When She

Had Wings

Comedy/Drama by Suzan Zeder

© Dramatic Publishing Company
When She Had Wings
“A visually stunning and profoundly
multilayered story that can truly appeal to
adults as easily as children.” —DCTheatreScene.com
Comedy/Drama. By Suzan Zeder. Cast: 2m., 2w., 1 either
gender. A story told in sound, movement and words about
9-year-old B … just plain B, like the letter, like the grade,
who is about to turn 10 and is not happy about that! B
knows, really knows, that before she could walk, she could
fly. She is desperate to remember how before the dreaded
birthday comes. In a summer thunderstorm, B’s treehouse
is hit by lightning, and a mysterious stranger appears. She
cannot speak except in strange squawks, single words and
occasionally the letters “KHAQQ”—the call letters of the
plane Amelia Earhart was flying when she disappeared and
was never found. Is this creature a bird, an older woman
escaped from a senior care unit or could she possibly
be Amelia herself? Together they must help each other
remember how to fly—literally and metaphorically. “Part
history lesson, part argument for female empowerment
and part enticing family drama … goes above and
beyond your standard theatre for young audiences
offering.” (BroadwayWorld.com) “Embodies the openness
and honesty that children want in a theatre production,
but it never sacrifices the complexity that adults crave.”
(DCTheatreScene.com) Unit set. Approximate running time: 60
minutes. Code: WJ1.
Back cover photo: Deborah Samuel. Front cover: Imagination Stage, Bethesda, Md., featuring (l-r)
Maggie Wilder and Pamela Christian. Photo: Noe Todorovich. Cover design: Jeanette Alig-Sergel.

ISBN: 978-1-61959-079-3

Dramatic Publishing
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311 Washington Street

Woodstock, IL 60098
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 When She Had Wings

By
SUZAN ZEDER

Dramatic Publishing Company

Woodstock, Illinois ● Australia ● New Zealand ● South Africa

© Dramatic Publishing Company

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©MMXVI by
SUZAN ZEDER

Printed in the United States of America

All Rights Reserved
(WHEN SHE HAD WINGS)

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New York, NY 10036 • Phone. (212) 765-5630

ISBN: 978-1-61959-079-3

© Dramatic Publishing Company

 IMPORTANT BILLING AND CREDIT REQUIREMENTS
All producers of the play must give credit to the author of the play in all
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“Produced by special arrangement with

THE DRAMATIC PUBLISHING COMPANY, INC., of Woodstock, Illinois.”

In addition, all producers of the play must include the following acknowledgment
on the title page of all programs distributed in connection with performances of
the play and on all advertising and promotional materials:

“Originally commissioned and produced by Imagination Stage, Bethesda, Md.”

© Dramatic Publishing Company

When She had Wings was commissioned and developed
by Imagination Stage in Bethesda, Md. Founder/Executive
Director: Bonnie Fogel. Artistic Director: Janet Stanford.

Prior to its premiere, it received a developmental workshop at

New Visions/New Voices at the Kennedy Center in Washington,
D.C., in 2014.

The world premiere took place on Sept. 26, 2015, at Imagination

Stage with the following cast and creative team:

Cast:
A......................................................................Pamela Christian
B......................................................................... Maggie Wilder
Wingman.................................................... Calvin McCullough
Sound Op...........................................................James Konicek
Dad / Attendant / Man...........................................Ian Le Valley

Creative Team:
Director.................................................... Kathryn Chase Bryer
Movement Director............................................. Andrea Moon
Sound Design................................................ Christopher Baine
Scenic Design..................................................Luciana Stecconi
Costume Design.................................................. Collin Ranney
Lighting Design................................................Zachary Gilbert
Assistant Sound Design......................................Justin Schmidt
Stage Manager.................................................. Elizabeth Ribar

When She Had Wings was part of the

Women’s Voices Theatre Festival
Washington, D.C.
2015

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 Dedicated to

Dr. Victoria Brown

and
The children of the Lucy School
For giving this play wings.

And

Kathryn Chase Bryer

and
Imagination Stage
For making it fly!

