ALT production of 'Defying Gravity' based on 1986 space shuttle Challenger tragedy

Amarillo Little Theatre will present "Defying Gravity," a production based on the 1986 tragedy of the space shuttle Challenger.

Challenger broke apart 73 seconds after liftoff, killing all passengers, including the planned first teacher in space, Christa McAuliffe. This was the first spaceflight disaster for NASA and included, for the first time, a civilian on board.

“It’s quite an abstract play, it’s nonlinear, it’s sort of nonrealistic, and it's very stripped back as well as sort of minimalistic," said artistic director Kara Leimer. "We create with actors and a really good text, and use images and suggestions of things to call on the audience's imagination to fill in the rest.”

This retelling of the story by Jane Anderson combines the lives of the past and present into a philosophical journey around the disaster and includes a character named Elizabeth, daughter of the teacher, who lived her life without her mother, a social studies teacher based on McAuliffe; as well as a retired couple, Betty and Ed, who travel across the country to see the shuttle launch; Donna, a bartender at a place that NASA employees frequent; and C.B., an engineer with a casual love interest. Overlooking all the characters loves is Claude Monet, the French Impressionist painter.

Jeffrey Pickens, who portrays Monet, said that although his character wasn’t a part of the original story, he very much has a role in the telling of the story and the overall message.

“He’s kind of the oddball in the character lineup because he obviously wasn’t around during the Challenger explosion in 1986. He’d been dead for 60 years, but the whole plays kind of odd in that way," Pickens said. "The play is sort of an impressionistic view of not only just the Challenger disaster, but just disaster and heartache and disappointment in general, so he puts that spin on it."

Marley Hoggatt, portraying the teacher, said that she prepared and has come to appreciate and respect the teacher on whom her character is based, and because of this, has worked hard to honor McAuliffe's memory and portrayal of a character who is a teacher, mother, and was to become an astronaut.

“The story is about all of us and our relationship to the disaster... my character — because she is a real person — I wanted to honor her and her memory and so I spent a lot of time doing research into her life and the space shuttle Challenger,” Hoggatt said.

The cast includes Brandon Graves, Jay Hayes, Marley Hoggatt, Jennifer McClellan, Jeffrey Pickens, Don Shipman and Kim Shreffler.

“There is a lot of warmth that has come out in the scenes, you hear what it's about and I think the assumption is that it's going to be a tragedy and certainly there is tragedy in it, but overall, I think the show is very much about hope and heeling,” Leimer said.

Performances are scheduled for 7:30 p.m. Nov. 11 and 18; 8 p.m. Nov. 12, 13, 19 and 20; and 2:30 p.m. Nov. 14 and 21 at the ALT Adventure Space, 2751 Civic Circle.

The production is rated PG-13.

Tickets may be purchased at the box office or online at tickets.amarillolittletheatre.org

This article originally appeared on Amarillo Globe-News: ALT production of 'Defying Gravity' based on 1986 space shuttle Challenger tragedy