MCLA's Venable Hall Takes 'Flight' into Aviation History
NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — Say the name Amelia Earhart and just about everyone knows who you are talking about. Mention six other women — Harriet Quimby, Bessie Coleman, Raymonde de Laroche, Blanche Stuart Scott, Katherine Stinson and Matilde Moisant — and their names (and fame) flies out of your mind.
These women were unsung fliers, so important as pioneers in the history of aviation that they took to the skies in the teens and early 1920s before Earhart even stepped foot in her bright red Lockheed Vega 5.
Now these women are about to take "Flight."
Of sorts.
Mosaic at Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts will present "Flight" at 7:30 p.m., Friday, Oct. 23, and Saturday, Oct. 24, and at 2 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 25, in Venable Hall on the MCLA campus. The event is free.
The original drama "Flight," part of a trilogy alongside "Gravity" and "Balance," is conceived by Steve Pearson and written and directed by Robyn Hunt, partners in the artistic/acting studio Pacific Performance Project/East located in East Sandwich. Hunt and Pearson prefer to call "Flight" a "theatrical poem."
"When we were doing research, some books didn't even list those women," said Hunt. "They went right to the Wright Brothers. That's when we knew their story needed to be told."
And so Pearson, who has always had an interest in flying, decided to write it.
"During World War I, a woman developed the first flying ambulance," he explained. "There were other women who flew the mail. But this first generation of women before World War I was just lost to history. One of the reasons they are forgotten is because of the simple reason they were women. Do we remember women used to wear corsets?"
"Flight" is also loosely based on "The Seagull," the seminal work of Anton Chekov — Pearson calls it a "riff" — making the story more intricate and interesting. ("Balance and "Gravity" refer, respectively, to Chekov's "The Three Sisters" and "The Cherry Orchard.")
Using aerial techniques, music and drama, "Flight" brings to life the story of two young fictional French actresses in 1913, "a time when being an actress was considered improper and being an aviator was considered impossible," said Hunt.
A ground-breaking woman filmmaker, based on Alice Guy-Blaché and whom many credit as the first filmmaker to create a narrative motion picture (and in the play portrayed by Hunt, here named Alisse), is also a character.
"Flight" takes the audience into an airline hangar in which the women assemble an actual plane on stage in preparation for a trailblazing flight from Paris to Moscow. Over the course of the play, the actors actually (re)assemble a 3/4-scale replica of an early monoplane, the Bleriot XI, that, in 1909, was the first plane to cross the English Channel.
Trailblazing Harriet Quimby (one of the inspirations for the play), used the same plane to become the first woman to fly across the Channel in 1912.
Sounds like a drama soaring into new dimensions.
"These women were doing something that everybody thought they shouldn't do," Pearson explained. "And, on top of battling what society said, they had to come to a decision on whether or not to take a chance on something that was dangerous for everyone. It's extremely risky to fly this little wooden plane that is really light and can be blown anywhere. But they said, 'Well, why shouldn't we?'"
Take "Flight" and find out.
Upcoming productions at MCLA include:
• "Everybody," a reimagining of the medieval morality play "Everyman" by playwright Branden Jacobs-Jenkins from Dec. 4 through 6.
• "Moments from the Studio: Fall Acting Showcase" on Friday, Dec. 11, at 7 p.m. Part performance and part glimpse into the actor's creative process, Moments from the Studio brings classroom exploration to the stage.
• "The 39 Steps," adapted by Patrick Barlow from the novel by John Buchan and the film by Alfred Hitchcock, from April 16-18, 2027.
• Staged Reading Festival, a weekend celebrating plays, playwrights, and the power of stories brought to life on stage. from April 30 to May 2, 2027
• "Moments from the Studio: Spring Acting Showcase" on Friday, May 7, 2027, at 7 p.m.
More information about these and other productions here.
Tags: MCLA, plays,
