Post by Ace on Nov 25, 2003 13:31:39 GMT -5
Higher & higher: Rubicon's new 'Defying Gravity' production is about letting go -- and reaching for the stars
By Karen Lindell,
klindell@VenturaCountyStar.com
November 20, 2003
"Oh, I have slipped the surly bonds of earth,
And danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings ..."
-- from "High Flight" by John Gillespie Magee Jr., American pilot killed at age 19 during World War II
Stephanie Zimbalist rehearses with local students for Rubicon Theatre Company's production of "Defying Gravity," which previews tonight and Friday and opens with a gala Saturday; it runs through Dec. 21 at The Laurel in Ventura.
We never stop trying to fly. Earlier this year, Karyl Lynn Burns, artistic director of the Rubicon Theatre Company, came across Magee's poem "High Flight" while doing research on Christa McAuliffe for Rubicon's production of "Defying Gravity," a play inspired by the teacher-astronaut's life and death.
Former President Ronald Reagan had paraphrased the poem during a speech in memory of McAuliffe and the other six astronauts who died when the space shuttle Challenger exploded in 1986. Burns said she also learned that McAuliffe had carried a copy of Magee's verse with her onto the shuttle.
"I went to sleep thinking about that poem," Burns said.
The next day -- Feb. 1, 2003 -- the space shuttle Columbia exploded.
Burns said Rubicon originally came up with the idea of staging "Defying Gravity" to commemorate the centennial of Orville and Wilbur Wright's first flight on Dec. 17, 1903.
"After Columbia, we rethought it, and agreed it would still be appropriate," she said about the play, which opens Saturday at The Laurel in downtown Ventura. "It will speak to a whole new generation."
That new generation includes a cast of 13 local schoolchildren recruited to play the astronaut's students. Stephanie Zimbalist heads the cast as their teacher.
"Defying Gravity," which is making its Central Coast premiere, opened in 1991 at the Williamstown Theatre Festival in Massachusetts. Jenny Sullivan, who directed the play then, is also directing Rubicon's production.
Although the play, written by Emmy Award-winning writer Jane Anderson, was "inspired by" McAuliffe, it's not a biographical account of her life or a historical retelling of the Challenger incident. The central character, who is not even given a name, is known simply as "the Teacher."
More conceptual than factual, "Defying Gravity" is a series of vignettes featuring seven fictional people affected by the crash of the space shuttle. They include the Teacher and her 5-year-old daughter Elizabeth, played by Precious Chong both as a child and an adult 20 years after the incident (McAuliffe's real daughter was named Caroline).
C.B. (Jeff Kober) is a NASA technician who feels responsible for the mechanical failings that led to the explosion. C.B.'s girlfriend Donna (Pamela Shaddock) works at a bar frequented by shuttle astronauts. Betty and Ed (Ann Walker and John Bennett Perry), a retired couple in their 60s traveling around the country in a Winnebago, witness the shuttle launch. The seventh character is Claude Monet (Harold Gould).
Yes, that Monet -- the famous French Impressionistic painter who died in 1926 long before space travel (more about him in a minute).
In the nonlinear play, scenes shift among the past, present and future. The action begins during the days directly before and after the shuttle launch in 1986, interspersed with scenes 20 years ahead as Elizabeth has flashbacks about her childhood and the Challenger incident. A few scenes take place at an unspecified time in the future when space travel isn't limited to astronauts.
Much of the story is Elizabeth's. She recalls feeling neglected by her mother in the busy days leading up to the launch (she gets a plastic space shuttle from the NASA gift shop for Christmas), then shares how she managed to move on after the tragedy.
"The thoughts of the daughter are really (Anderson's) imaginings on what it might be like for the daughter of any hero, or someone in the public eye with an important duty to perform," said Burns.
Chong, as Elizabeth, can relate to having a celebrity parent; her father is actor and director Tommy Chong.
"It was a historical event, but also intensely personal for her," said Chong. "Her character is coming to terms with why it all happened, and how it's OK to move forward."
C.B., the technician, is "an amalgam of many people Jane spoke with who were sure after (the explosion) that it was something they did or didn't do," said Burns.
The apparent oddball, Monet, serves as the play's philosophical center. He appears with most of the characters in various scenes as a sort of spiritual guru or Ghost of Artists Past, offering a different perspective on how to view the world.
