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Defying Gravity, A Space Voyage at Masquers Defying Gravity by Jane Anderson is a play about the human fascination with flight, and with exploration. Humans have always wanted to be able to fly like birds. In the early days they strapped on feathered wings and tried to soar. After many disasters at that approach, airplanes came into being, and flying became normal. But some people are not satisfied with what is known and normal. They are blessed and cursed with the fascination for what lies around the bend. They are willing to take enormous chances in order to see what hasn’t been seen, to experience what others dare not try. We have all benefited by what these explorers have found. We can understand our own world better because of what they have discovered as they reached out toward the unknown. Masquers veteran, Melissa Sloan plays the astronaut/schoolteacher who inspires her students to look beyond the ordinary. Jessica McDonnell is her daughter, Elizabeth. The story is told from Elizabeth’s point of view. Bob Leonard plays Claude Monet, the French impressionist painter and time traveler from the past. Pete Heilman plays C.B., a fun loving but overworked and dedicated member of the ground crew. Donna, played by Joanne Bracht, is a wisecracking bartender in an astronaut hangout. John Moody and Barbara Sloan are Ed and Betty, a retired couple traveling in a Winnebago. They come to Florida to watch the shuttle launch. “Nothing about this play is ordinary,” says director, Beverly Hasper. “The playwright, Jane Anderson, turns her vivid imagination to a real historical moment, and invites the playgoer to share in her exploration of inner as well as outer space.” The space shuttle Challenger exploded 73 minutes after lift off on January 28, 1986 killing all seven crew members aboard, including Christa McAuliffe, the school teacher who had won the competition for the “teacher in space” program. Even though Defying Gravity deals with a tragic moment in the NASA space program, it is lighter than air. The story unfolds in a series of scenes, some of them funny, some of them inspirational, and some surreal. All of them dramatize the excitement and wonder of space exploration. Masquers Theater is also treading on new ground with the staging of this play, and discovering new technical capabilities of the theater. Performances
are scheduled for 8PM, March 9-10, 16-17, 23-24, 30-31, and 3PM
matinees on March 18, 25, and April 1. All tickets are $10.
Call for reservations at 509-246-2611. |
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"Now let me speak of happiness. It has been my observation that the happiest of people, the vibrant doers of the world are almost always those who are using - who are putting into play, calling upon, depending upon-the greatest number of their God-given talents and capabilities. For them, curiosity is a way of life, and the quest for knowledge and the new is insatiable and exhilarating.
But it becomes
many-fold more meaningful when put to use for a higher purpose,
for something bigger than self, for a goal that calls on those
individuals to dictate themselves to accomplishment for the
betterment of our nation, and indeed for all mankind. The
individual's safety takes second place to that curiosity, that
quest, that daring and dedication with the highest of purpose." |
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