senior citizens like myself. We come back every year, stronger, more vital. Pampers? Well you get the link to incontinence.) Once I realized Bill, Jamie and Ian were supportive and interested, I started listing topics of vital interest to seniors that could be explored: Dementia, Loss of Mobility, Love and Relationships in one’s twilight years and the biggest one - Invisibility. “Perennials” are the last acceptable group for discrimination.

 

I began to reach out to theater friends in Seattle, Minneapolis and Houston: Peggy O’Connell, John Lowrie, Ellen McLain, Cheryl Massey-Peters, Laura Kenny, Carol Swarbrick, David Pichette, Allen Galli, Sean Griffin, Jim Gall, Bobbie Kotula, Jim Bernhard, Susan Shofner, Maggie Dickey and other performers dear to my heart were contacted. As the dream faded to black, Bill and Jamie gave me a hug and told me to get busy on the Julian Patrick Project. 

 

As I told a neighbor recently when she asked me what I do when faced with a difficult decision, if I decide to pursue a challenge, I dream it into being. I wonder if this is one of those times. It’s the birth of a new week, but that’s what’s happening to kick off this week in awesome dreams!