The Trail of Dreams - Act I Lyrics

Act I

 

1. Opening/Come Away

 

ANGELA HOPEWELL

Come away, come away

down the trail of dreams tonight.

Feel the sun, face the wind,

ford the rivers, find the height

of your dream.

 

JOHN BROWN

Every night for a week

I have dreamed the same dream.

Confused and amazed,

wondering what does it mean?

I walk back through these books

'till the moment I wake,

then the feelings and faces,

all the people and places

start to fade.

 

ANGELA

What are you doing?

 

JOHN

I don't know... this is a dream. I do this every time.

 

ANGELA

John Brown, you've had this dream before?

 

JOHN

This is the seventh time. Who are you?

 

ANGELA

A friend. Tell me about these books?

 

JOHN

Books? Oh no, these are lives. I was their captain.

 

ANGELA

How many lives, John Brown?

 

JOHN

There were seventy thousand people.

 

---

2. I Had a Son

 

ANGELA

"As the mob arose and began burning the Mormons' houses, my wife gave birth to a son who lived but one hour. We called him John Crosby Brown. I raised a small heap of brick on his grave. We severely felt his loss."

 

JOHN

That's my book.

 

ANGELA

Your life.

 

JOHN

I had a son,

he was born in the spring,

I was proud as a father could be,

he was named after me.

He grew weak,

he was gone in an hour

and I had no power to fight

what my eyes could not see.

I was helpless,

he slipped into death.

When I heard his last breath

I felt tired, I felt sick.

Just a small pile of brick

marks the fact of his birth

and the fact there was nothing on earth

that his father could do.

 

ANGELA

There was nothing you could do.

You must not hold on to sorrow.

Let the past begin to fade.

Fix your eyes and all your dreams on tomorrow.

 

JOHN

I could sail across the sea,

I could roll across the plains,

I could find the farthest valley

and the picture of his face still remains.

 

Look at them all,

just like innocent children,

each man, woman, child of them

trusting in me as their guide,

in a world where there's no place to hide.

Like their father I'll lead them all through

if it's all I can do.

We'll arrive there as hard as it seems,

and I swear I won't fail them out there

on the trail of their dreams!

 

THE PLAYERS

Come away, come away

down the trail of dreams tonight!

Feel the sun, face the wind,

ford the rivers, find the height.

Come away, come away!

Come and dream!

 

---

3. It Began...

 

JENS NIELSON

It began in a village in Denmark,

when we heard we must gather across the sea.

 

ELSIE NIELSON

It began when the farm was sold

and I hid the gold... where no one would see.

 

CAROLINE GRANT

It began when they looked at my children

and they raised up their guns saying, "Nits make lice."

 

JEDEDIAH GRANT

That's the morning we shuddered and shivered,

crossing the river over the ice.

 

ROBERT PEARCE

It began with the dream of a homeland

way out West in the mountains and all alone.

It began with a twelve-pound ball

through our kitchen wall, saying "Go!"

 

COMPANY

Go!

 

A PLAYER

Gee! Haw!

 

JOHN

Where are you going?

 

A PLAYER

To the Rocky Mountains!

 

---

4. A Box For My Dreams

 

CAROLINE

Drive out of Kirtland, Ohio,

chased from Independence, Missouri,

was there any reason to think

this place would be different?

 

Late at night the rifle shots cracking,

lantern light, and all of us packing.

Is it any wonder I'm

still afraid of thunder?

I've watched my dreams all die,

I've seen them going under.

I've given up on all of them,

but one.

 

A box for my dreams,

the smallest of things,

yet nothing means more to me now.

A box for my dreams,

the few I've kept waiting.

I'm saving them up for the day

 

we can spread out the cloth

when we sit on a Sunday

and the candles are all burning bright.

Every one of us there

gathered safe by my side.

 

Yes, those are my plans,

those are my schemes;

a box that's just big enough

for dreams.

 

JEDEDIAH

A box for her dreams,

thats all that she needs?

She's not asked for anything more.

A box for her dreams,

I'll find one, I'll make one.

I'd take one if only it means

she can spread out the cloth

when we sit on a Sunday

and the candles are all burning bright.

Every one of us there

gathered safe by her side.

