Dandelion Wishes

Dandelion Wishes: A Cinderella Story has been very near and dear to me over the last few years. This modern day spin on the old princess classic was written about 5 years ago by the brilliant Leslie Barker, and originally took the form of a 4 person, 7 character touring production that was wildly successful in schools and libraries all over the Mid-South. As one of the actors in ShoWagon, a professional touring troupe that operates through Theatre Memphis, I was in that production, bossing my way through the show as Lula Gene, and prancing around in fairy wings as Lucy. I saw the great joy that this script brought to so many children, and after touring many different shows around the Memphis area for the next few years, I never could forgot that sweet little jewel of a show.

Fast forward to Summer 2017, when the crazy idea came to mind to expand this show to include a much larger cast in order to be appropriate for the summer camp production at Theatre Memphis. Leslie kindly gave me her blessing to expand the script however I felt necessary, and I quickly figured out how to add to it so that it could include a group of 25 children and 4 college interns. Those 4 college interns, all wonderful performers pursuing a degree in Theatre from The University of Memphis, needed another performance component for their internship, so I had the idea to once again rework the script into yet another form: a radio play. These talented young people toured the newly renovated audio version of the show around to libraries in the Memphis area, and delighted audiences with this Chatterbox production.

They were also able to take the time to record it for audiences everywhere to listen to, so I hope you enjoy the fruits of their labor, and I certainly hope that after all their hard work they got the internship credit that they deserved!

—Lena Wallace Black