Don't Tell Me I Can't Fly
© 2010

Inspired by the life and art of Della Wells

Nine-year-old Tonia Bridge is growing up in a working class, African-American home in Milwaukee in 1964. Young Tonia’s artistic soul is at odds with her parents’ fears and pragmatism. Her efforts to please and appease them are in conflict with her own needs and desires. Complicating Tonia’s world is her mother’s mental illness and her father’s anger at the insidious racism of the times which hampers his own ambitions to pursue a career in science.

Tonia tries to please her mother by wearing safe, but drab, clothing; she follows the rules in a famous etiquette book on hair and deportment and manners. She tries to please her father by making a beautiful science project, which she thinks will make him proud. A different Tonia takes the stage when she is guiding her friend Theo into the world of her imagination, or finding a thrill in her secret games with her dolls. Tonia finds her way, the only way possible, by allowing her parents to see her true self with all its flaws, beauty and possibilities

Workshopped at the 2010 Kennedy Center New Visions/New Voices Festival. Commissioned by First Stage Chidren's Theatre; premiere, October 28, 2011.

Promotional video from First Stage.

2 female adults
1 male adult
1 female child
1 male child
the chararacters are African American
full length
unit set

available from the author's agent