Ride a Blue Horse

This play is a wonderfully theatrical tale about a boy who is different—instead of marbles, he has poems in his pockets. Here is a comedy that is exciting, appealing, touching and also biographically true. It tells the story of a boy from Indiana named James Whitcomb Riley, who was the famous early American poet. Through him, the audience glimpses every gifted child and the special needs of everyone in his special world. Beginning on his 75th birthday, which was proclaimed a national day of celebration by President Woodrow Wilson, the poet recalls his youth. His recollection includes memories of the merry-go-round at the country fair, the old swimming hole, the painful dunce cap at the cruel village school, the bonfires on Halloween, unforgettable little Orphan Annie, the Underground Railroad and the horror of the Civil War, and the medicine show where his poems first won public applause. Ride a Blue Horse shows a gifted child coping with a universal problem—being different. The play provides an insight to the cultural view of American traditions from 1849 to 1916.