Rep Co.’s Amelia Lives presents life of pilot Earhart

Release Date: 4/14/2003. Expired: 4/19/2003

7 p.m. April 19

The fate of famed American aviatrix Amelia Earhart remains one of the greatest mysteries in the world of aviation. Earhart vanished in July 1937 as she attempted to become the first woman to fly around the world.

The Renaissance Repertory Theatre Company presents Amelia Lives in a special performance at 7 p.m. April 19 in The Renaissance Center’s Performance Hall. Tickets are $10 for adults, $8 for seniors and $5 for children 13 and under.

Offered this spring as one of the Rep Co.’s theatre productions for students on field trips to the center, Amelia Lives is being presented for the public in this one special performance.

Hal Partlow, managing director of the Rep Co. and director of Amelia Lives, said he chose the play for this year’s slate of curriculum plays because 2003 marks the 100th anniversary of man’s first venture into flight and also because of the message Earhart’s life and lifestyle can send to young people.

“I like what the play says,” Partlow said. “It says you can be anything you want to be.”

The play starts with Earhart at the controls of the plane in her last flight, then goes back and tells her life story from her early childhood in Kansas through her accomplishments as one of the world’s first woman pilots.

The fact that Earhart is best remembered for her solo flight accomplishments perhaps sums up how she felt about herself through her entire life, said Amy Arrington, the Rep Co. member who portrays Earhart in the one-woman show.

“Amelia flew solo all of her life, literally and figuratively,” Arrington said. “She was determined and very stubborn, but she never really fit into a mold of what a typical woman should be. She was out of place in her time which is why she stood out.”

Arrington said Amelia Lives shows “the human side” of the woman, who struggled for acceptance not only by the public and her aviation peers, but also by herself, often wondering why she wasn’t “normal” like her sister who led a more traditional life of marriage and motherhood.

Earhart became the first woman ever to fly across the Atlantic Ocean in 1928 but insisted she received too much credit for the accomplishment because she was merely a passenger on a flight piloted by two other men. She eventually did become the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic and the second person to do it at all, following Charles Lindberg, which earned her the nickname “Lady Lindy.”

Earhart went on to set many aviation records for distance and speed before attempting her flight around the globe. Her plane vanished somewhere near Howland Island northwest of Australia on July 2, 1937, just three weeks before Earhart’s 40th birthday. Despite a two-week search and numerous expeditions over the last 60 years, the fate of Earhart has never been determined.

“The fascination with Amelia has continued for so long because no one is exactly sure what happened to her,” said Arrington.

“Earhart’s forthright determination and her desire to do things just for the fun of it make this show an inspirational as well as an educational experience,” said Partlow.

For more information on booking Amelia Lives for a school field trip, call (615)740-5566. For more information on the April 19 performance, call (615)740-5600. To purchase tickets, call the box office at (615)740-5570.

The Renaissance Center is an arts and technology education and performing arts center at 855 Highway 46 South in Dickson, just 35 miles west of Nashville on Interstate 40 at exit 172.

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