 

And who would have thought

that a box just this size

could hold all the dreams in her eyes?

 

Here, the perfect size for your treasures.

 

CAROLINE

But your books, you're so fond of those!

 

JEDEDIAH

I'm more fond of you.

 

CAROLINE

Jed, I...

 

JEDEDIAH

I think it's a very good trade.

BOTH

We can spread out the cloth

when we sit on a Sunday

and the candles are all burning bright.

Every one of us there,

when we've safely arrived!

 

JEDEDIAH

For all of your plans,

 

CAROLINE

for all of my schemes,

 

BOTH

a box that's just big enough

for dreams.

 

---

5. "Dancing against the cold..."

 

HELEN MAR KIMBALL WHITNEY

At Sugar Creek we scraped the snow away, and kindled a huge fire. We there formed a cotillion, or French four. The boys wore heavy boots and the shoes of the girls were not such as the fairies wear, but we were dancing against the cold.

 

ANGELA

Brother Brown. Is it going well?

 

JOHN

Yes, if I can keep everyone warm and moving.

 

ANGELA

No. How is everything going in your dream?

 

JOHN

Well...

 

ANGELA

Is it how you remembered it?

 

JOHN

Yes. But have we formally met?

 

ANGELA

(exiting) We haven't.

 

JEDEDIAH

John Brown?

 

JOHN

Who was that woman? That fine lovely woman...

 

---

6. Scenes/Oh Zion

 

JOHN

You will ride, Brother Pearce, and you will not change my mind.

 

ROBERT PEARCE

The Lord helps those that helps themselves.

 

If you're poor and you're in England

what's the use to have a soul?

For the factory is your life

if you're too bent for digging coal.

You'll be working day and night

until it's hardly life at all.

And then if you fall down dead

it isn't very far to fall.

 

But I watch the sparrows fly,

finding freedom in the sky.

And I wish that there were such a place

for such a one as I.

 

JENS

Only a farmer who works with his hands,

leaving my fields for this freest of lands.

 

ELSIE

Year after year you were cursing each row.

Jens, you were meant to help people to grow.

 

I know your heart and the secrets it keeps.

You are a shepherd in search of your sheeps.

 

JENS

Sheep, no sheeps. One or many, it is the same.

 

ELSIE

It is not like Denmark.

 

JENS

No. Here no one can keep us from being who we should be.

 

JENS & ELSIE

The land of our birth makes us foreigners here,

but we are not strangers, our new home is near!

 

CAROLINE

If you'd been just a little bit less smart,

had a little bit less heart,

been just a little bit less able,

I'd have kept you at my table here tonight.

 

But Captains of a Hundred

are in great demand.

 

JEDEDIAH

It's nothing that I asked for.

Try to understand.

 

Soon we will be settled

and our lives won't be so strange.

And there in the valley

our lives and our fortunes will change.

 

JEDEDIAH & CAROLINE

In another place and in another time

we'll have hours and days

when you only are mine!

 

PEARCE, NIELSONS, & GRANTS

The land so sweet called Zion,

though it's now but a treasured dream.

My Lord is the staff I shall rely on

'till I rest by its gentle stream.

 

Oh Zion, oh Zion,

how long shall I wait

to find the end of all my journey

and find peace there within thy gate?

 

---

7. Oxology

 

JOHN

Come try your luck with the oxen, boys,

with a "Gee!"

and a "Haw!"

Stomp through the muck and the dust and noise

with a "Whoa!" and "Giddap!"

 

C'mon get in there, your turn now.

 

OXEN

Moo.

All we wanna do

is stand here and chew

our cud 'till the morning.

No.

We're not gonna go.

We're telling you so.

We're giving you warning.

 

JOHN JOHNSON DAVIES

I say, captain, I can't do a bloody thing with these beastly bullocks, they nearly poked out me eyes. Just look at me clothes!

 

FREDERICK PIERCY

I say, Captain, couldn't we get some horses that are used to work? Why, these beastly brutes fight like lions. I doubt we shall ever get them fastened together.

 

ABNER BLACKBURN

Now I say, if we get those yokes and things on them, do they stay until we get to Zion?

 

JOHN

Oh, no, they have to be taken off twice a day, at noon and at night, to allow the oxen to feed and rest.

