ACT I
Faces stare out from a sky-high wall of posters of missing Native girls. A a man, possibly a Sheriff, crosses the stage with a sign featuring a white girl which he posts over other faces, reading, “Have you seen me?”
A young Lakota woman, Abbie, comes to the O’Mally House. Her past and reasons for being there are shrouded in mystery.
Finding an old guitar that Raven taught herself to play on, Frank reminisces about a song Raven wrote herself.
A flashback by Grace leads her back to the moment that Raven disappeared, similar to the panic felt by Native parents when their children vanish.
Abbie sings Winston to sleep with an ancient Lakota lullaby, as other Native mothers join the song.
Abbie, who has had her fill of Grace’s biased and ignorant prejudice about her people launches into her to put her in her place, once and for all.
Grace, desperate, accosts her treasured statue of the Virgin Mary, offering the purest thing she has, Winston, if that’s what is needed to return Raven. Reading her lips, Winston bolts, crashing out the door after Abbie, changing the course of the O’Mally’s lives forever.
ACT II
Abbie and Winston have fled from the O’Mally house and are seeking shelter on the trails in the mountains as Abbie senses danger and seeks to protect Winston.
Abbie bids goodbye to Winston, now safely hidden, undertaking the ultimate sacrifice to protect him from evil spirits that lurk among them.
Abbie confronts her ultimate challenge, violent and dangerous.
In a moment of mystery, Grace is led to the ultimate moment of recognition and healing.
GONE ASTRAY continues to be developed. Support has been received by the BMI Librettists Workshop and we have experienced a well-received public radio interview as well as professional studio recordings and a reading with Broadway artists. Following a public reading on April 15, 2024, we feel we are sufficiently along to present our work for further development to theatres and producers who may have an interest in GONE ASTRAY and possess audiences likely to find this story as compelling as multiple Off-Broadway theatres did when it was a stage play.