BOSWELL'S DREAMS A comic-drama about the power of friendship and the written word, BOSWELL'S DREAMS is grounded in the relationship between the 18th century's writers James Boswell and Samuel Johnson -- but leaps forward in time to the rediscovery of Boswell's journals by a female American graduate student in the 1950's. Interweaving and integrating those worlds, BOSWELL'S DREAMS offers backstage scenes from David Garrick's "Hamlet"; meetings of Dr. Johnson's literary club (including Oliver Goldsmith and Joshua Reynolds); scenes from a tour of the wild Scottish Hebrides; and heated conversations over cocktails and tea in the salon and stable-loft of the Boswell Family's Auchinleck House in the 1950's -- where Boswell's private, often sexually explicit, journals have been hidden for 150 years. The play's action begins in London, 1762, backstage of David Garrick's production of "Hamlet" as Boswell, a young Scot, arrives in London in search of fortune and adventure - both literary and sexual. Hounded by his domineering High Magistrate father (and his own guilt), Boswell drifts from prostitute to prostitute and from one ill-suited career to another to escape his familial fate: to study law and manage the estate in Auchinleck. His greatest hope and obsession - and the drive of Act I - is to meet and befriend Johnson, author of the first English dictionary and the most famous figure of his day. Act II begins in Auchinleck House in Scotland in 1950 as an American Ivy League professor and Joan, his promising young graduate student, try to secure papers from Boswell's descendants (who despise their dissolute ancestor but need money for their crumbling house and gardens). Despite the fact that she and her overbearing professor are Johnson scholars hell-bent on a grant, Joan becomes intrigued by the Boswell material and needs to decide what is most "of value" in her life. As Joan explores the trunks of long-hidden, often libidinous journals, Johnson and Boswell's time together on their Tour of the Scottish Hebrides comes alive. Speaking through his journals and bittersweet life experiences, Boswell tries to influence Joan - as Johnson did him. SET AND CAST The set of BOSWELL'S DREAMS should be simple and versatile, since the play has many fluid jumps in time and place. Specificity can be effected most efficiently with costumes, sound and props. 7-9 actors (5-6 men and 2-3 women). The play calls for an ensemble of actors playing multiple roles. The role of Boswell, however, needs to be played by one male actor with no doubling. Ideally the actor who plays the role of Johnson plays no other visible part, but he could be doubled. Ideally, the female actor who plays the role of JOAN would play no other. In the premiere production, there were 9 actors: 6 men and 3 women. The first production ran just over two houts, with one intermission. PRODUCTION HISTORY Kohler developed BOSWELL'S DREAMS over a several year period, including five in-house readings/workshops (2001-2005) one public reading (2004) and a full production mounted by Renaissance Theaterworks in March, 2005. Norma Saldivar, (Director of Graduate Directing Program, Department of Theater and Drama, University of Wisconsin-Madison) directed both the development, workshops and production of BOSWELL'S DREAMS. • Production: Renaissance Theaterworks, Off-Broadway Theatre, March 2005 • Public Reading: Renaissance Theaterworks, Off-Broadway Theatre, October 2004 • Workshops: January 2005; October 2004 • In-house Readings: January 2005; April 2004; October 2004; November 2004; November 2003; November 2002; November 2001 EXCERPT REVIEWS PROFESSIONAL RECOMMENDATIONS A SAMPLING OF AUDIENCE RESPONSE