Aviatrix Amelia Earheart's swashbuckling life and times adapted for the stage in a youth musical that places a young woman - the Queen of the skies at the centre of the story.
Inspired – she thinks – by the daredevil sky battles of WW1, Amelia learns to fly. The famous publisher George Putnam, who believes ‘competition didn’t just end with the war’ is always fighting the battle for supremacy: he distracts rival female flyer Mabel Boll with publicity promises, while he treats Amelia seriously.
Later, he wards off other competition to maintain the prize.Amelia meanwhile grows in wisdom; dismissive of her sometimes abusive alcoholic father, she learns from her mother that it was he who gave her her flying dream.
In an act of posthumous reconciliation, she chooses to take an alcoholic navigator and so is lost forever. Act One is the build to the “solo” Atlantic crossing. Act Two is the build to the fatal round-the-world trip.
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Plot / Synopsis
PLACES : ACROSS
TIME
NB Planes and locations should all be suggested, not literal, for budgetary reasons: theatre magic, not technology; although projections would solve a multitude of budgetary sins.
Cast
GUIDE /PUTNAM’S SECRETARY / BELL BOY / WEATHER BUREAU OFFICER / NEWSBOY / ELINOR SMITH / POSTMAN – Bright-eyed, smart enthusiast for the life of Amelia Earhart
AMELIA EARHART – Willowy aviatrix both active and contemplative type, seen from teens to death at 37.
PIDGE EARHART / FLIGHT ATTENDANT / DAVY PUTNAM / REPORTER / NUN / MODERN FEMALE PILOT – Cautious younger sister of Amelia, whose caution leads to ultimate frustration.
AMY EARHART / HOLLYWOOD QUEEN / MODERN PASSENGER – Stalwart aged mother
GEORGE PALMER PUTNAM / EDWIN EARHEART – Bullish, big, square jawed, ambitious, 41 when we first see him.
PAUL MANTZ / PUTNAM CELEBRITY / GANGSTER / MABEL BOLL CHORUS-MAN, LATER HER PILOT / ENGLISH FISHERMAN / MODERN CO-PILOT / HOMETOWN GIRL CHORUS – imagined as age 20 in 1918 (not his actual age). Dashing WW1 pilot and later stuntman.
DOROTHY PUTNAM / PUTNAM CELEBRITY / MODERN FLIGHT ATTENDANT / OFF-STAGE FEMALE VOICE / THIRD NUN / PIONEER – Knowing wife of Putnam, more knowing that he knows!
BILL (WILMER) STULTZ / PUTNAM CELEBRITY / GANGSTER / REPORTER / PIONEER FRED NOONAN / MODERN PASSENGER – Affable drinker and pilot, 28.
SOCIALIST / PUTNAM CELEBRITY / CHARLES LINDBERGH / MABEL BOLL CHORUS-MAN / WEATHERMAN DOC KIMBALL / MAYORS / PIONEER / MODERN AIRPLANE CHECK-IN OFFICER.
ADDITIONAL TWO ENSEMBLE MEN – HOSPITALISED SOLDIER (PATIENT) / EXPLORATION TEAM / REPORTER / PIONEERS / MODERN PASSENGERS / RADIO ANNOUNCER / RADIO ANNOUNCER TWO
ADDITIONAL ENSEMBLE YOUNG WOMAN – FLIGHT ATTENDANT / MABEL BOLL / OFF-STAGE FEMALE VOICE / SECOND NUN / PIONEER
HOMETOWN ‘CROWD’ COULD ALSO CONSIST OF (VARIOUSLY): GUIDE, PIDGE, AMY, MANTZ, DOROTHY, MAYOR, AND PUTNAM, INDIVIDUALS STEPPING BACK INTO OTHER CHARACTER AS NEEDED.