Wim Coleman

Lonely and bored with rural life in 1856, young Bella Lee Dunkinson began to hang around the local railroad. Engineer John Hardiman took a liking to the spirited girl and gave her a boy's responsibilities helping with the engine. One stormy night, the engine was slipping dangerously on wet rails. While John was putting sand on the tracks, Bella found herself alone in the cab driving the train up a steep and dangerous mountainside-a 16-year-old female...

La Llorona (The Crying Woman) is a sad and haunting tale from Mexico. Parents have told the story for hundreds of years to misbehaving children and to guard against vanity. Some say the story is about Spanish conquistador Hernán Cortés and a native Mexican woman who served as his translator. Her loss can be compared to the loss of native Mexican culture after the Spanish conquest.

In 1845, Frederick Douglass's first autobiography became a bestseller. Many readers could not believe that such a brilliant writer was ever a slave. When Douglass wrote the book, slavery had not yet ended so he kept secret how he escaped from Maryland. By 1881, the Civil War had ended slavery and Douglass felt the time was right to reveal how he escaped. This play is adapted from Douglass's own words from The Life and Times of Frederick Douglass.

In the early 1800s, white settlers and missionaries were intent on bringing the English language to the illiterate Native Americans. Sequoyah was intrigued by these leaves of paper with strange marks that talked. Doing what no one had ever done before, Sequoyah set about creating a written Cherokee language-helping preserve the tribe's history and culture even today.

The 16th President of the United States, Abraham Lincoln was killed by an assassin's bullet on April 15, 1865. Lincoln preserved the union of the nation, but after the Civil War he struggled with Congress and the people over Reconstruction. Despite the war and political strife, Lincoln's life and legacy touched the hearts and souls of millions then as it does today. This play draws from the writings of many of those people and from Lincoln himself....

Jim Hawkins discovers an old treasure map and sets out on a harrowing voyage to a faraway island, and runs into the violent sea along with many dangerous men seeking the same treasure. Written in graphic-novel format. These reader-favorite tiles are now updated for enhanced Common Core State Standards support, including discussion and writing prompts developed by a Common Core expert, an expanded introduction, bolded glossary words and dynamic new...

Looks at the framing of the United States Constitution and its amendments through such primary source documents as speeches, records of the Constitutional Convention and similar meetings, and the documents themselves.