
Test Pilot, an intimate chamber dance opera
by choreographer Penelope Freeh and composer Jocelyn Hagen, explores
the power and wonder of creativity and invention through the birth of
flight and the story of the Wright Brothers. Their sister, Katharine,
is an often overlooked member of the Wright family, and her contribution
to the family and their success is examined in this work through song
and dance. The creators' personal family legends and aviation heroics
are also woven into the oblique narrative.
Test Pilot premiered September 12-13, 2014, as part of
The O’Shaughnessy Women of Substance Series and utilized a string
quartet, six singers, four dancers and a video artist.
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.