Pleased as absolute punch to announce that The Night Witches has surpassed fifty productions worldwide!! I remember when I was working on the first draft of the play, the Egyptian YouTheatre, who commissioned it, was planning on taking it to the Great Salt Lake Fringe, which meant the play had to be both light on a set and on props since we'd have to load in and out with each performance. I figured I could get away with two or three benches and let the audience use their imagination with the rest… But I froze a little when I got to the moment that the first pair or women took flight. What would their plane be? I ended up writing, the rest of the cast moves the benches and then become the plane, making the sound of the plane with their mouths and/or simple instruments, thinking I would go back later and figure out something better… And I am so grateful that I never did, because fifty productions later the cast becoming the actual planes still gives me goose bumps.
Huge thank you to two of my most supportive collaborators: Jamie Wilcox, artistic director of the Egyptian YouTheatre who said yes to me and this play, and to Alexandra Harbold, who directed the first two productions and jumped in, so enthusiastically, to make my wild ideas work while throwing in her own brilliant ideas for good measure. This play will always be one of my proudest playwright moments.
The Night Witches is available through Dramatic Publishing. Feel free to order the script and read it for yourself or, even better, book a production! When will it reach its 100th production???
