''Fly'' is a 2009 play written by

Trey Ellis Trey Ellis (born 1962) is an American novelist, screenwriter, professor, playwright, and essayist. He was born in Washington D.C. and graduated from Hopkins School and Phillips Academy, Andover, where he studied under Alexander Theroux before at ...

and Ricardo Khan about the

Tuskegee Airmen The Tuskegee Airmen were a group of primarily African American military pilots (fighter and bomber) and airmen who fought in World War II. They formed the 332nd Fighter Group and the 477th Fighter Group, 477th Bombardment Group (Medium) of th ...

, the first black fliers in the U.S. military during

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

Background

Khan, one of the play's co-writers and director of the Washington, D.C. production, said that the idea to write the play came from a photo he saw of the Tuskegee Airmen.Walker, Jeffrey
"Co-author and director Ricardo Khan talks about ''Fly'',"
September 10, 2012, retrieved September 30, 2012 He said he was "stunned" to see "men of color, dressed in their pilot’s uniforms." Khan said he was so fascinated by the photo that he "wanted to know who these men were," and when he learned more, he knew he wanted to write about them, to "tell their story." The initial 60-minute version of the play was commissioned in 2005 by Lincoln Center Education, known at that time as Lincoln Center Institute, where Khan was serving as an artist-in-residence.Gates, Anita
"Breathing new life into an oft-told tale,"
''The New York Times'', October 9, 2009, retrieved September 29, 2012 This version of the play was produced by Lincoln Center Education in 2007 and 2008 for young audiences.Filicia, Peter
Ricardo Kahn relaunches the Tuskegee Airmen,"
NJ.com website, September 24, 2009, retrieved September 29, 2012 A longer version of the play, also commissioned by Lincoln Center Education, was staged in June 2009 at the Vineyard Theater in Massachusetts before the final version had its world premiere in

New Brunswick, New Jersey New Brunswick is a city (New Jersey), city in and the county seat of Middlesex County, New Jersey, Middlesex County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey.Crossroads Theater in October 2009. Khan is co-founder and former artistic director of Crossroads Theater Company, known as "one of the nation's foremost African-American theater companies."Wells, Mary
"All-Star Ensemble Brings Tuskegee Airmen Heroics to Vineyard Playhouse," June 12, 2009
retrieved September 30, 2012"The Tuskegee Airmen 'fly' again,"
''The Washington Examiner'', September 17, 2012, retrieved September 29, 2012 One of the main advisors for the Crossroads production was Dr. Roscoe Brown, one of the original Tuskegee Airmen. According to Khan, Brown was the one who first suggested using World War II film clips in the production. Both writers had dealt with the subject of the Tuskegee Airmen in other works: Khan, in the play "Black Eagles," written by

Leslie Lee (playwright) Leslie Lee (1930 – January 20, 2014) was an American playwright, director and professor of playwriting and screenwriting. Life and work Leslie Lee grew up in West Conshohocken, Pennsylvania. He earned a bachelor's degree from the University of ...

, which had been produced at

Ford's Theater Ford's Theatre is a theater located in Washington, D.C., which opened in 1863. The theater is best known for being the site of the assassination of Abraham Lincoln. On the night of April 14, 1865, John Wilkes Booth entered the theater box where ...

in 1989; and Ellis in the 1995

HBO Home Box Office (HBO) is an American pay television service, which is the flagship property of namesake parent-subsidiary Home Box Office, Inc., itself a unit owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. The overall Home Box Office business unit is based a ...

film "

The Tuskegee Airmen ''The Tuskegee Airmen'' is a 1995 HBO television movie based on the exploits of an actual groundbreaking unit, the first African-American combat pilots in the United States Army Air Corps, that fought in World War II. The film was directed by ...

."Pressley, Nelson
"''Fly'' at Ford's Theater is uplifting story of Tuskegee airmen,"
''The Washington Post'', September 27, 2012, retrieved September 29, 2012

Synopsis

''Fly'' tells the story of the first black pilots in the United States military, who would be part of the

332nd Fighter Group The 332d Expeditionary Operations Group is a provisional air expeditionary group of the United States Air Force's Air Combat Command, currently active. It was inactivated on 8 May 2012 and reactivated 16 November 2014. The group forms part of ...

of the

United States Army Air Forces The United States Army Air Forces (USAAF or AAF) was the major land-based aerial warfare service component of the United States Army and ''de facto'' aerial warfare service branch of the United States during and immediately after World War II ...

, but be more well known as the "Tuskegee Airmen," a name taken from Tuskegee,

Alabama Alabama ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern and Deep South, Deep Southern regions of the United States. It borders Tennessee to the north, Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia to the east, Florida and the Gu ...

, the location of the training school where they earned their wings. The group was also called the "Red Tail Black Eagles." The play uses four characters—Chet, from

Harlem Harlem is a neighborhood in Upper Manhattan, New York City. It is bounded roughly by the Hudson River on the west; the Harlem River and 155th Street on the north; Fifth Avenue on the east; and Central Park North on the south. The greater ...

; W.W., from

Chicago Chicago is the List of municipalities in Illinois, most populous city in the U.S. state of Illinois and in the Midwestern United States. With a population of 2,746,388, as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the List of Unite ...

; Oscar, from Iowa; and J. Allen, originally from the

West Indies The West Indies is an island subregion of the Americas, surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean Sea, which comprises 13 independent island country, island countries and 19 dependent territory, dependencies in thr ...