 

JOHN JOHNSON DAVIES

My word, I wish I was back in Old England, I do.

 

JOHN

That's a very good wish!

 

TEAMSTERS

These beastly bullocks

are awfully rude.

They'd serve us better

as a roast or nicely stewed.

There's nothing dumber

than such an ox,

 

ONLOOKERS

except the bloke who goes

beside him when he walks!

 

FREDERICK PIERCY

The Captain was watching us and telling us what to do. He told us to take whip and use it, and say "Gee, Duke!" and "Haw Brandy!" and so on. "Geeing" and "Hawing" were most forcibly taught.

 

JOHN JOHNSON DAVIES

The teamster should drive with the team t' the right, and when he cries "Gee," the team should go from him, and when "Haw" come toward 'im.

 

ABNER BLACKBURN

Now I was in the road part of the time, and that's when I was crossin' it.

 

FREDERICK PIERCY

It was an experience and, um... edifying!

 

PLAYERS

Come try your luck with the oxen, boys,

with a "Gee!"

and a "Haw!"

Stomp through the muck and the dust and noise

with a "Whoa!" and "Giddap!"

 

OXEN & TEAMSTERS REPEAT THEIR VERSES IN COUNTERPOINT TWICE

 

JOHN JOHNSON DAVIES

And by the time we got half way across the plains we could drive a team of oxen as good as you any day!

 

COMPANY

Come try your luck with the oxen, boys,

with a "Gee!"

and a "Haw!"

Stomp through the muck and the dust and noise

with a "Whoa!" and "Giddap!"

And "Giddap!" And "Giddap!" And "Giddap!"

 

OXEN

Come try your luck with the oxen, boys!

 

---

8. Angels Before Us/Come to the Valley

JOHN
Angels before us
and angels behind;
angels were promised,
but so hard to find.
I look on my left hand,
I look on my right"
where in the world could the angels be hiding tonight?

ANGELA
Come to the valley
that lies beyond dreams,
walk through the gardens
all scattered along the streams.
Rest by the fountain
where mornings are born,
come hold each day like a rose without thorn.

Come to the valley.

---

9. The Lottery

WILLIAM CLAYTON & HIS PASSERS-BY CHOIR
And should we die . . .

JOHN WATKINS
The company had all turned in for the night and the camp had long been
wrapped in slumber. I lay in bed but was not asleep when it seemed to me that
the darkness began to fade and I saw myself in a room about sixteen foot
square. God was considering what was to transpire on our journey from here to
Salt Lake, and it was shown to me that so many were to die, but who were they
to be? There was a box placed in the center of the room similar to many
lotteries I had seen. Tickets within envelopes were placed in this box, so
many marked to die and so many marked to live.

About six hundred souls were in the company and the tickets seemed to be
about half of each kind. After being put in the box and mixed promiscuously
together, each one of the company drew an envelope bearing a ticket that
would decide his fate.

SISTER AARON JACKSON
"Sister Aaron Jackson, you will awake in the night beside your frozen
husband, and remain until morning, but you will not die."

WILLIAM WHITAKER
"William Whitaker, you will go mad with hunger and cold, and then you will die, to be buried in a snowdrift."

MARGARET DALGLISH
"Margaret Dalglish, you will pull your cart to the very rim of the valley,
while others ride. Then you will thrust it into the canyon, watch it burst
into splinters, and walk into your new life with nothing but the clothes on your back and the faith in your heart."

LEVI SAVAGE
"Levi Savage, you alone will stand against the decision to pull handcarts
into the threat of winter. But you will go with the saints, helping them,
suffering with them, and offering to die with them. But you will live."

ELLEN PUCELL
"Ellen Pucell, you will lose both feet to the snows of October, but you will flourish in Zion."

PLAYERS
John Watkins, are you willing to go?

JOHN WATKINS
The spirit of the gathering has been filling my soul. My thoughts by day and my dreams at night are only how to get there.

ANGELA
John Watkins, are you willing to go?

JOHN WATKINS
I am willing to take my chances with the rest. I was bugler for our company.

