Airborne

Airborne
by Laura Jacqmin
Rep Lab, Milwaukee Repertory Theater
Milwaukee, Wisconsin
January 2016

Bridgid Adams and Arielle Leverett. Photo by Michael Brosilow.

CAST:
Bridgid Adams, Arielle Leverett, Jared Davis, Martin Hanna, Di'Monte Henning, Riley O'Toole

PRODUCTION TEAM:
Director - Leda Hoffmann
Lighting Designer - Aaron Lichamer
Costume Designer - Jane Reichard
Sound Designer - Erin Paige
Stage Manager - Audra Kuchling
Assistant Stage Manager - Rivka Kelly

"Airborne", the Hoffmann-directed piece, calls to mind one of the first pieces I ever saw Hoffmann direct, in Rep Lab 2 back in 2012: Carson Kreitzer's "Parachute Silk," which similarly featured two women and a parachute, brought together by a war and making common cause in a world haunted by death. "Airborne" also calls to mind the gorgeous visual images in the Hoffmann-directed "The Penelopiad" in 2013 — also a tale involving solidarity among women under impossible circumstances.
- Mike Fischer, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

"This heart wrenching, poignant and visually stunning short play unfolds a dialogue's microcosm of how young women may feel in the military when they only aspired to be '"brave and strong.""
- Peggy Sue Dunigan, BroadwayWorld.com

"Airborne, directed by the Rep’s Leda Hoffmann, provides a harsh pivot, throwing Army trainee Margaret Jensen (Adams) out of a plane for a test jump only for her to get snared in her parachute, plummeting toward the ground headfirst facing certain death.
There’s some beautiful physicality to the piece early on, with Adams lifted and spun through the air by some of her fellow actors while Arielle Leverett (the voice of Jensen’s commanding officer, trying to save her as she falls) narrates the action. But as Jensen’s fate becomes inevitable, Adams simply stands under a spotlight, baring her soul in a stream-of-consciousness monologue that is painful to watch but more painful to look away from."
- Matthew Reddin, Wisconsin Gazette

Bridgid Adams and Arielle Leverett. Photo by Michael Brosilow.