![\"\u201cGrounded\u201d](\"https:\/\/idsunmedia.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/Photo-1-1-300x200.jpg\")
Company of Fools (COF) will present the riveting drama \u201cGrounded\u201d by award-winning playwright George Brant Sept. 28 through Oct. 13 at the Liberty Theatre in Hailey. Heartbreaking and beautiful, the play follows an ace fighter pilot whose career in the sky takes an unexpected turn due to pregnancy.<\/p>\n
\u201cBrant started writing this piece when he found out that Obama had used exceedingly more drone strikes in a much shorter time than Bush in his presidency,\u201d explained director John Glenn. \u201cThe technology of war was moving forward and he was fascinated by it. This play is rich and rife with humanity. It\u2019s about being a human, connecting, feeling disconnected, being a parent, being a spouse and serving.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cGrounded\u201d explores the strength and fragility of the mind and psyche. Relocated to operate military drones from a windowless trailer outside Las Vegas, the pilot uses drones to hunt terrorists by day and then drives home to her family each night.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe works 12 hours a day, seven days a week, protecting servicemen and women, making strikes and following targets, and then drives home to make dinner for her 3-year-old child and her husband who works at a casino,\u201d Glenn expounded. \u201cHow do you reconcile those two worlds?\u201d<\/p>\n
Hanna Cheek will return to COF to play The\u00a0Pilot. Named one of\u00a0Time Out New York’s\u00a0“Future Legends of NYC Theatre”\u00a0in 2013, Cheek has previously been seen at COF in \u201cProof,\u201d\u00a0\u201cOther Desert Cities\u201d\u00a0and \u201cCommencement.\u201d<\/p>\n \u00a0 Cheek describes The Pilot as a very sensitive, feeling mother and who is relatable, \u201cbut she is also fierce, complex,\u201d and committed to a fault.<\/p>\n \u201cThere are a lot of hot-button issues in this play, but it is not a morality play,\u201d Cheek explained. \u201cThe playwright never says drones are bad or drones are great \u2013 that\u2019s not what it\u2019s about. It\u2019s not a black or white issue \u2013 it\u2019s grey. If there is a hot-button issue in the piece, it\u2019s that our soldiers in all areas of the military need more mental support. We are all humans and we are all vulnerable when faced with that damage.\u201d<\/p>\n This will be the first production Company of Fools has done in the round, with audience completely surrounding the playing area. Seating is limited to 60 patrons per performance.<\/p>\n \u201cPutting the audience in the round inherently brings intimacy and immediacy,\u201d Glenn said. \u201cWe wanted to put this play in a situation where you can\u2019t escape.\u201d<\/p>\n A major scenic element of COF\u2019s production will be a new piece by Pakistani visual artist Mahwish Chishty. Chishty has designed a large Reaper drone that will\u00a0hang over\u00a0the playing area. The creative team for\u00a0\u201cGrounded\u201d\u00a0also includes Joe Lavigne (set design), Russell Simone Wilson (music design) and K.O. Ogilvie (stage manager).<\/p>\n Tickets for \u201cGrounded\u201d are $35 for full price, $25 for seniors and members of The Center, and $15 for students (18 and under). Tickets may be purchased online at\u00a0www.sunvalleycenter.org, by phone at\u00a0(208) 578-9122\u00a0or at the Liberty Theatre box office starting one hour before curtain.\u00a0Company of Fools\u2019 box office is located at the Liberty Theatre, 110 N. Main Street in Hailey.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" \u2018Grounded\u2019 at Company of Fools BY YANNA LANTZ Company of Fools (COF) will present the riveting drama \u201cGrounded\u201d by award-winning playwright George Brant Sept. 28 through Oct. 13 at the Liberty Theatre in Hailey. Heartbreaking and beautiful, the play follows an ace fighter pilot whose career in the sky takes an unexpected turn due to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":8922,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","_pvb_checkbox_block_on_post":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[68,36,53],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-8919","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-calendar-2","8":"category-slider","9":"category-calendar-feature"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8919","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8919"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8919\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8922"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8919"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8919"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8919"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Hanna](\"https:\/\/idsunmedia.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/Photo-2-1-200x300.jpg\")