When the ASPI board first contacted me about returning to the company to direct a show called Boeing Boeing, I had to admit I had heard of it but had never seen a production or the movie. Now as we prepare to open our production of this extremely popular script I am so happy to have been offered this crazy French farce from the early 1960s. I must admit the most telling part of this whole experience for me is that I am the only member of the cast and production personnel who was alive when it was first produced in 1962. That was fun to learn!
We have chosen to present the script as it was first performed over sixty years ago, when our norms for sexism and many other “isms” were very different than today in the 2020s. This show was first produced when The Dick Van Dyke Show and The Beverly Hillbillies were on television, well before All in the Family and others hit the airwaves. As always when watching a comedic farce, you will be asked to suspend your belief in reality on occasion and just go with the flow.
By the way, if you understand my references to the television shows in the preceding paragraph it is possible that you were also alive, or soon to be alive, in the early 1960s. I hope your memories of that era aren’t quite as frantic or bizarre as this wonderful show, but I hope everyone enjoys our crazy play. It’s been a lot of fun preparing this production to entertain you.
Wayne Strei
Director