A Dream that Won't Die

 Posted by Lisa Laree to Beer Lahai Roi

I have a dream that just won't die.

It's been shot down enough times; it should be, like Jacob Marley, dead as a doornail.

I've written about it before...long ago....  I did eventually knock on a door loud enough someone came to the door, heard my spiel, and basically said, 'Oh, it's nice, but we're not interested.'  And closed the door.

I put it away, then, again. I  heard the coffin being nailed closed from a chance comment a fellow staff member made to me about a year or so ago...she had no idea the significance of the little off-hand remark  had to me and my dream.

It should be dead.  Mourned and left behind.

But it. Won't. Die.

I never really said what the dream was here.

Years ago, our church did a fairly well-known adaptation of A Christmas Carol a couple of years in a row.  It was well-received; many churches have  performed it.  But, there are things about it that just felt...wrong.  I know some of it was due to time constraints; that's a tough story to tell in the attention span of the average church- goer, even if it's known to be 'A Production' and not a service.  But some of the dialogue felt awkward; some of the references weren't true to the time period...minor things, really, but they bugged me.

So I sat down and re-wrote a number of the scenes so that they would be a little more natural in dialogue...and a little more accurate to the era.  I thought that would get the bee out of my bonnet.

But it didn't.

Finally, about 12 years ago I sat down with a copy of A Christmas Carol and wrote an entirely new adaptation, told as a flashback by someone who turns out to be Timothy Cratchet at about age 55.  I wrote lyrics for six songs...looking for Christmas Carols that would have been sung in the mid 19th century for the required carol medley. I named it...'God Bless Us, Everyone'.

I gave it to a few people to read.  Some, to my knowledge, never did.  Some were polite and returned it with kind, non-judgmental words.  One or two were enthusiastic.  I kept polishing it; the last edit through it, to make sure there was nothing in it that was unique to the original production, was in 2014.

But it went nowhere.  The news I'd been given that nailed the coffin shut was that someone else had been asked to rewrite the original script for a future production at my church.  The person who told me that had no idea that I'd been working  on a whole new adaptation.

But the dream won't die.

I pulled it up last week and took a deep breath and began editing it down to a more workable length.  I put a page break between each scene and looked at each one independently, from the end backwards...what was there that didn't move the story forward or uphold the message?  I took out lines of explanation, characters, subplots...some of my favorite lines.   One whole scene. Half of another. Loved that little interchange.  But...time... it was axed.  And I'm still afraid it's too long, but it's much leaner than it was.  However, it's still a very rough draft; the songs need fleshing out at the very least.  Lyrics alone aren't enough.

But...why am I doing this?  What is the point?  I honestly don't know.  I haven't talked about it much, really, for years.  Here and there, but always to a crack in a door that closed.  Maybe it's just bad.  Honestly, that could be the problem.  But it doesn't feel bad. It doesn't feel manipulative. It actually feels kinda right.

So...maybe there's a place I don't know about yet where it will fit.  I can't believe that this thing isn't meant for something since it just won't leave me alone. But I have no idea how to find the place for it.

I'm just not sure what to do next.  If anything.  Keep whittling, I suppose.

But now you know what I've been not talking about.