—who represent the varied backgrounds of the men who went through Tuskegee's training, not all graduating and not all surviving the war. Other actors portray white men—instructors and pilots—who questioned the idea that black men could fly in America's military. The story begins with Chet as an older man, in Washington, D.C., telling the story through flashbacks of his training and service as one of the Tuskegee Airmen, on the day of the inauguration of

Barack Obama Barack Hussein Obama II (born August 4, 1961) is an American politician who was the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, he was the first African American president in American history. O ...

as the first black

President of the United States The president of the United States (POTUS) is the head of state and head of government of the United States. The president directs the Federal government of the United States#Executive branch, executive branch of the Federal government of t ...

. The play recalls the fact that the surviving members of the Tuskegee Airmen were invited to participate in that inauguration. Facing racism at home while they prepared to fight for their country in the air, the Tuskegee airmen were men who (in the words of the Tuskegee Airmen website) "fought two wars—one against a military force overseas and the other against racism at home and abroad.""Ford's Theater Society announces 2012-2013 Season,"
retrieved September 29, 2012 However, while the fight against racism is central to the play's story, Khan notes that a larger issue central to the play is the pursuit of any dream: "The play is about lifting yourself off the ground, lifting yourself from what holds you down, reaching for your dream and elevating yourself to that place in the mind and the heart that’s the sky."

Production

Tuskegee Airmen 332nd Fighter Group pilots ppmsca13245u

The play is written to include a cast of eight men, including "Tap Griot," a dancer who uses tap dance steps to set a mood that is "part sublimated anger, part empowerment." This character appears numerous times throughout the play, "commenting choreographically on events and emotions." As one review notes, "

Griot A griot (; ; Manding languages, Manding: or (in N'Ko script, N'Ko: , or in French spelling); also spelt Djali; or / ; ) is a West African historian, storyteller, praise singer, poet, and/or musician. Griots are masters of communicatin ...

" is defined as "a member of a caste of professional oral historians in the Mali Empire." Keepers of history, if you will, who continue their oral traditions in Western Africa to this day."Macy, Lynn Marie
"Fly,"
NYTheater.com, October 9, 2009, retrieved September 29, 2012 Khan, one of the co-writers, notes that the Tap Griot is especially important as a backdrop for the character of Chet, who functions as a narrator for the story: "When Chet’s feeling anger or rage, the tap-dancer uses hard heels to stomp the ground. However, when he feels a moment of beauty or excitement, the tap dancer can express that, too, in a much different way." Ellis, the other co-writer, adds that another reason the Tap Griot was important is that the characters represented men who had to "restrict their behavior" and hide their emotions during their military service, and so this character was able to "express their feelings in a way that permits their anger to go into the ground and their elation into a jump for joy." This character "tells the part of the story that is about rage when they’re not allowed to, or fear when they’re not allowed to, or mourning when they’re not allowed to," according to Khan. Large video screens are used in a number of ways during the performance, from opening images of black history in the United States; to scenes of the ground from the cockpit windows of a plane, to give the impression of flight; to final scenes of the actual Tuskegee Airmen. Khan relates that he and Ellis did not simply want to tell a story or show a piece of history, but instead wanted to create a real piece of theater. In some ways, their vision was to expose the audience to a "video game onstage," where their senses would be constantly "stimulated by the resources of the theater." As one review noted, the production is "an exciting war story; it is not a history lecture...and yet that istorymessage is there.""The Tuskegee Airmen get to 'fly' at Ford's Theater,"
Mocovox.com ("The voice of Montgomery County"), September 29, 2012, retrieved September 30, 2012 When President Obama invited the surviving Tuskegee Airmen to his inauguration, Khan decided to "weave that moment" into the play. The Tuskegee Airmen returned to a nation that was still segregated, but ultimately, their service helped pave the way for changes that would one day come. The play is written to be performed in 90 minutes, with no intermission.

Performances

After the world premiere at the Crossroads Theater in New Brunswick, the play was performed at the historic

in Washington, D.C., in September 2012, as the second production in a special multi-year "Lincoln Legacy Project," "an effort to create dialogue around the issues of tolerance, equality, and acceptance." A number of Tuskegee Airmen (World War II veterans) attended the opening night performance. There have been a number of productions and co-productions in theaters nationwide, including

Florida Studio Theatre Florida Studio Theatre (FST) is a professional, non-profit theater company located in Sarasota, Florida that represents one of the major cultural institutions in the Gulf Coast region. Founded in 1973 as a touring troupe, FST is currently a Regio ...

New Victory Theater The New Victory Theater is a theatre (building), theater at 209 42nd Street (Manhattan), West 42nd Street in the Theater District, Manhattan, Theater District of Midtown Manhattan in New York City, near Times Square. Built in 1900 as the Republ ...

, a revival at Crossroads Theatre Company, and Cincinnati Playhouse. In 2016, the

Pasadena Playhouse Pasadena Playhouse is a Tony Award-winning historic performing arts venue located 39 S. El Molino Avenue in Pasadena, California. The 686-seat auditorium produces a variety of cultural and artistic events, professional shows, and community engag ...

production received eight

NAACP The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) is an American civil rights organization formed in 1909 as an interracial endeavor to advance justice for African Americans by a group including W. E. B. Du&nbs ...

Theatre Award nominations, winning for Best Lighting, Best Choreography, and Best Production. The

Alabama Shakespeare Festival The Alabama Shakespeare Festival (ASF) is among the ten largest Shakespeare festivals in the world. The festival is permanently housed in the Carolyn Blount Theatre in Montgomery, Alabama. ASF puts on 6-9 productions annually, typically includin ...

presented the play in 2018. In February 2021, Jefferson Parish Performing Arts Society presented the play, choreographed b
Donald Jones, Jr.
at Jefferson Performing Arts Center near New Orleans, LA.

References

External links