Kate Baldwin, Beau Bridges, and More Talk Theatre Aspen's SOLO FLIGHTS

Solo Flights is an annual week-long festival of one-person shows presented in the beginning stages of their development. In addition to the performances, Solo Flights will feature signature events including talkbacks, creative discussions, and special receptions. This year's Solo Flights festival will be held September 18 - 21, 2019 at Theatre Aspen's Hurst Theatre.

BroadwayWorld chatted with participants including Kate Baldwin, Beau Bridges and more to see why they're taking part in the development of new one-person works! Check out what they had to say below!

Productions for the very first festival include Dr. Glas by Edgar Award-nominated playwright Jeffrey Hatcher starring Obie Award and Drama Desk Award winner Daniel Gerroll and directed by two-time Obie winner Lisa Peterson; What We Leave Behind, a new one-woman musical by Frederick Loewe Award winner Jenny Giering and writer of fiction, poetry, and theatre Sean Barry and directed by Connecticut Critics Circle Award winner Tracy Brigden; and When It's You by Courtney Baron (Eat Your Heart Out), directed by Kent Nicholson, Associate Producer of Musical Theater at Playwrights Horizons in New York.

Tickets are now on sale. Early Boarding Frequent Flyer Packages, which include one ticket to each show, are priced at $120 and Early Boarding Take Flight Sampler Packages, which include 4 tickets to any combination of shows, are $200. A limited number of $350 Premiere Class Packages, which include premium seating, festival opening and closing parties, and a special piece of Solo Flights inaugural merchandise, are also available. Single tickets go on sale July 15. Tickets can be purchased at the Theatre Aspen Box Office, now open at the Hurst Theatre, by calling 970.300.4474, Monday-Friday, 9am to 5pm, or online at www.TheatreAspen.org

Kate Baldwin
(What We Leave Behind, Jenny)

"What We Leave Behind is a courageous one-woman show exploring what it means to live a life reshaped by illness. The piece follows the journey of a woman from diagnosis and treatment to the onset of a mysterious condition that robs her of her life as a wife, mother, and artist. Juxtaposed with this journey is the story of a time before her struggle, when life was full of daring and passion-when she and her husband embarked together on a year-long relationship with another woman. Both sexy and heart-wrenching, What We Leave Behind is poetic, passionate, and deeply compelling. I've been a fan of Jenny Giering's for as long as I can remember and am honored to tell her story."

Beau Bridges
(Coach, John Wooden)

"I am happy to be a part of the first Solo Flights presentation of 4 one act plays in Aspen, CO. I did a reading of "Coach" written by John Wilder. In it, I portray John Wooden who I played under on the freshmen team at UCLA. Coach Wooden was an inspiration to me and the 3 hundred plus young men that had the good fortune to play for him.

JOY NASH
(When It's You, Ginnifer)

"It's so hard to boil a show like this down to a log line! I think When It's You is about a woman trying to make sense of her personal connection to a one tragedy while dealing with the grief of a tragedy of her own. But never self-pitying, never wistful, in fact really funny in parts. Solo performance is maybe my favorite medium - I love the responsibility that you're given as an actor- to connect and keep an audience engaged with nothing but a story. The range you're allowed to go to, both emotionally and playing characters you'd never ever be playing in real life, but because they're a part of your play, you get to play them too."

Lynne Shankel
(What We Leave Behind, Music Director)

""What We Leave Behind" is Jenny Giering's personal story about her 5-year struggle with chronic illness. Jenny and I have known each other for about 20 years- we travel in the same circles, somehow never working together, but I have always been an admirer of her work. I have followed her health struggles through the years and I am amazed by her strength and her fortitude. A person very close to me has recently been diagnosed with a very serious illness and when I was approached about working on the show, it just struck a chord. I had always wanted to work with Jenny and I also felt that working on this piece might also be healing for me personally in some way. It is very powerful theatre and I'm happy to be a part of it. The biggest challenge of this piece is that it is in fact a one-person musical and we have three days to learn 20 songs. Putting up a musical in three days is very different from putting up a straight play in three days. It's an incredible amount of material to digest musically in such a short amount of time. Luckily we have Kate Baldwin who is a super quick study!"

JOHN WILDER
(Coach, Playwright)

"COACH - An Evening with John Wooden puts a legendary character on stage whose life spanned virtually the whole of the 20th century, "The American century," as he reflects on a set of values he lived by and taught that forged our national character. There are not many icons walking the face of the earth, and Jed Bernstein's vision for Theater Aspen has given me the opportunity to keep one alive."

Jed Bernstein

"The genre of one-person shows is evolving rapidly. At one time, it consisted of stars portraying historical figures and little else. Now, we have playwrights writing new one-person plays, comedians doing dramatic pieces (not just stand-up), one-person musicals, and many other wonderfully inventive approaches. We knew that Theatre Aspen could make a real contribution to the art form by launching a festival specifically focused and committed to this type of work and we look forward to this year being the first of many annual editions."

TRACY BRIDGEN

"Jenny Giering and Sean Barry's piece, WHAT WE LEAVE BEHIND is a unique hybrid of a one-person show - equal parts autobiographical monologue, song cycle and daring theatrical exploration. Their story is based on their real-life experiences of years battling the mysterious illness that Jenny found herself in the grips of after having surgery for breast cancer. Yet the piece is not a sad treatise or a dry scientific study - in juxtaposing the losses of illness with the vibrancy of life lived to the fullest, WHAT WE LEAVE BEHIND follows Jenny and Sean as they find a path back to acceptance and purpose.