One Act Musical — Single Set — 2 Boys, 14-20 Member Chorus
Description: While Charles Lindbergh prepares to take off on his famous flight, he wonders if he really has the right stuff to fly to Paris.
Commisioned By: Steppingstone Theatre for Youth Development
Music By: Gary Rue
Photo courtesy of Steppingstone Theatre for Youth Development, St. Paul, MN.
Synopsis: Charles Lindbergh is struggling over a difficult decision. The twenty-five year old pilot, sitting in his single engine plane on a rainy, muddy runway, tries to decide if he should fly across the Atlantic to Paris. He questions his younger, twelve-year-old self if he really can make it.
Young Lindy and the Chorus then take Charles back to his boyhood, recreating the moments in his past that led him to fly planes. The Chorus becomes people, animals, cars, planes, and trains as Young Lindy and Charles weave through the past and present. Reliving his childhood at last restores his confidence, and Charles puts on his goggles and starts to taxi the Spirit of St. Louis down the runway.
Why It Was Written: When you raise kids in Minnesota, you want them to learn about Charles Lindbergh. The years leading up to Lindbergh’s historic flight were full of imagination, bravery, and, yup, technology. Young Lindy was into gadgets of all kinds, especially those that moved. As I researched this play, I decided the planes, cars, motorcycles, and trains were significant characters in his life. So I threw out the realism and had the Chorus turn themselves into various vehicles, animals, and other things like the Panama Canal. Oh yes, they did play some people too.
Young Lindy was also my first project with composer Gary Rue. His knowledge of music history is amazing, and he wrote a 1920’s style score that immersed the cast and the audience into this dynamic time period. Between the airplanes and the stuffed tarantella and Gary’s Jazz Age rhythms, we created a fast moving piece. Plus the Spirit of St. Louis was so loaded down with fuel it barely lifted off the ground, so we had a perfect grand finale.
Read the First Ten Pages: Script Sample
Theatrical Licensing: www.M4YA.org
