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Century Church Theatre presenting ‘Spitfire Dance’
As much a theatrical event as an actual play, Spitfire Dance by Clint Ward promises to be an evening that is
entertaining and quite enlightening. Certainly, the members of Hillsburgh's Century Church Theatre are excited
about producing the story about British women who were pilots during World War II.
Director Neville Worsnop, long-time participant with Century Church Theatre, told us happily about his own
contribution to the show.
“So far,” he began to explain, “this play has only been produced at small venues and with just three actors. I
have completely redesigned it – ith the playwright's permission, of course – and we have 11 actors in it.”
Playwright Clint Ward is making the trip from Hudson, Quebec, to attend the opening night of the show. Mr.
Ward is a retired Air Canada pilot. In a telephone interview from his home in Hudson, he told us something of
his life as an aviator and his interest in the subject matter of this play.
“I was born and grew up in the Prairies,” he said, “went to school in Saskatoon. Just out of high school, I signed
up for the RAF. I learned to fly airplanes, first as a bush pilot and then worked with Air Canada.” He told us: “I
flew for 50 years without paying for the gas.”
It was the lady pilots that have him fascinated, though, for their determination and their courage to insist on
flying and then face the conditions under which they did their jobs.
As Mr. Ward explained, “The ferry pilots for the Air Transport Auxiliary (ATA) were men who no longer
qualified to fly with the RAF because they were too old or disabled – there are notes about a couple with one
arm or one leg.
“They were trained in one category and then could fly any plane. In desperation, women were enlisted to fly,
yet, they had to fight to do it – of the 1,500 pilots, 168 were female.”
The job was to ferry goods from the factories around Britain to the various locations of squadrons before they
went to the fronts. However, the airplanes were not equipped with radios or any kind of defence, so all the flying
and landing was done by what was prosaically referred to as “dead reckoning.” Indeed, Mr. Ward informed us,
“most deaths with the ATA were as a result of bad weather and the hills.”
The most famous of these esteemed ladies was Amy Johnson, who having won her wings, took flying to heart
and was the first woman to fly solo from Britain to Australia (after the war), taking 19 days for the journey. She
subsequently set many other long distance records.
Spitfire Dance exposes some of the politics in Britain around the issue of women pilots. Even today, women
only account for about six percent of pilots world-wide. Of them all, British Airways has shown the most interest
in female pilots.
The production in hand for Century Church Theatre tells this story through WWII songs, vignettes and
monologues of the characters involved in this fascinating and little known history. Naturally, this production is
a first for style for the theatre and there is real pleasure in putting it together.
“We've never done something like this before at this theatre,” Mr. Worsnop commented. “I've designed the
whole thing. With our technicians, there is video and lighting – they have come together to make the design
work well.”
Rehearsals began in June. Not surprisingly, it has been quite a challenge to work through the timing of all 11
people, given the diverse scheduling of lives through the summer holidays and coming from considerable
distances, including Oakville, Mississauga and Elmira. It has worked out well, though, for the show is in three
sections with some of the characters playing quite apart from one another. Finally, this week saw them all
gathered, a few meeting for the first time.
Mr. Worsnop assured us that he was “looking forward to that.”
“This is a very entertaining show,” he said further, “a story which very few people know. It's a story that should
be told.”
There is an element of audience participation, to join in some of the old songs at the end of the show. For the
opening night, September 9, Clint Ward will be there for a Q and A after the performance and he is bringing
some famous aviators with him. A special evening indeed.
Spitfire Dancing is on at the Century Church Theatre, 72 Trafalgar Road in Hillsburgh, for the two weekends of
September 9 to 11 and September 16 to 18, with the Friday and Saturday performances at 8 p.m. Sundays
performances play as matinees at 2:00 p.m. For tickets and all the details, call the Box Office at 519-855-4586
and information is online at www.centurychurchtheatre.com or on Facebook.
Post date: 2016-09-01 11:46:11
Post date GMT: 2016-09-01 15:46:11
Post modified date: 2016-09-08 11:04:24
Post modified date GMT: 2016-09-08 15:04:24
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