© Dramatic Publishing Company

 AUTHOR’S NOTES
This play was born in the air. I was sitting on a bench in
Oregon on a bluff 100 feet high with seagulls soaring and the
endless expanse of the Pacific Ocean before me, staring out
to a horizon where the edge of the sky met the rim of the sea.
It was a sight seen mostly by birds, or in dreams of flying, or
perhaps by a pilot alone in a cockpit in the solitude of sky.

At this point in my writing life, I was seized by a desire to

do things differently; to speak in other theatrical languages,
to break the conventions that had served me well over
the past 40 years. I yearned for a release from realism. I
wanted an adventure in process and product, where the
visual, kinesthetic and auditory vocabularies of light and
shadow, sound and silence, movement and stillness would
be as important as any words characters might speak. This
longing to escape the gravity of my own stylistic “habits”
was something akin to flying!

This play has had a charmed life in the almost four years of its
developmental journey. Everything it has asked of me, it has
gotten. Like a lucky magnet, it has attracted exactly the right
people at the right time, blessed with the generosity of “yes.”

This play about flight needed a grounding in the reality of how

children perceive and dream about flying and how they might
express their thoughts and feelings in drawing, movement,
singing, acting and writing. This “yes” came in a three-year
partnership with the Lucy School in Middletown, Md., as they
dedicated a full year to the exploration of flight at all grade
levels in all subjects.

This play, made of as much movement as words, needed an

early place to bring it before an audience of peers. This “yes”

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came in an invitation to be part of New Visions/New Voices at
the Kennedy Center.

This play needed to explore ways to make characters fly

without resorting to the theatrical trickery of harnesses
and wires. This “yes” came as a three-day residency at the
University of Northern Colorado working with Andrea Moon
and her amazing students.

This play needed a landscape of sound to chart a geography

of feeling to express what cannot be captured in words.
This “yes” came in the sound design and score created by
Christopher Baine.

This play needed a theatre willing to take the risk to produce a

script with a title no one had ever heard of before and a story
not based on a best selling book, movie, or a familiar fairy
tale. This “yes” came from Imagination Stage.

This play needed an artistic alchemist to bring together

exactly the right cast and design team and to create a safe
and challenging environment where all collaborators were
empowered to do their best work. The “yes” came in the wise
and patient persona of Director Kathryn Chase Bryer.

This play needed belief that unanswered questions are more

powerful than facts, that mystery is more potent than certainty
and that young people have the capacity to make their own
meaning and find their own answers, if we will only trust
them to do so. This “yes” comes at every performance from
every audience.

This play has been a journey of joy.

—Suzan Zeder
2015, Santa Fe

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 When She Had Wings
CHARACTERS
B: 9 years old. Built like a fireplug. Definitely not designed
for flight. She longs to escape … into the air.
A: Ageless. A VERY missing person. Not quite human, not
quite avian. Not quite wild, not quite tame. Language left her
when mind separated from memory, leaving only mystery.
Desperately searching for a landing … even if it’s a crash.
MAN: The force of gravity in three manifestations:
DAD: B’s father. Earthbound, stabilizing force for B.
Loves his daughter and does the best he can since
Mom flew the coop.
ATTENDANT: Works at a nearby retirement, nursing,
assisted, senior care facility.
MAN: A seraph. Dressed in white. Looks something
like Dad and the attendant but different. Appears
when the laws of gravity must be overturned.
WINGMAN: Creates the visual manifestations of flying out
of found objects, puppets and everyday illusions. Becomes
Coast Guard Lookout. He is the enabler of visual imagination.
SOUND OP: Creates the feelings of flight through live and
recorded sound. Becomes the Voice of Itasca, the ship
waiting for Amelia Earhart when she disappeared. He is
the enabler of auditory imagination.

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 PLACE AND TIME
B’s backyard.
Somewhere in Nebraska.
July.
Now.

PRODUCTION THOUGHTS
There are thoughts on production execution from the director,
sound designer and movement director of the premiere
production in the back of the book on page 62.

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 When She Had Wings
Prologue
(WINGMAN and SOUND OP appear from the house,
approaching the stage. SOUND OP plays a kazoo. As
soon as they reach the stage, WINGMAN turns the rotor
of an imaginary propeller. SOUND OP transforms the
sound of the kazoo into an airplane engine sparking to life.
WINGMAN guides an invisible plane with two batons. The
plane taxis and recorded sound takes over as it zooms over
the heads of the audience.
WINGMAN materializes a white feather from nowhere. He
throws the feather into the darkness upstage as a single
white feather falls from above.
Collage of children’s voices, cascading, soaring, rising,
falling, words and phrases about flying.
Lights up on B. As the feather falls, she watches it and holds out
her hand. The instant it touches her hand, the voices vanish.)

