Flying

Today we have mostly been flying. Like everything in the show, it's low tech. No wires or hydraulics, just acting and plain old-fashioned imagination. It amazes me how effective it is.

Flying starts out as a metaphor for realising your dreams and nobody is more surprised than the characters themselves when they are really expected to don actual wings and take flight. Two of my characters fly. Lola is initially afraid:

'Waid a minute! Yo aint really 'specting me to fly? Oh Jeez. That's goddamn dangerous sir!'

To which the reply comes:

'Dreamin' is dangerous. They aint jus gonna roll in whilst yo' sit on yo' ass. Yo' gotta go out there and get 'em!'

Janet Brewster is not afraid. After 20 years of marriage to a well-meaning oaf, she is seduced by the power of dreaming. When she flies, she flies first as a hawk, then as a kite with her husband holding the strings. He can't hold her and the strings break. She flies off as a hawk again.

The flying is quite emotional. It's about how we launch ourselves off the cliff, the freefall, and the moment we realise that not only do we have to fly or die, we actually can. The Director was in tears.

My arms hurt.

Lx