Friday, September 09, 2016
'Come From Away' Musical Tells Story Of Resilience After 9/11
NPR: As the extent of the 9/11 attacks became known, 38 planes were rerouted to Gander, Newfoundland. More than 6,000 passengers and crew were taken in by families there. Their story is the subject of a new musical called, Come From Away, which runs at Ford's Theater in Washington, D.C., in September and October before heading to Broadway.
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3 comments:
This is a beautiful story. It's wonderful that the people of Gander were willing to take in these 6,000 people in, especially since it must have been extremely scary for everyone. For the people in Newfoundland, they were accepting total strangers into their houses and for the people from the United States, not only were these people in a foreign country and at the whim of people they never knew, but the terrorist attacks of 9/11 had just occurred. I find it interesting that in the article they refer to people as coming from the outside or being from away. I usually would associate those terms with keeping people as outsides, yet everyone was welcomed in. This story shows how wonderful people can be when something horrible happens. I wish that people could be that gracious not only when horror strikes. I hope people take the message of inclusion, acceptance, a graciousness from this musical and into the world.
Ford’s theatre is by far one of the prettiest and definitely most historic theatre I have ever had the pleasure of seeing a show in. I cannot remember disliking a production I have seen there, mainly because of how intimate the space is. Reading at the beginning of this article that the production will be beginning at Ford’s Theatre I had high hopes because of the high quality of production that the organization provides. Now I haven’t been blown away by any of their productions – Glass Menagerie¬ was close – but there is never anything wrong with them. As I continued to read and saw that it would be then progressing to Broadway I had two thoughts. The first of which is that of concern because of my aforementioned enjoyment of Ford’s intimacy. I have felt many feelings from productions I have seen on Broadway, but I can assure you that intimacy was definitely not one of them. I may have not been to the right houses yet, but it’s my understanding that one of the fundamental ideas of Broadway today is the spectacle. This idea leads into my second point in that Ford’ theatre productions aren’t there to blow you away. I think, given the advantage that this production is a straight play, that there can be some simple reworking once it’s stint at Ford’s is complete, but I do have concern that they will try to make the production “Broadway ready” from square one, which is not my experience with Ford’s productions.
This is such a cool story! I've never heard of it until now. I find musicals and plays the tell the lesser known side of history to be extremely interesting. It just really goes to show how much theatre can shine a light on things we often don't see on the world. This story itself is a beautiful one and I'd love to go see a production. I'm particularly struck by the words of the character Kevin Teurff when he say "in America, would we do this?" I'm not sure I know the answer either. My family is Janaican and one striking difference I notice between communities in Jamaica and communities here in the US is the openness,compassion, and unity of the people. It seems like other cultures emphasize compassion and selflessness more than we do here on the US. Maybe we should take some notes.
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