Wim Coleman

Lonely and bored with rural life in 1856, young Bella Lee Dunkinson began to hang around the local railroad. Engineer John Hardiman took a liking to the spirited girl and gave her a boy's responsibilities helping with the engine. One stormy night, the engine was slipping dangerously on wet rails. While John was putting sand on the tracks, Bella found herself alone in the cab driving the train up a steep and dangerous mountainside-a 16-year-old female...

In the early 1800s, white settlers and missionaries were intent on bringing the English language to the illiterate Native Americans. Sequoyah was intrigued by these leaves of paper with strange marks that talked. Doing what no one had ever done before, Sequoyah set about creating a written Cherokee language-helping preserve the tribe's history and culture even today.

In 1807 at the age of 13, Brenton Dixon lived in Albany, New York, and expected to become a blacksmith's apprentice. Then one day he and his friends saw something strange out on the Hudson River, approaching from downstream. Many were sure that it was a fire-breathing monster and the sight created havoc on shore and on the water. It was Robert Fulton's pioneering steamboat the Clermont, making its maiden voyage from New York City to Albany.

La Llorona (The Crying Woman) is a sad and haunting tale from Mexico. Parents have told the story for hundreds of years to misbehaving children and to guard against vanity. Some say the story is about Spanish conquistador Hernán Cortés and a native Mexican woman who served as his translator. Her loss can be compared to the loss of native Mexican culture after the Spanish conquest.

The 16th President of the United States, Abraham Lincoln was killed by an assassin's bullet on April 15, 1865. Lincoln preserved the union of the nation, but after the Civil War he struggled with Congress and the people over Reconstruction. Despite the war and political strife, Lincoln's life and legacy touched the hearts and souls of millions then as it does today. This play draws from the writings of many of those people and from Lincoln himself....