B. OK now …
Remember!
How does it begin?

(WINGMAN and SOUND OP take a deep breath.)

B. BREATH!

(On their exhale, B inhales deeply. B exhales with a whoosh

and thrusts forward, arms raised in anticipation of the take off.)

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12 When She Had Wings

B. UP!

(Nothing happens.)

B. Nuts.

(She concentrates harder.)

B. Remember!
Where does it begin?
Legs!

(B takes a deep breath. She runs in place, faster, faster. She

leaps forward, arms raised to catch the loft.)

B. UP!

(Nothing happens.)

B. Nuts!

(She concentrates harder.)

B. Remember!
Why does it begin?

(B takes a deep breath. She runs in place. She spreads her

arms wide as she thrusts forward.)

B. WINGS!

(WINGMAN materializes the figure of a tiny girl with wings.

The tiny girl takes off and soars over B’s head and high into
the air.)

B. YES!

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 When She Had Wings 13

(There is the glorious sound of the delight of flight as B flies

and flies in her imagination.
The tiny girl flies and flies in wide circles. She loops and
dives. B’s face is wreathed in wonder.
The tiny girl banks and, with the WINGMAN’s help, lands in
B’s outstretched hand. B smiles at the tiny girl. WINGMAN
whisks her back into the air.
B watches her go.)

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14 When She Had Wings

Scene 1: The Perfect Storm

(Lights come up on B’s backyard: an immaculate patch of
neatly trimmed grass and nice straight edges. Flower beds
are color coordinated and possibly alphabetized. Standing
guard over each bed is a garden gnome about three feet
tall. There are a lot of them. They are not cute. There is
something slightly sinister about them.
In the very center of the yard, in stark contrast to the order
that surrounds it, is an ancient tree. Most of it is dead, but
the branches reach and gnarl around a structure that might
be a treehouse. It looks like a giant crow’s nest or a cockpit.
It is made of branches, twigs, vines, spare parts of airplanes.
Around the edge, pinwheels stick out at odd angles.
There is the sound of distant thunder.
B grabs her pilot’s goggles hanging from one of the branches
and scrambles up the tree into the nest/cockpit.)

B. Flight controls … Free and correct.

Instruments and radios … Check, check, check and set.
Altimeter … Set
Fuel gages … Checked.
Pop Tarts
Whoppers
Little Debbie snack cakes …

(B mimes turning on an engine.

SOUND OP makes the sound of the airplane engine on the
kazoo.)

B. Propeller …

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 When She Had Wings 15

(SOUND OP’s sound mixes with the live or recorded sound

of a lawn mower.
DAD enters. He is pushing a lawn mower. He makes a wide
circle around the tree to where B is sitting and holds up a
postcard.)

DAD. Special delivery, little missy!

B. Dang it! Dad. Now I gotta start all over again!
DAD. Postcard from your mom!
B. That’s my private mail!
DAD. Nothin’ private about a postcard. If it was, it’d be a letter.
(He reads it.) She says, “Congratulations on losing two
more pounds!”

(B’s face falls in dismay.)

DAD (cont’d). And she sent you something for your birthday!
B. Probably another pair of yoga pants, two sizes too small.
DAD. She says she can’t wait for your visit. She’s got your
summer camp all picked out.
B. Another fat camp!
DAD (reading). “Li’l Losers Kamp for Kids.”
B. I’m not going!
DAD (with an edge). “Kamp,” spelled with a K … cute.
B. I’m not going! Not again! They make you hike till your feet
fall off, swim till you pucker like a prune, and they only
feed you twigs and yogurt. I’m staying here.
DAD. Can’t spend all summer in a tree.
B. Who says?
DAD. The court!

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16 When She Had Wings

(DAD exits with the mower.

B straightens her aviator cap and goggles.)

B. Flight controls … Free and correct.

Instruments and radios … Check, check, check and set.
Altimeter … Set
Fuel gages … Checked.
Pop Tarts
Whoppers
Little Debbie snack cakes …
Propeller!

