All paths lead to the same goal: to convey to others what we are. And we must pass through the solitude and difficulty, isolation and silence, in order to reach forth to the enchanted place where we can dance our clumsy dance and sing our sorrowful song -- but in this dance or in this song, there are fulfilled the most ancient rites of our conscience in the awareness of being human and of believing in a common destiny.
--Pablo Neruda, "Toward the Splendid City"

These are the words that Pablo Neruda addressed to the world upon receiving the Nobel Prize in 1971, but they are also words that my best friend shared with me when we were far apart our first year of college. I think, perhaps, that Andrew Lloyd Webber would like them.

You might think that this show is about the bible story, Jacob and the twelve sons of Israel, that is after all, what the title would seem to indicate. But, Joseph is really the story of what happens when a bible story is introduced to the fantasy world of Andrew Lloyd Webber. Joseph is Lloyd Webber's dream, but it is also the Narrator's dream, Joseph's dream, my dream, and most certainly the cast's dream.

While Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat began as a children's show, it has seen Broadway many times. It has grown and changed throughout the years, but its message has remained the same: We all dream a lot -- some are lucky, some are not. But if you think it, want it, dream it, then it's real. You are what you feel.

I hope you enjoy our dreams as we share them this evening. Join us in dancing our clumsy dance and singing our sorrowful song; letting your imagination run free is a wonderful thing.

I would like to dedicate this show to my family, who first encouraged me to dream and then gave me the strength and insight to make my dreams real, as well as the friends who have taught me so much about grace, strength, and dreaming: Tricia Andrews, Emily Resnick, Mary Elizabeth Alvarez, Johan Jolley, Morry Safer, and Adrian Greene.

Special thanks go to my apartmentmates for keeping me sane, my artistic staff for being incredibly talented, the cast for their hard work, the FYP staff for making this happen, and my grandmother who always told me dreams could come true.

Blythe Waters