A Staged Reading of "Defying Gravity" by Jane Anderson

Monday, December 2, 2019, 7:30 p.m. - 9:00 p.m.

NAS Building, 2101 Constitution Ave., N.W., Fred Kavli Auditorium

Free and open to the public. Registration and photo ID required.

Join Cultural Programs in collaboration with the Shakespeare Theatre Company for a staged reading of Defying Gravity by Jane Anderson. This story of the 1986 Challenger disaster places the teacher, who died with six others as they hurtled into space, at the center of an exploration of our need to reach beyond ourselves. Defying Gravity artfully interweaves the past with the present and the lives of participants and bystanders. Drawing parallels between painter Claude Monet's artistic quest and the zest of the teacher selected to be the first civilian astronaut, this play examines perspectives of her grieving daughter, tourists watching the launch in Florida, and a NASA mechanic's guilt.

Directed by Samantha Wyer Bello, Director of Education, Shakespeare Theatre Company.

Cast features David Bishins, Lamont Easter, Briana Gibson, Kimberly Gilbert, Ahmad Kamal, Stefany Pesta, and Nancy Robinette.

"A lovely piece... It floats gracefully in the big blue yonder of the imagination... letting Anderson's delicate, tender and human attitude toward her characters come through... One by one they rise out of their earthbound selves... to look down on the world from a new perspective." - New York Daily News

Register via the link above or by calling the Shakespeare Theatre Company Box Office at (202) 547-1122.

Photo of the Fred Kavli Auditorium © 2012 Maxwell MacKenzie.