(B starts the engine again. SOUND OP makes the sound of

the engine.)

B (as Amelia). Got the maps, Fred?

(As Fred.) Yes, Miss Earhart!
(As Amelia.) Only 7,000 miles to go!
Toss me a Whopper, Fred!
(As Fred.) Yes, Miss Earhart!

(Engine sound mixes with clippers heard offstage.

B tosses a Whopper malted milk ball in the air and expertly
catches it in her mouth.
DAD enters with electric hedge clippers and starts trimming
up the tangle of branches around the base of the tree.)

B (cont’d). DAD! Dad! How many times do I have to tell

you? Don’t clipper my tree!
DAD. But it’s so …
B. That was our deal! You do what you want to with anything
in the front or backyard, BUT my tree is my tree.

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 When She Had Wings 17

DAD. It’s dangerous.

B. Oh pish!
DAD. TV says a storm’s coming. End of June means
monsoons! We get a typhoon here and …
B. Typhoon? Dad, this is Nebraska!
DAD. At least let me tidy …

(DAD picks up a leaf blower and starts toward the tree.)

B. DAD!
DAD. All right! All right!

(DAD puts the leaf blower down, starts up the clippers and
exits, trimming his side of the yard.
B goes back to her flight.
Sound of the clippers changes to an engine made by
SOUND OP.)

B. Howland Island … Howland Island …

Tiny little spec on the wide, wide sea!
Like landing on the back of a gnat.
(As Amelia.) Fred, you think you can find it?
(As Fred.) No problem, Miss Earhart!

(DAD enters, whistling, with a garden gnome in a wheelbarrow.

SOUND OP’s engine sound nosedives out.)

B. DAD! What are you doing?

DAD. Isn’t he a beauty? Look at how lifelike he is.
B. Lifelike? It’s a garden gnome!
DAD. I think he’s the best one yet.
B. Evil little faces, beady little eyes, stubbly little fingers.

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18 When She Had Wings

DAD. Yah, he’s a beaut all right!

B. Did you know that at night they come to life and sneak
into the house? They sit on your chest and steal your breath
while you sleep.
DAD (scoffing). It’s cats that do that!
B. We don’t have a cat!
(Points to the gnome.) That’s how come I got asthma.
Gnome breath.
DAD. You got some imagination, little missy!
B. I don’t want a garden gnome anywhere near my tree. They
give me the creeps!
DAD. I was gonna get you one for your birthday dressed up
like a pilot …
B. All I want for my birthday is for you to leave me and my tree
in peace. I’ve only got three days before I turn 10 and there
is something I’ve got to do first. Something IMPORTANT.
DAD. More important than your birthday?
B. I don’t care about my birthday.
DAD. What kind of kid doesn’t care about her birthday?
B. This one!
DAD. Little missy, that’s just not right!
B. The older you get, the more you forget!
DAD. What’da ya got to forget ? You’re 10!
B. Nine! I’m 9! Nine is FINE! I don’t want to turn 10.
DAD. Double digits …
B. Double digits weigh you down. Double digits are too HEAVY.
DAD. Too heavy for what?
B. For everything! I don’t want to have a birthday. I don’t
want to go to Mom’s. I don’t want a garden gnome. I just
want to be left alone!

(B puts the helmet and goggles back on.)

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 When She Had Wings 19

DAD. What are we playing today?

B. I’m not playing! I’m flying!
DAD. Why don’t we play like you’re a famous pilot and when
you land your plane, I’ll be a reporter who …
B. I’m NOT playing that with you!
DAD. Why not? We use’ta play it all the time.
B. This is the last leg of a very important mission and it’s a
solo flight!
DAD (hurt but covering.). That’s my little missy! Always got
your head in the clouds. Be careful or the wind’s gonna blow
you right outta that tree and you’ll fall on your noggin … again!
B. I’m not going to fall …
DAD. Really! ’Member the time you taped fake feathers and
American flags to your shirt and jumped off the roof o’ the
root cellar.
B. I remember.
DAD. Or the time you hitched up all those balloons to your
bike and …
B (tersely). I remember.
DAD. Or the time you tied two kites to your—
B. I REMEMBER!
DAD. Down at Urgent Care they got a gurney with your name
on it. They give me discount on stitches.
B. It’s not my fault! It’s gravity.
DAD. Gravity, my heck!
B. I fall off my bike? … Gravity!
Wipe out on my roller skates? … Gravity!
Fall out of a chair? … GRAVITY!
There ought to be a law against GRAVITY!
DAD. Ya gotta have gravity.