"Just as astronauts see how things come into perspective from a distance, so do artists," said Burns. In particular, Monet, as an Impressionist, focused on how light and color influence the way we perceive everyday objects.
In one scene, for example, Ed -- who is a photographer -- and Betty set up a tripod on the beach to take pictures of the shuttle launch, while Monet paints nearby. Betty tells Monet: "Look at all those colors. Do you actually see those colors or do you make them up?" Monet replies, "No, Madame, they are all there."
In the same scene, Ed says, "Horizons are a good point of reference, am I right?" Monet replies: "Oh yes. They are hard to ignore. But there comes a time when you have to let them go."
Letting go -- of fears, guilt, preconceived notions, a mother -- is a key theme in the play.
Burns said the Rubicon Theatre itself is taking a chance by staging the play.
"This is the most adventurous piece we've ever done," she said, "in part because it's a newer play, but also because of the technology involved."
In addition to a multimedia element that will feature projections of NASA photos, the production will include a few scenes in which the characters actually fly. The aerialist rigging is being done by Branam Enterprises, the rigging company for the TV series "Fear Factor."
The kids in the show appear in several classroom scenes with Zimbalist. During an interview at one of their rehearsals, the young actors, ages 8 to 12, shared what the play meant to them.
Dillon Francis, 12, who attends Cabrillo Middle School in Ventura, is brushing up on shuttle history. "I'm trying to learn more facts about Challenger," he said, rattling off a technical explanation about O-rings and fuel valves.
Jacqueline (Jack) Kaden, 10, a fifth-grader at Los Senderos School in Camarillo, is more philosophical. "It's about following your dreams no matter what happens," she said. "It's also about death and how the people you love are always in your heart."
Burns said that Rubicon will offer separate daytime productions of the play for students, using study guides provided by NASA. She also plans to invite the principal of Christa McAuliffe Elementary School in Oxnard to attend opening night.
But although the play can be educational, Burns leans toward a philosophical interpretation of "Defying Gravity."
"It addresses both loss and victories of the spirit," she said, "which are what happen when you're a pioneer."
Or as the Teacher tells her students, "People always believed that if you defied gravity, you were that much closer to God."
By Karen Lindell,
klindell@VenturaCountyStar.com
November 20, 2003
"Oh, I have slipped the surly bonds of earth,
And danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings ..."
-- from "High Flight" by John Gillespie Magee Jr., American pilot killed at age 19 during World War II
Stephanie Zimbalist rehearses with local students for Rubicon Theatre Company's production of "Defying Gravity," which previews tonight and Friday and opens with a gala Saturday; it runs through Dec. 21 at The Laurel in Ventura.
We never stop trying to fly. Earlier this year, Karyl Lynn Burns, artistic director of the Rubicon Theatre Company, came across Magee's poem "High Flight" while doing research on Christa McAuliffe for Rubicon's production of "Defying Gravity," a play inspired by the teacher-astronaut's life and death.
Former President Ronald Reagan had paraphrased the poem during a speech in memory of McAuliffe and the other six astronauts who died when the space shuttle Challenger exploded in 1986. Burns said she also learned that McAuliffe had carried a copy of Magee's verse with her onto the shuttle.
"I went to sleep thinking about that poem," Burns said.
The next day -- Feb. 1, 2003 -- the space shuttle Columbia exploded.
Burns said Rubicon originally came up with the idea of staging "Defying Gravity" to commemorate the centennial of Orville and Wilbur Wright's first flight on Dec. 17, 1903.
"After Columbia, we rethought it, and agreed it would still be appropriate," she said about the play, which opens Saturday at The Laurel in downtown Ventura. "It will speak to a whole new generation."
That new generation includes a cast of 13 local schoolchildren recruited to play the astronaut's students. Stephanie Zimbalist heads the cast as their teacher.
"Defying Gravity," which is making its Central Coast premiere, opened in 1991 at the Williamstown Theatre Festival in Massachusetts. Jenny Sullivan, who directed the play then, is also directing Rubicon's production.
Although the play, written by Emmy Award-winning writer Jane Anderson, was "inspired by" McAuliffe, it's not a biographical account of her life or a historical retelling of the Challenger incident. The central character, who is not even given a name, is known simply as "the Teacher."
