Seamlessly blending the personal and the political, Grounded, tells the story of a hot-rod F16 fighter pilot whose unexpected pregnancy ends her career in the sky. Repurposed to flying remote-controlled drones in the Middle East from an air-conditioned trailer near Vegas, the Pilot struggles to balance her life as a mother and family member with her life as a drone pilot. The daily transition between war and home takes a toll on the pilot, and she soon has trouble keeping the two worlds separate. A tour de force play one actress, Grounded flies from the heights of lyricism to the shallows of workaday existence, targeting our assumptions about war, family, and the power of storytelling.
Alexandra Pozniak, a junior English major, sees this one-woman show as an incredible opportunity: “Going into it, I knew it would be a true test of my love for theatre. It presented challenges I have never had to face as an actor: no cast mates, daily rehearsals for hours on end, and a whole lot of lines. As the play progressed, however, I found comfort lied in the script, specifically with the character The Pilot. George Brant created a maze that I got to explore and uncover everyday. It soon stopped feeling like work and started feeling like a puzzle. Yes, I missed having a cast, and rehearsals could be exhausting, but it was all worth it because I have been able to affirm my passions for theatre.”
More performance times and tickets reservations can be found at https://apps.carleton.edu/arts/events/tickets/