Canadian playwright Clint Ward and his all-Canadian cast strive to revive early 20th century stories of women in aviation in the new original production, Spitfire Dance: A Dramatic Musical Entertainment, which premieres at the Canadian War Museum on Oct. 23.
Through an array of Second World War-era songs and character driven monologues, Spitfire Dance aims to illuminate the lives of early female pioneer aviators, including, the British-born, Kenyan bush pilot Beryl Markham, the English long-distance aviation specialist Amy Johnson, the ill-fated American aviator Amelia Earhart, and the U.S. air racer Jackie Cochran.
Ward says the underlying message of the play is directed at young women and he highlighted that in Canada “only six per cent of commercial pilots are women.”
“The point I am trying to make is there is a career in aviation for women and most young women don’t know that,” says Ward. “Our society bundles them into the traditional female jobs.”
Ward composed the play and planned the set with this message in mind.
“The play has been designed to be portable. I can put it in front of a classroom if I have to. It doesn’t have a complicated set. I can take it anywhere,” says Ward.
The world of aviation is a familiar one for the playwright. He trained as a pilot with the Royal Canadian Air Force and worked for 50 years as a commercial pilot with Air Canada and other corporations.
Spitfire Dance will feature only three on stage performers with Karen Cromar, Glen Bowser and Orchestra London conductor and world-renowned pianist Brian Jackson. They will share the spotlight to bring the world of women in aviation in the 1930s and 1940s back to life.
The small cast faces a unique challenge because the script will require the actors to switch from the main characters each plays to the numerous other characters that feature in the story.
One such character in the play is English pilot Amy Johnson who died while serving with the Air Transport Auxiliary (ATA) in the Second World War. The ATA was a British civilian operation responsible for the ferrying of new, repaired and damaged aircraft between strategic locations during the war.
Many women pilots served with the ATA and Lesley Page, member and chair of the First Canadian Chapter of the Ninety Nines, says she is excited about the ATA’s inclusion in the story of Spitfire Dance.
“The female pilots of the Air Transport Auxiliary played a very important role in the Second World War and yet most people have never heard about them,” says Page. “I applaud Clint for telling the story of these brave and competent women who have inspired countless other women to take to the skies.”
The Ninety Nines is an international organization for women pilots of which Amelia Earhart was a member when the organization was in its infancy.
The play will also feature a series of character-driven monologues that Cromar describes as “wonderful.”
“They are so well written and they grab at your heartstrings, because you can actually put yourself in the position that these women had to go through,” says Cromar.
“I think it (Spitfire Dance) will really move audiences. There are interesting things in the play about how women were perceived in that day about being pilots,” says Cromar. “We can teach the children of the future that are coming up that it is possible to do anything.”
If the show is well received, Ward says a Canadian tour and a show in Toronto could be in the cards.
Spitfire Dance shows at the Barney Danson Theatre in the Canadian War Museum from Oct. 23 to Oct. 26. Tickets are on sale now and can be purchased through the Canadian War Museum’s website.