I attended the world premiere dance opera called Test Pilot tonight with my friend Cheryl. Performed at St. Kate’s O’Shaughnessy Theater as part of their Women of Substance series, Test Pilot is “an intimate chamber dance opera by choreographer Penelope Freeh and composer Jocelyn Hagen, explores the power and wonder of creativity and invention through the birth of flight and the story of the Wright Brothers. Their sister, Katharine, is an often overlooked member of the Wright family, and her contribution to the family and their success is examined in this work through song and dance. The creators’ personal family legends and aviation heroics are also woven into the oblique narrative” (http://testpilotdanceopera.com/index.html and http://oshag.stkate.edu/event/test-pilot).
I overheard a few people talking and one person sounded like a pilot, so it was nice to know that there were other pilots in the audience besides Cheryl and I. It was a fun show with amazing dancing and singing, as well as fun aviation inspired images and photos displayed on a large screen behind the musicians and dancers, and both Cheryl and I were in giggles about the phonetic alphabet song Alpha Bravo Charlie. It was so cute! I know that we will be humming that song in airplanes for years to come.