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20 When She Had Wings

B. Why?
DAD. ’Else you’d go floating off the earth—
B. Gravity is my enemy—
DAD. And wind up on the moon or something!
B. Dad! Let me just finish this!
DAD. Well just don’t—
B. Don’t even say it!
DAD. Fall again!

(DAD passes the gnome, pats him on his pointy little head
and exits.)

B (frustrated). How can I remember flying when all I can

think about is falling?

(Sounds of a storm, wind and thunder are heard.

B resumes her flight.)

B (cont’d, into an imaginary radio). This is KHAQQ on 3105

kilocycles …

(Sounds of the storm increase and are mixed with radio static.)

DAD (off). Time to come in now!

B. KHAQQ, we’re about 100 miles out …
DAD (off). I’m not kidding …
B. KHAQQ …
DAD (off). I’m counting to 10! One … two … three … four …
B. Itasca, this is KHAQQ, want bearings …
DAD. Five … six … seven …

(Storm sounds build. The tree begins to shake.)

B. I’m coming!

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 When She Had Wings 21

DAD. Eight … nine …

(B holds onto a branch to steady herself.)

DAD (cont’d). BEATRIX, NOW!

(There is a strong gust of wind. The branch cracks, and B

falls out of the tree onto the ground below.)

B. GRAVITY!
(She is eye to eye with the garden gnome.) What are you
laughing at?

(B stands and shakes her head.)

B (cont’d). Three days! I’ll never make it!

(B limps offstage as the storm builds in intensity.

Thunder rumbles; lightning flashes.
WINGMAN and SOUND OP are tossed by the storm and
wreak havoc on the yard, scattering leaves and branches,
toppling gnomes, etc. The tree shakes and branches whip
back and forth.
Suddenly there is a blinding flash.
The tree is obviously struck by something. Maybe it’s just
lightning, but maybe it is a rent in the fabric of time.
Something falls from the sky and lands smack in the middle
of B’s crow’s nest.
A figure stirs and peers out of the nest. This is A. She looks
around, dazed and disoriented. She opens her mouth, and
no sound comes out. She tries again, nothing. Finally, in
frustration, she beats her arms up and down against the side
of the nest.)

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22 When She Had Wings

A. Awwwwk!

(Lights change.)

© Dramatic Publishing Company

 PRODUCTION THOUGHTS
Because I believe that the languages of sound and movement
are as important to this play as any of the words spoken by
characters, I have asked the sound designer, movement director
and director of the premiere production at Imagination Stage
to contribute a few words as production “thoughts.” Part of
the adventure for other production teams doing this play will
be for you to find your own solutions to the many challenges
and opportunities this script offers, but I thought it might be
helpful to hear from artists who have stood where you stand.

Sound
(Christopher Baine)
Part of the reasons I love When She had Wings, and why I
enjoyed creating the music and sounds for this play, is because
audio is such an integral part of the dynamic language of the
show. Between the words on the page and the movement of the
characters, sound is part of the trifecta of storytelling. Without
it, this story could not be told. By endowing sound with the
power of narrative, Zeder has opened up a world of possibilities
for collaboration and exploration and has given us an empty
canvas on which we each can add our own color. Sound has the
ability to move people, to affect our emotions, and to take us to
different worlds along with the characters in the play.

In the script, we are given a visual/physical manifestation of the

language of sound through SOUND OP, who not only produces
many of the sounds of B’s fantasy but is the embodiment of
aural language onstage. We thought of this character as the
reality of B’s imagination in the aural world. To this end, in the

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Imagination Stage production, we used both live and recorded
sound to help delineate the worlds B creates in her imagination
from those where she finds herself swept up in a story larger
than herself. We used primarily live sounds, made by SOUND
OP, using everyday objects and garden implements as B tries to
help A remember her past life: her flights and crashes, and her
famous solo crossing of the Atlantic. Recorded sound was used
to create a larger world: in the two storms that begin and end
the play, and to underscore the Interludes where A’s story is told
without words in music, light, shadow and movement.

