Test Pilot

Description

Test Pilot, an intimate chamber dance opera by choreographer Penelope Freeh and composer Jocelyn Hagen, explores the legendary story of the Wright Brothers as seen through the eyes of their sister, Katharine, and investigates the intersection of creativity and human nature. The piece also weaves in the creators’ personal family legends and aviation heroics, combining art forms to shed new light on one of the most singular and creative accomplishments: human, powered flight.

Test Pilot was premiered September 12, 2014, St. Paul, MN and was produced by The O’Shuaghnessy Women of Substance Series.

Winner of a 2015 Sage Award for “Outstanding Design” and winner of the American Prize in Composition, Opera/Musical Theater Division in 2017.

The Narrative

The overarching narrative is told from the perspective of Katherine Wright, Wilbur and Orville’s sister with whom they exchanged letters recording the historic events in Kitty Hawk, NC. This role is sung by a soprano. Two unvoiced male dancers portray the brothers; two female dancers portray the airplane. Five male singers serve as the witnesses who were present for the “first fight” in 1903. Freeh and Hagen wrote the libretto ourselves, assembling a collage of texts from preexisting documents.

Though specific roles are represented, the players are also used to enact more imagistic and impressionistic scenes. Video projections, “found sound” (i.e. propellers, wind tunnel noise, songs of the day, etc.) and looping technology are incorporated as well as textural elements including but not limited to: air quality, weather patterns, the repetitive trial and error process of invention and humanizing the mechanized (how can people represent a contraption?). Freeh and Hagen also experiment with sourcing the everyday thoughts and actions behind flight: the “pilot’s alphabet” (A: Alpha, B: Bravo, C: Charlie…), the protocol of pre-flight checks and runway worker and flight attendant physicality.