COMPANY
Forest green and fountains, now we say farewell.
Prairie grass and mountains rising like a swell
up to the horizon, as we search the western skies,
where every amber sunset pulls our hearts
and leads our eyes.

COMPANY JOHN
Rolling on, Into the future!
Rolling on To the unknown!
Rolling on into the wilderness
that soon will be our home!

JOHN
If all our road through Iowa were to be remembered as the Trail of Mud, 
westward from Winter Quarters we travelled the Trail of Dust. In the big 
companies, the dust so choked the last wagons that it was not uncommon, now 
we were on the open plains, for fifty wagons to fan out like a wedge of geese 
in the sky and sail over those plains all abreast!

COMPANY
Past the farthest farmhouse
to the open plains--
ev'ry step we've taken, one less step remains.
On like ancient Israel, leaving Egypt in their day,
and praying God will lead us and will open up the way.

COMPANY JOHN
Rolling on, Into the future!
Rolling on To the unknown!
Rolling on into the wilderness
that soon will be our home!
Rolling on, To sage and pinion!
Rolling on, To the plateaus!
Rolling on to make the mountain valleys
blossom as a rose!

COMPANY GRANTS, NIELSONS,& PEARCE
Come, come ye saints. There is a land so sweet
No toil nor labor fear, called Zion, though it's
but with joy wend your way. now but a treasured dream.
Though hard to you My Lord is the staff
this journey may appear, I shall rely on
grace shall be 'til I rest by its
as your day. gentle streams.

'Tis better far Oh Zion,
for us to strive oh Zion,
our useless cares how long
from us to drive. shall I wait
Do this and joy to find the end
your hearts will swell. of all my journey,
All is well! and find peace
All is well! there within thy gate?
Rolling on! Rolling on!

ELSIE
Elsie Nielson. I am with the handcarts in 1856. We left the Missouri River
eighteen August!

CAROLINE
So late in the season?

ELSIE
Pretty fast, ja?

CAROLINE
But so late! I am frightened for you!

ELSIE
The Lord will temper the elements. Now, Sister Grant, how are you? Will you tell me?

CAROLINE
Oh Sister Nielson, I am not well. I was ill when we left, and I've never
caught up. But I don't want to worry my husband. He has so many to worry about.

ELSIE
Oh, Sister Grant.

CAROLINE
Sister Nielson, I'm glad someone knows. Thank you. I was not meant to be heroic.

ELSIE
Nor I, Sister.

Just ordinary people--the plain and simple truth.

CAROLINE
We're nothing like the heroes
I heard of in my youth.

ELSIE
We work and sleep,

CAROLINE
we wake and eat,

BOTH
tomorrow it will all repeat.

ELSIE
We're nothing like the heroes
I heard of in my youth.

JOHN
And all of the heroes
I thought I would find,
were they just imagination?
Were they only in my mind?
And all the explorers
of mountain and mist"
have they all gone away?
Did they ever exist?

ELSIE
Could ordinary people believe in such a dream?
Such ordinary people
aren't as simple as they seem!

CAROLINE
They share their goods, they share their lives,
their hopes and fears"it's no surprise
such ordinary people
aren't as simple as they seem!

JOHN
And all of the heroes
are just in disguise.
They're the ordinary people
with extraordinary lives!

And all the explorers
who ever set sail
had not one bit more courage
than these ordinary people on the trail!

MARY LIGHTNER
We felt it before we heard it. That may have been because we were sleeping on 
the ground. It seemed supernatural for the ground to shake under the moon-
less sky in near silence. Then a rumble like thunder along the invisible horizon. 
It rolled across the darkness out there like a wave and rose against us like 
a mountain. 
When it hit the train, animals, gear, and luggage were tumbled and trampled. 
Dust choked us where we huddled under our wagons, as ten thousand wild 
eyes looked neither to the right nor the left as they churned us under. We had 
never before seen buffalo.

JOHN
Forward the camp!

CADDIE
Captain Brown! Captain Brown! Captain Brown! Are we almost there yet?

