A co-production with Opera Theater of Pittsburgh and Pittsburgh Irish and Classical Theatre in association with The Stephen Foster Museum and Center for American Music.

A new music drama written and directed by Martin Giles

Beautiful Dreamers is an epic human comedy that uses the great songs of Stephen Foster to tell the story of a young man’s journey across mid-19th Century America and into the heart of the American Dream. Moses Walker, his heart broken by a love betrayed, sets off on a journey to the West from New York in search of love, self, freedom, home. He finds companions along the way — a Virginia widow and a runaway slave—and together they cross mighty rivers, the Great Plains, the Rockies and Sierras, and come to the shining Pacific. They meet Walt Whitman, Emily Dickinson and Sam Clemens, soldiers and Indians, rabid ghosts, stolid homesteaders, bitter 49ers, burlesque acts, and a fringe religious sect. They experience love and loss, hilarity, passion, and death — the making of a Nation in a landscape of dreams. Beautiful Dreamers features arrangements and musical direction by Douglas Levine. The cast includes Joel Ripka, Stephanie Riso, and Kevin Brown.

Venue and Location

Stephen Foster Memorial

4301 Forbes Avenue, Pittsburgh, PA 15260