Going to See the Elephant - Acting Edition

by Karen Hensel and Elana Kent, based on an idea by Patti Johns, characters created by Patti Johns, Sylvia Meredith, Elizabeth Shaw and Laura Toffenetti

• ISBN13: 9780822204541
• ISBN10: 0822204541
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 1983-12-15
• Publisher: DRAMATISTS PLAY SERVICE INC

Summary

THE STORY: The action takes place before a sod hut in the Kansas wilderness of the 1870s, where four frontier women wrest a living from the stubborn soil. The matriarch of the group is Ma, a feisty, resourceful survivor whose wanderlust is still strong and who inspires the others with her homespun wisdom and strength. With her are her daughter-in-law Sara, a hardworking young wife and mother who is content with life as she knows it; Etta, a young girl suffering the trauma of having been abducted by Cheyenne yet still optimistic that marriage and happiness may yet await; and Mrs. Nichols, a fastidious and refined Eastern lady forced to seek shelter with the others while her husband recovers from a critical illness. As they cope with wolf attacks, the constant fear of Indians, and the dismal isolation of the prairie, they talk of going to see the elephant -crossing the next hill to see what lies on the other side-and it is this sense of striving to achieve all that life can offer that gives the play its power and beauty-and makes it clear that the wilderness was not tamed by men alone.