AMELIA EARHART: FIRST LADY OF FLIGHT

The Seem-To-Be Players present Ric Averill's 'you were there' approach to the story of America's premiere Aviatrix.


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Brief description

This one hour play with music tells the exciting story of one woman's quest to explore the unknown, face unbelievable risks and have great adventure. Performed in part like an 'old time radio show,' a live cellist creates the sound of the airplanes which appear both onstage and as hand held 'puppet-props.' Bluegrass music, lively characterization and period costumes bring history to life in an entertaining and educational production. This play will be booked in repertory with Averill's family musical adaptation of H.C. Andersen's The Ugly Duckling.

Company Bio

The Seem-To-Be Players are a professional troupe of actors, playwrights, directors, teachers, and musicians who seek to expand the imagination, encourage creative thinking and promote an appreciation of human values through innovative productions and drama education for children, educators, and families.

The Players provide an early introduction to the diverse world of theatre for thousands of children each year using a variety of theatrical styles and forms to illuminate classics, showcase biographies, and share imaginative original stories. Since 1973, the Players have shared a vision of a world where girls have great adventures as quickly and as often as boys, where the unexpected is necessary, and where fantasy and reality meld in an absurd potpourri of theatrical images stirred and mixed with original music.

The Seem-To-Be Players celebrate the joy of play. The company's imaginative repertoire includes Amelia Earhart: First Lady of Flight, The Ant and the Grasshopper, and Great Greek Myths: Theseus & Icarus, Fight or Flight. Teacher/Parent guides accompany all programs and the Players perform residencies, curricular related workshops, and community outreach. The company tours nationally, performing for youth of all ages and their families. The Players receive support from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Kansas Arts Commission, Hallmark Cards, and the Kennedy Center.

The Company is affiliated with the American Alliance for Theatre in Education, and ASSITEJ/USA, the international children's theatre organization.

The Player's home theatre is the Lawrence Arts Center at 940 New Hampshire, Lawrence, KS 66044. Phone 785-843-2787, Fax 785-843-6629, email lacdrama@sunflower.com

Bio
Artistic Director, Writer, Ric Averill

Ric Averill has been the Artistic Director and principal playwright for the Seem-To-Be Players professional children's theatre company since he and his wife, Jeanne, founded the company in 1973.

He writes both plays and music, with a B.F.A. in Music Composition and an M.A. in Children's Theatre, both from the University of Kansas. Ric is a Kansas Playwriting Fellow and he and his company are recipients of the Kansas Governor's Arts Award and numerous touring and operational grants from the Kansas Arts Commission, Heartland Arts Fund, the National Endowment for the Arts, and Hallmark Cards.

Ric's plays are published by Dramatic Publishing, and he has contributed a chapter on playwriting for Basic Drama Projects, a national high school textbook by Dr. Fran Tanner.

Ric has had two plays selected for the Kennedy Center New Visions/New Voices play development symposium, two selected for the IUPUI/Bonderman Youth Theatre playwriting symposium in Indianapolis, and has also attended both events as an actor and director. He is also a three time finalist in the American Alliance for Theatre and Education's Unpublished Play Reading Project.

Included among Ric's many commissions are the Kennedy Center's Alice in Wonderland, First Stage Milwaukee's Little Drummer Boy, and a yet-to-be-named script for Nashville Children's Theatre.

Ric also writes screenplays, directs, teaches, acts, plays banjo, and talks like a duck.

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