CAROLINE
Caddie, Captain Brown warned us to keep together as close as possible. This 
is Indian territory!
JEAN BAKER
Soon we were greeted by ninety of the principal warriors with their families, 
going to a great council of the tribes to bury the tomahawk. Oh, they made a 
grand appearance, all on horseback and gaily dressed. Some with lances, 
others with guns or bows and arrows, and the men passed on one side of us, 
and the women and children on the other. But they were all well mounted, and 
their clothing was beautiful, trimmed with small beads. Altogether, it was 
quite an imposing procession!
ALFRED LAMBOURNE
And what if the redman did lie in our way? Why, he could be a brother. Oh, to 
be like him; oh, the temptation to leap on horseback, and gallop away over 
hill, and across dale.
LEVI JACKMAN
There were thousands of buffalo feeding quietly, strung for many miles 
between the bluffs and us. We can kill all we want, but we only kill what we 
need to eat. We are in full view of hundreds of them all the time.
GEORGE ALBERT SMITH
I ate heartily of buffalo meat, and was routed out very early by its effect . 
. . the bowel complaint.

PEARCE
We marched merrily along, singing the songs of Zion in this strange new land.

SARAH RICH 
We came to a land that was alive with what was called "prairie dogs." They 
made the hills resound with their barking. They were about the size of small 
puppies, and as cunning as they could be. Some of the boys got almost up to 
them, then they would dodge down into their holes and stick their heads out 
again and bark. Some of the men shot at them! If we could have caught them 
alive, we would have tried to tame them just because they were so small and 
pretty. Some of our company called that place "dog town."
JEAN BAKER
We are constantly walking over violets, primroses, daisies, bluebells, 
columbines of every shade, from white to the deepest purple. Oh, and the wild 
rose, too, perfuming the air for miles.

BODIL
Do we stop soon, Captain Brown?

JOHN
Oh, near sunset, if there's grass for the oxen.

JENS
And if there is no grass?

JOHN
Four miles further.

ELSIE
My wagon-puller eats no grass.

SARAH RICH
About this time we were having very warm weather, so much that we women got 
very sunburned.
SOLOMON CHAMBERLAIN
What a misery it is when the wind blows from the front, and the whole cloud 
of dust raised by seventy-five wagons, and over three hundred yoke of oxen, 
blows in our faces! How intolerably our eyes and nostrils burn, and how 
quickly our ears are filled with flying sand!
MARY LIGHTNER
Nothing but hills and brush to be seen. Passed four graves of immigrants. No 
grass save in patches along the river.

H.H. BENSON
Saw four abandoned wagons.

MARY ANN HAFEN
By this time mother's feet were so swollen she could not wear shoes, but had 
to wrap her feet in cloth.
MARY BRANNIGAN
The captain offered me the nicest pair of beaded moccasins he could find. I 
said, "No sir, my shoes are almost as good as new." He said, "Now how is 
that, when almost all in the company are bare-footed?" I said, "Perhaps they 
did not pray as I did that their shoes would not wear out."
ALFRED LAMBOURNE
I remember when we first sighted Chimney Rock, a pale, blue shaft above the 
plain, wavy through the haze which arose from the heated ground. Ah, but it 
seemed we should never reach it.

CADDIE
Mama, can we eat?

JOHN
Circle!

MARY LIGHTNER
Sixteen miles today, camped in dust.

PEARCE
I've lived so long on sour grapes
no creature finds me tasty.
And years of fact'ry darkness
have left me pale and pasty.

Those features which I once had feared
might make me unattractive,
I credit as the reason
I am still alive and active.

FIRST PLAYER (Stephen Thomas)
Oh, Brother Pearce, you,re gonna have to do better than just staying alive by 
accident. Why I know fellows what are actually doing something about it!

PEARCE
Doing something about it?

FIRST PLAYER
Old Brother Butler feared
he'd die of most diseases
So he said,

BUTLER (Shayne Hudson)
No!

FIRST PLAYER
to kisses and said,

BUTLER
Uh, uh!

FIRST PLAYER
to squeezes.
He's fine and healthy now,
he'll live long as he pleases.
But there's no girl will have him
when he gets down on his kneeses!

PLAYERS FIRST PLAYER
One step! He's one step ahead of
One step! what he lives in dread of.
One step! He's just
One step! praying
One step! Old Man Death won't catch him
One step! when he comes to snatch him;
One step! he's just
One step! staying
One step ahead! one step ahead!

