Educational Media Reviews Online

Sharon Washington is widely known for her extensive acting career on both stage and screen. However, fewer people know of her time spent living in the New York Public Library as a child. The film When My Sleeping Dragon Woke follows Sharon as she writes a play based on her unusual upbringing. As the play nears closer to its premiere, it becomes clear that some stories can only be told by digging deep into the past and confronting the monsters within.

When My Sleeping Dragon Woke uses a variety of perspectives to piece together Sharon’s story into one cohesive narrative. The foundation, and most traditional, of these perspectives involves Sharon looking back on her childhood from a modern-day point of view. These segments follow a standard documentary style of filming, weaving family photographs, home movies, and ephemera into interviews from Sharon and her colleagues. A jazz-based soundtrack helps to set the scene and establish a retrospective of a time gone by. These segments are contrasted with documentation of Sharon’s playwriting process, which focuses more on the complications of adapting one's personal life for the stage. Clips of various writing sessions, table reads, and rehearsals candidly portray the struggle to find a conclusion for the play. The inclusion of feedback from the production team also helps to drive this point home, alluding to the missing piece of the production and the risks in obtaining it.

Contrasting the live action portions of the film are a series of animated segments used to recount Sharon’s upbringing from the perspective of her childhood self. The animations parallel the books she read growing up, resulting in a more fantastical depiction of life in the NYPL. During these sections of the film, viewers can experience Sharon’s story with one foot in reality and the other in a (seemingly) fairy-tale life.

When My Sleeping Dragon Woke can be enjoyed by a general audience; no set of knowledge or skills is required to understand its message. In an educational context, the film is highly recommended for those teaching or studying the performing arts, particularly acting and playwriting. Those interested in animation and illustration may also benefit from studying the film’s application of animation in its storytelling.

This film is available in two versions, “feature-length” and “educational,” with 80-minute and 52-minute runtimes, respectively. The latter version omits a selection of clips to provide an abridged narrative, making it ideal for use within a standard-length class session. Both versions of the film are provided under one licensing fee, allowing users to choose which version is most appropriate for their needs.

Awards:
Best Documentary Feature Premiere, Heartland Film Festival

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