WRITTEN BY: LAURA ANNAYWN SHAMAS

DIRECTED BY: HAL BERRY

 

In 1984, the empty birth home of Amelia Earhart was purchased by the Ninety-Nines, an International Organization of Women Pilots. Fundraisers and donations helped to turn the home into a small museum to honor Amelia Earhart and the first generation of female aviators through educational and interpretive exhibits, activities and events.

The play opens with Amelia Earhart flying over the Pacific Ocean in her Lockheed Electra 10E attempting to complete an around-the-world trip. She is heading for Howland Island from which she will refuel and take off for South America. From there, she will return to the United States having completed the trip. In an age of aviation competitions and firsts, danger was an accepted reality.

With the Electra over 800 miles into the Pacific from its last refueling stop in Lae, New Guinea, she realizes that her gas is running low and she is having problems communicating by radio to the United States Naval ship the Itasca. As she struggles to continue, she relives the precious memories passing before her eyes.

 

ABOUT THE AUTHOR -

LAURA ANNAWYN SHAMAS

Author of the one-person play, Amelia Lives, Ms. Shamas, a graduate of UCLA in theater, having earned her Master’s Degree and Ph.D. in Creative Writing is the author of over thirty plays and numerous essays on theater. Her curiosity and creativity has brought her to playwriting, non-fiction, fiction and screenwriting. She has published a writing textbook, Playwriting for Theater, Film and Television. Married to playwright Jon Klein, Laura Shamas is active in the League of Professional Theater Women, Writers Guild of American west and Women in Film.

Her 1987 work Amelia Lives, won the Edinburgh Fringe First Award for Outstanding New Drama. It is the story of the famed American aviatrix Amelia Earhart. Blending humor, adventure and tragedy, the play celebrates the courage to challenge prescribed norms of Amelia and an entire generation of women in the post-World War I era.