As you peer into American history, you will discover a colorful mosaic of critical chapters. Episodes of men and women striving for the American dream in their own unique way. Many years ago, when I was a student in college, I had my first encounter with Carlye Brown’s stage play African Company Presents Richard III. It’s a modest, intimate piece of theater about the African Grove, the first company of Black actors in New York who dared to take on Shakespeare during a period when newspaper critics criticized black actors for having lips that were too large to speak the words of Shakespeare adequately. It was also during a period where half of the nation was divided on it's stance on the issue of slavery. As much as Brown’s play is about African American history, it is an American Play. An American play about daring to dream, even if it means putting on a costume for an evening.

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After my encounter with African Company, I also wanted to write an American play. Throughout my youth, I remember listening to my grandfather’s stories about the golden age of cinema. Although my grandfather is African American and from Arkansas, Much of his childhood was in an era when musicals starring Fred Astaire, Gene Kelly, and Lena Horne were popular. Rarely were my conversations with my grandfather about race. They were mainly about a dying American art form, the musical. Inspired by those conversations, I began researching American history during the 1920s and 1930s, and I serendipitously stumbled upon a sepia-toned image of a pilot doing acrobats on a plane in midair. When I saw this, I thought the photograph was manufactured; it must have been photoshopped. But after further research, I discovered that the image was authentic. My fascination with the photo sparked a new curiosity about the American tradition of barnstorming. A new world opened, and I began writing a play about a family flying planes in a circus.

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My goal in writing this piece was to demonstrate to audiences the value of holding on to your dreams. To some degree, the history of airplanes and aviation is a metaphor for chasing after one’s dreams. The years that were spent doing research about aviation were highly illuminating. I read countless stories about intrepid men and women who defied the odds and decided to live life on their own terms by taking on aviation as a profession when it was novel. This new enterprise did not come without its costs. Many of these early pilots died young, risking their lives on the new frontier. In addition, many of the barriers that burdened blacks on the ground followed them in their pursuit of joining their white counterparts in the sky. For example, Bessie Coleman applied to every aviation school in the United States and was rejected. And the noted William J Powell, considered the prophet of aviation, worked tirelessly in the face of discrimination to mobilize black pilots for careers in the sky . The peril of flight did not stop these young Americans from chasing after their dreams. Thousands of Americans would flock to stadiums and open farm fields to watch these pilots perform acrobats in the air.

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I’ve been fortunate enough as a playwright to witness the staging of my play twice. But I am now in a period where I would like to present the play to a broader audience. It has been such a rewarding experience to work on the Radio Play production of my play We Called Them Angels. I was blessed to work with a gifted group of Actors and production team. My hope is that listeners will be encouraged to dream. When you follow your dreams, you give others the courage to dream.

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Respectfully,

Ryan Williams French