Eric Bultman Photo by Jeremy Winchester Contributed by the University of SC Department of Theatre and Dance

The University of SC Department of Theatre and Dance and Pacific Performance Project/east will present

the original play Flight

by professors Steven Pearson and Robyn Hunt at Longstreet Theatre May 27–30, 2010. Performance times are 8 p.m. nightly. Regular–price tickets are $10; discounted $7 tickets are available for students and seniors over 60. Tickets are available at the door. Longstreet Theatre is located in downtown Columbia at 1300 Greene Street at the corner of Greene and Sumter streets.

USC professor Steven Pearson conceived and is directing the production. Text for the play has been written by USC professor Robyn Hunt. Flight is being produced through their performance company, Pacific Performance Project/ east, with support from the USC Arts Institute and the College of Arts and Sciences. Pearson describes

Jen Burry Photo by Jeremy Winchester Flight as a “theatrical poem” that explores the thrill and daring of the first women aviators.

The play’s narrative follows two daring French actresses who are preparing to make a history–making flight from Paris to Moscow in 1913, a time when, for women, being an actress was considered improper and being an aviator was considered impossible.

Flight is the third in a trilogy of original plays that Pearson calls “riffs” on the works of Russian playwright Anton Chekov. In all three plays of the trilogy, Pearson uses a different Chekov play as inspiration to create a new work. The first, Balance, was a reverie

on Chekov’s The Three Sisters;

the second, Gravity,

used the play The Cherry

Orchard as its jumping–off point.

Flight references characters and themes from

The Seagull.

Pearson says of the trilogy, which he began in 1999, “All of the plays involve ‘work,’ allowing actors to do real physical work. I’m very interested in that. I’ve also been very interested in connecting the figurative and literal meanings of each of the plays’ titles—Balance, Gravity, and Flight.” For more information about

Flight, contact Kevin Bush in the USC Department of Theatre and Dance at 777-9353.