Pop quiz, hot shot: Which American female pilot was the first to ever to be granted an international air jockey license? If you guessed Amelia Earhart, you’re dead wrong, ace. It was Bessie Coleman, the renowned African-American aviatrix whose life story and career as a pilot was equally inspiring as Earhart’s, but isn’t as well known as her more famous counterpart.
Local playwright and actress Larissa Brewington gives the aeronaut her due during her one-act, one-woman show Into The Blue with Bessie Coleman. The inspirational play chronicles Queen Bessie’s struggle to train as a female flyer in her home state of Texas amidst the racism of the rural south, as well as her thrilling days as a barnstormer, and tragic death at an air show in 1926.
Sept. 6-16, 12:10 p.m., 2011
