Track Home, The

Full-Lengths

By: Kari Catton
Cast: 22 M, 18 F, opt. extras (With doubling: 15 M, 13 F. Tripling possible.)
Performance Time: Approximately 90 minutes, 78 pgs

DRAMA. Audiences will love this gripping play based on the stories of real Orphan Train survivors. It’s 1910, and in an effort to clean the streets of abandoned children in New York City, agents with the Children’s Aid Society transport children on the Orphan Train with the hope that they will be adopted by Christian families in the West. With a limited amount of milk and only jam sandwiches and apples to eat, 11 children and two agents board a train for the 4-day journey from New York City to Missouri. Agents confiscate all things that remind the children of their former homes like the addresses of their birth parents or family photos. When the Orphan Train reaches Rolla, MO, the children disembark and are paraded through town, hoping to meet their future parents and families. Strong boys are adopted by families who need help with farm work while older girls go to families who need help with household chores and rearing children. Families are broken up as siblings are adopted into different homes. Characters are composites taken from real Orphan Train survivors and their descendants and reflect the history, heartache, and hope of these children.

Freeviews: To read play excerpts click here.

About the Story: To read more about the story click here.

An award-winning playwright, Kari Catton, serves as the Executive Director for Theatre in the Park at Lincoln’s New Salem State Historic Site, Petersburg, IL. Ms. Catton graduated from Illinois State University with a degree in Theatre. She resides in Springfield, IL, and has two daughters, Jenny and Amy.