The PlayFinder™

THE STORY: The time is 1866, the setting a wagon train moving slowly and perilously westward across the American frontier. Helen, the pampered young widow of an army colonel, and her fourteen-year-old daughter, Amy, are hoping for a new and better life in California. Used to the amenities of a refined Eastern upbringing, Helen tries bravely to adapt to the rigors of the journey, but their misfortunes multiply as they lose some of their precious food supply; Amy’s clothes, put out to dry after she falls in a river, and blown away in a desert storm; and the delicate Amy falls ill with ague. The gruff trailmaster cannot leave his responsibilities to help them; the awkward attentions of a young love-smitten suitor who courts Amy before riding off to join the army only deepen Helen’s distress at how far they have distanced themselves from their old life; and even the kind attentions of a wise old black “conjure woman” can do little to alleviate their plight. As Amy grows weaker it is clear that she and her mother can no longer keep up with the others and, as the play ends, they are left behind in the vast emptiness of the frontier, stoically facing the slim hope of rescue as the final moments of Amy’s young life ebb away.