Catalyst Sessions w/ Bill DeYoung L. Peter Callendar and Sheila Cowley

I don’t ever want to write a play that only white people can be in,” Sheila Cowley said Thursday on The Catalyst Sessions, explaining why she insisted on a BIPOC cast for the Tampa Repertory Theatre’s virtual production of her drama Flying.

Casting people of color in the play, Cowley explained, was one of her conditions for letting Flying, which Tampa Rep performed in 2017, fly again. “I said I wouldn’t be interested in doing it any other way. Because, why not? If you’re gonna do it, let’s use this new medium to do something different.”

Flying is about a group of tough women airplane pilots who flew non-combat missions during World War II. And although the majority of them were white, historical accuracy isn’t nearly the point of Cowley’s story.
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