More conceptual than factual, "Defying Gravity" is a series of vignettes featuring seven fictional people affected by the crash of the space shuttle. They include the Teacher and her 5-year-old daughter Elizabeth, played by Precious Chong both as a child and an adult 20 years after the incident (McAuliffe's real daughter was named Caroline).
C.B. (Jeff Kober) is a NASA technician who feels responsible for the mechanical failings that led to the explosion. C.B.'s girlfriend Donna (Pamela Shaddock) works at a bar frequented by shuttle astronauts. Betty and Ed (Ann Walker and John Bennett Perry), a retired couple in their 60s traveling around the country in a Winnebago, witness the shuttle launch. The seventh character is Claude Monet (Harold Gould).
Yes, that Monet -- the famous French Impressionistic painter who died in 1926 long before space travel (more about him in a minute).
In the nonlinear play, scenes shift among the past, present and future. The action begins during the days directly before and after the shuttle launch in 1986, interspersed with scenes 20 years ahead as Elizabeth has flashbacks about her childhood and the Challenger incident. A few scenes take place at an unspecified time in the future when space travel isn't limited to astronauts.
Much of the story is Elizabeth's. She recalls feeling neglected by her mother in the busy days leading up to the launch (she gets a plastic space shuttle from the NASA gift shop for Christmas), then shares how she managed to move on after the tragedy.
"The thoughts of the daughter are really (Anderson's) imaginings on what it might be like for the daughter of any hero, or someone in the public eye with an important duty to perform," said Burns.
Chong, as Elizabeth, can relate to having a celebrity parent; her father is actor and director Tommy Chong.
"It was a historical event, but also intensely personal for her," said Chong. "Her character is coming to terms with why it all happened, and how it's OK to move forward."
C.B., the technician, is "an amalgam of many people Jane spoke with who were sure after (the explosion) that it was something they did or didn't do," said Burns.
The apparent oddball, Monet, serves as the play's philosophical center. He appears with most of the characters in various scenes as a sort of spiritual guru or Ghost of Artists Past, offering a different perspective on how to view the world.
"Just as astronauts see how things come into perspective from a distance, so do artists," said Burns. In particular, Monet, as an Impressionist, focused on how light and color influence the way we perceive everyday objects.
In one scene, for example, Ed -- who is a photographer -- and Betty set up a tripod on the beach to take pictures of the shuttle launch, while Monet paints nearby. Betty tells Monet: "Look at all those colors. Do you actually see those colors or do you make them up?" Monet replies, "No, Madame, they are all there."
In the same scene, Ed says, "Horizons are a good point of reference, am I right?" Monet replies: "Oh yes. They are hard to ignore. But there comes a time when you have to let them go."
Letting go -- of fears, guilt, preconceived notions, a mother -- is a key theme in the play.
Burns said the Rubicon Theatre itself is taking a chance by staging the play.
"This is the most adventurous piece we've ever done," she said, "in part because it's a newer play, but also because of the technology involved."
In addition to a multimedia element that will feature projections of NASA photos, the production will include a few scenes in which the characters actually fly. The aerialist rigging is being done by Branam Enterprises, the rigging company for the TV series "Fear Factor."
The kids in the show appear in several classroom scenes with Zimbalist. During an interview at one of their rehearsals, the young actors, ages 8 to 12, shared what the play meant to them.
Dillon Francis, 12, who attends Cabrillo Middle School in Ventura, is brushing up on shuttle history. "I'm trying to learn more facts about Challenger," he said, rattling off a technical explanation about O-rings and fuel valves.
Jacqueline (Jack) Kaden, 10, a fifth-grader at Los Senderos School in Camarillo, is more philosophical. "It's about following your dreams no matter what happens," she said. "It's also about death and how the people you love are always in your heart."
Burns said that Rubicon will offer separate daytime productions of the play for students, using study guides provided by NASA. She also plans to invite the principal of Christa McAuliffe Elementary School in Oxnard to attend opening night.
But although the play can be educational, Burns leans toward a philosophical interpretation of "Defying Gravity."
"It addresses both loss and victories of the spirit," she said, "which are what happen when you're a pioneer."
Or as the Teacher tells her students, "People always believed that if you defied gravity, you were that much closer to God."