FLIGHT

NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — MOSAIC at Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts (MCLA) will present “Flight,” a collaborative performance between P3/East, MCLA Theatre, and MOSAIC. Performances will take place at 7:30 p.m., Friday, Oct. 23 and Saturday, Oct. 24, and at 2 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 25 in Venable Hall on the MCLA campus. This event is free and open to the public.

“Flight” is part of a trilogy, alongside “Gravity” and “Balance,” written by Robyn Hunt and conceived by Steve Pearson. Long before Amelia Earhart, courageous women took to the skies despite tremendous obstacles. However, World War I, as well as other political and cultural upheavals, obscured and erased their achievements.

“Flight” honors pioneering aviators, including Harriet Quimby, Raymonde de Laroche, Bessie Coleman, Katherine Stinson, Blanche Stuart Scott, and Matilde Moisant, while acknowledging the many others whose contributions have been overlooked. The production also highlights groundbreaking women in early cinema, most notably Alice Guy-Blaché, whom many credit as the first filmmaker to create a narrative motion picture.

Drawing from Nishihara Wakana’s account in “Japan at War: An Oral History” by Haruko Taya Cook and Theodore F. Cook, the production reflects on historical memory through the quote: “The dead are mute. They cannot speak. The living must act with energy for them.”

This performance of “Flight” is a collaboration that brings together visiting and faculty artists, alongside MCLA alumni and current MCLA students, in a creative partnership that bridges professional practice and academic learning. “These artists will create robust and intersectional learning experiences for MCLA students, and a dynamic theatrical performance for campus and community audiences,” said Professor Jeremy Winchester, an MCLA Theatre faculty member and longtime P3/East affiliated artist.