SECOND PLAYER (Nathan Hoffman)
Aw, that's nothing! How 'bout this?

Our Brother Kimball, now
he took so many wives"
I never heard him say so,
but I think

KIMBALL (Rodney Elwood)
It,s forty-five!

SECOND PLAYER
When someone asked him why, he said,

KIMBALL
I think it should be clear.
I'll leave so many Kimballs,
They,ll think that I'm still here!

PLAYERS SECOND PLAYER
One step! He's one step ahead of
One step! what he lives in dread of.
One step! He's just
One step! praying
One step! Old Man Death won't catch him
One step! when he comes to snatch him;
One step! he's just
One step! staying
One step ahead! one step ahead!

THIRD PLAYER (Kim Brewster)
Hey! Wait a minute, I got one!

Old Sister Snyder, now
she loved her family so.
She know,d that they
would miss her
when it came her time to go.
She climbed into her bed
and said,

SNYDER (Traci Brewster)
I'll never move an inch!
And that way when I go
they'll never know the differinch.

PLAYERS SNYDER
One step! She's one step ahead of
One step! What she lives in dread of.
One step! She's just
One step! praying
One step! Old Man Death won't catch her
One step! when he comes to snatch her;
One step! She's just
One step! staying
one step!

PLAYERS
We're one step ahead of
what we live in dread of.
We're just praying
Old Man Death won't catch us
when he comes to snatch us.
We're just staying,
we're just praying,
we're just staying
one step ahead!

PEARCE
Do they think I am made out of paper or glass?
Do they think they must force me to ride?
I made a promise, a promise I'll keep;
do they think men like me have no pride?

All they can see is this poor wounded bird
flapping about in its rage.
I don,t need crumbs of attention and time,
they can't keep me here in this cage.

For I have wings to fly
that nobody else can see.
Yes, I have wings to fly
and someday I will break free!

Free from the
world that believes I'm a child, not a man,
that believes I belong on a shelf.
If I give in, and give up on my dream,
I'll start to believe it myself.

But I have wings to fly
that nobody else can see.
Yes, I have wings to fly
and someday I will break free!
Yes, someday I will break free!

ANGELA
Come to the valley that lies beyond dreams!

JENS
Brother Pearce! Brother Pearce! Oh, my friend. Oh, no. Oh, no. Captain Brown, 
he is gone from us.
JOHN
Brother Nielson, will you kindly fetch someone from the train to help with 
this body?

JENS
Brother Brown, the flour is gone! We can push no further! You must get us 
help.
JOHN
Mosiah, saddle me the fastest horse!
Brother Nielson, these sheep need a shepherd. You're it.

MALE PLAYERS
One step. (continues throughout the song)

JOHN YOUNG
I dreamed that I came to a tremendous mountain of snow and saw that my 
pathway was hedged up. But someone said, "Take one more step." I replied, 
"But that will be the last." However, I took that step, and then my guide 
said, "Do you not see there is room for you to take another?" When I had 
taken another, my guide told me to take still another in advance; and there 
was a passage all the way through. So it will be with us.
ELLEN WASDEN
In spite of all the hardships we sang, and many are the songs we fashioned to 
cheer our spirits. I do not remember the tune but this is the chorus:

For some must push
and some must pull,
As we go marching up the hill;
So merrily on our way we go
until we reach the valley . . .

FEMALE PLAYERS
So merrily on our way we go,
until we reach the valley, oh!

JOHN
Nothing to be done but ride away.

ANGELA
Nothing to be done but watch and wait.

JOHN
Wondering how many I can save.

FEMALE PLAYERS
Walking on with one foot in the grave.

JOHN
Knowing I must leave or lose them all.

ANGELA
Standing by to catch them as they fall.

JOHN
Praying God will hear them when they call!

FEMALE PLAYERS
Gird up your loins; fresh courage take.
Our God will never us forsake.
And soon we'll have this tale to tell"
all is well! All is well!

CADDIE
Snow!

COMPANY
One step.

Click for Lyrics to Act II

If your group or theatrical company is interested in performing "The Trail of Dreams," please contact the publisher;

Encore Performance Publishing

P. O. Box 692

Orem, UT 84059

(801) 225-0605

 

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