"It steals the audience and steals hearts" —The Post and Courier, 1981
Cast: 1M, 1W, 1 boy, 1 girl, and 1 dragon
Set: unit set with stars
Recommended for: young and general audiences
Running Time: one act, approximately 70 minutes
A runaway success when it premiered at the Piccolo Spoleto Festival in Charleston, South Carolina in 1981, the boy who stole the stars tells the story of a young boy who discovers his grandfather is dying. The old man's behavior is different; he's short-tempered and no longer tells his wonderful stories. The boy enlists the grandfather's aid in helping him with a school project—counting the stars. Their togetherness seems to renew the old man's interest and he begins telling stories, one of them about the dragon in the sky. The dragon, he explains, is there to guard the stars. An old legend says that should the stars be returned to earth, it would mean a new paradise with no unhappiness, no death. Hearing this, the boy goes off to slay the dragon and return the stars to earth, seeking a means to keep his grandfather from dying. At the play's end, the youngster comes to understand how important he is to his grandfather.