There are many different choices that can be made in terms

of sound. Live sound effects, recorded music, underscoring,
use of the recorded voices of children and a host of other
possibilities. The palette is limited only by your imagination.
As a final note, I encourage everyone approaching a production
of this play to not hold back, don’t let practicality get in the
way of your imagination. Allow yourself to fly!

Movement
(Andrea Moon)
In my work as the movement director for this play’s inaugural
flight, I realized that movement is integral to the landscape of
B’s imagination and the landscape of A’s … call it magic, call
it mystery, and her journey through the play. We discovered
that WINGMAN and SOUND OP function, mostly silently, as
the manifestations of B’s imagination and of A’s mystery. The
tenor of these two jobs is different so we worked on making
the tenor of the two characters’ movement different in the
scenes than in the interludes.

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The interludes tell A’s story—from her arrival, through her
own confusion about who, what and where she is, to her
longing for and remembering flight, and finally her taking on
of Amelia’s story and identity. In the beginning of the play,
A drops in on us without the benefit of verbal language. She
calls on a more primal and visceral form of storytelling—the
magic of image and the exploration of her body in space to
communicate her thoughts and feelings. WINGMAN and
SOUND OP are drawn into that primal magic as they facilitate
the telling. In rehearsal, we worked on making their movement
during the interludes simpler, cleaner and totally in unison.
They function almost as one. Whereas, as manifestations
of B’s imagination, they become individual characters with
individual jobs and unique gestures, sometimes in harmony
and sometimes conflict, with each other and with B.

One of the loveliest and most lasting moments in A’s journey

is her pas-de-deux with the moon: Interlude #2: “Lift.” Zeder
always had an image of A on aerial silks and because I am an
aerialist and our actor for the production at Imagination Stage
had training on the silks, we were able to realize this image
with actual aerial choreography. It is possible, however, to
create a powerful image for this moment even if you don’t
have an actor trained in aerial work or the ability to hang
human weight safely in the production space. There are some
beautiful and simple things that can be done with white silks
that don’t require the strength or skill of an aerialist. There are
also alternative ways to get across the idea of the Interlude
without having to use silks at all. However, this interlude is
realized it must be in concert with the movement vocabulary
of the play as a whole. It must be played as a scene with a
dramatic arc of discovery and release, not as a “specialty act”
inserted into the larger fabric of the play.

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The possibilities for movement in this play are endless and
these notes should be taken not as a prescription, but as a
description of what worked with this particular cast, design
team and limitations of the space. I encourage each production
team to make their own choices. The sky’s the limit!

WINGMAN and SOUND OP

(Kate Bryer)
When Zeder and I first started working on this script, we
believed that SOUND OP and WINGMAN were present only
to facilitate the non-verbal aspects of this story. However,
over the three-year period, as we worked with the children
from the Lucy School and the college students from UNC,
it became apparent that these two characters could serve as
entities that are much more integral to B and A’s story. We
spent much of the rehearsal period trying to clarify the rules
for these characters and to decide what world they live in.

We decided that even though B and A do not seem to see or

directly interact with them (except for A in interlude #4),
WINGMAN and SOUND OP are the embodiment of the
imagination and their hearts’ desire for both B and A. For most
of the play, SOUND OP operates from an aural perspective,
punctuating action with sound effects and transforming
everyday sounds like a lawn mower into the imagined sound
of an airplane engine. WINGMAN works from a visual
basis: manipulating props, ordinary objects and miniatures
to change scale and illustrate action. They do not create the
story, nor do they know it’s ending in advance, they take their
clues from A and B and are, in a sense, created by the power
of the telling. It is only when we arrive at the Final Flight that

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everything comes together as they gain the power of speech
and become actual characters in Amelia’s last flight. Now that
they are truly agents of action they can aid in A’s ascension,
and help B to “fly.”

Every production team will find their own ways to deal with the
enigmatic and provocative characters who say so much without
words. We found it useful to allow these characters to be onstage
at all times and to stage them so they express the inner emotions,
thoughts and imaginations of A and B and provide a direct link
to the audience as they discover the story together. We were
incredibly fortunate to have actors gifted in imagination and
improvisation as they helped us clarify and create these silent
interactions in rehearsal, many of which remain in the script
today. We wish you the same joy of discovery.

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