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Music by: Richard Oberacker
Book and Lyrics by: Robert Taylor & Richard Oberacker
Directed by: Eric Schaeffert
Previews from August 27th 2008
September 3rd 2008 - September 28th 2008
Signature Theatre
Arlington, VA
SYNOPSIS
Set in 1950s heartland America, Ace is the epic story of one boy’s journey to come to terms with his past, find his place in the present, and unlock his future. When 10-year-old Danny Lucas receives a toy plane as an unexpected gift from his foster parents, a parallel world of dreamtime adventures begins to unfold. With an ace fighter as his guide, Danny is transported back in time — flying into the gathering storm over Europe during aerial dogfights of WWI and soaring with the daring Tiger squadrons of WWII in the skies above Southeast Asia. A tale of triumph, transcendence, humor, and heart as seen through the prism of a child’s eyes, Ace magically explores the heroic lives and unforeseen legacies of the men and women of our greatest generations.
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OPENING NIGHT CAST
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Matthew Scott
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Ace
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Dalton Harrod
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Danny
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Jill Paice
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Elizabeth
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Emily Skinner
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Louise
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Duke Lafoon
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Edward
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Christiane Noll
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Ruth
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Jim Stanek
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John Robert
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Florence Lacey
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Mrs. Crandall
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Angelina Kelly
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Emily
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ENSEMBLE
Richard Barth, Tom Galantich, Tracy Lynn Olivera, Jason Reiff, Danny Rothman, Elizabeth Share, Gabrielle Stravelli
ACT 1
In St. Louis, Missouri in 1952, a 10-year-old boy named Billy Lucas telephones the police and tells the police officer that his mother is hurt. Soon, Billy in the hospital with a doctor talking about his mother’s case. He says that Billy’s mother obviously had tried to harm herself. A social worker then explains that Billy will have to stay in a temporary foster home while his mother is under treatment in the hospital’s mental ward (“It’s Better This Way”). Many people appear to say what a horrible person Billy is. In the end, Billy is placed with Mr. Edward and Louise Milligan. Mrs. Milligan informes Billy that Mr. Milligan worked on the St. Louis arch. Billy is very hostile towards Mrs. Milligan. After a few days, seeing Billy’s unhappiness with his new home, Mr. Milligan decides to get Billy a new toy. He goes to a toy store, and after much deliberation, decides to get Billy a new toy plane. He brings it home to Billy, and Billy reluctantly accepts his present. He falls asleep with his new plane, and then we see someone open his bedroom door. Billy wakes up and startled asks the man who he his and why he is on his room. The man simply answers, “Just call me Ace.” After convincing Billy, that it is safe, Ace takes Billy to April 1908, in an airfield, where he is introduced to John Roberts and Ruth Whitlow. These two are meeting for the first time and start to fall for each other. Billy is taken out of his dream and back to his room.
Billy starts school and is picked on by the other kids for being new. He meets Emily, another new kid at the school. Emily becomes his only friend. He decides to tell Emily about the strange dreams that he has been having. He takes her to his room and she tries to figure out why the dreams are occurring. Billy continues to have the strange dreams. In his dreams Ace, takes him through a world where John Roberts and Ruth fall in love and Ruth becomes pregnant, just before John Roberts goes off to war. While fighting in the air, John Roberts is shot down by enemy fire. Billy runs to John Roberts to help him and tells that Ruth will know, as Ace had instructed him.
ACT 2
Billy is much happier with his new surroundings. He again is transported to his dream world with Ace. This time he is introduced to Charlie Robert Anderson, the son of Ruth and John Roberts. Billy discovers that Charlie is Ace. Ace wanted to design planes, and his mother wanted him to join the air force as his father had. He next went on to St. Louis University, where he met a girl. This girl turned out to be Elizabeth Lucas, Billy’s mother. She was in the journalism program at St. Louis University. Ace and Elizabeth start to date and eventually marry. Billy finds that Ace is his dad and wants to leave his dream. He hated his father since he was a child, for leaving him and his mother. Billy throws out the plane in anger at Ace, but Ace brings it back to him, because Ace has something to show him. Ace decides to join the Air Force as his father did, because his mother, Ruth, made him feel guilty about it. After leaving for China, Elizabeth finds out that she is pregnant and wants Ace to come home. However, Ace cannot leave the frontlines. While on a night mission, Ace and his fellow pilots come under enemy fire. His plane is hit and his fuel line is broken, and he can’t make it back to the base. Ace, with Billy in the back seat, flies straight up into the air, up to the stars, which he’s always wanted to see. Ace tells Billy in the last moments of his life, “You can choose to fly.” Billy is very sad to see his dad die, but now he understands.
After his father died, his mother went into a deep depression, not being able to bear his death. Billy goes to Mr. and Mrs. Milligan and tells them that he wants to see his mother right away. He goes with Mrs. Crandall, the social worker, and his foster parents to see his mother, who is now out of the hospital. He explains to her that he knows everything, and that he can, “choose to fly.”
(Taken from Wikipedia)
SONG LIST
In The Skies
Life Can Be Cruel
It Took This Moment
Make It From Scratch
Be My Bride
Letter From The Front
The Dogfight
Soaring Again
It's Just A Matter Of Time
I Know It Can Be Done
Missing Pieces
Sooner Or Later
In The Skies - Reprise
We're The Only Ones
Seeing Things In A Different Light
That's That It Should Say
Finale Sequence
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