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Jeanine Tesori 珍妮·特索里

Grounded 《禁止飛行》

23 February 2025 (SUN) 4:15pm, Premiere Elements
2025年 2月23日 (星期日) 下午4時15分,Premiere Elements

30 March 2025 (SUN) 3:00pm, K11 Art House
2025年 3月30日 (星期日) 下午3時正,K11 Art House

11 May 2025 (SUN) 4:00pm, Emperor Cinemas (Entertainment Building) 
2025年 5月11日 (星期日) 下午4時正,英皇戲院 (中環娛樂行)

Expected running Time: 2hrs 59mins (including 1 intermission)
演出約2小時 59分鐘(包括一節中場休息)

Sung in English with English Subtitle
以英語演出附英文字幕

JESS 
Emily D’Angelo/ Kirsten MacKinnon

ERIC
Ben Bliss

SENSOR
Kyle Miller

COMMANDER
Greer Grimsley

CONDUCTOR Yannick Nézet-Séguin

PRODUCTION Michael Mayer

SET DESIGNER Mimi Lien

COMPOSER Jeanine Tesori

COSTUME DESIGNER Tom Broecker

LIGHTING DESIGNER Kevin Adams

LIBRETTIST George Brant

CO-PROJECTION DESIGNER Jason H. Thompson/ Kaitlyn Pietras

SOUND DESIGNER Palmer Hefferan

CHOREOGRAPHER David Neumann

DRAMATURG Paul Cremo

ACT I
Jess is an ace F-16 fighter pilot serving in Iraq who loves what she does, loves being part of a squadron of (male) flyers, and loves soaring in what she calls “the Blue.” While on leave in Wyoming, she meets Eric, a rancher, and the two make an unexpected connection on their one night together. This results in an equally unexpected pregnancy and ultimately, marriage. Jess stays home for five years to raise their daughter, Sam, but misses the Blue. When she returns to the Air Force, her commanding officer tells her she has a new assignment: operating a Reaper—a missile-carrying drone—from a remote base outside of Las Vegas. At first, she resists being relegated to the “Chair Force,” but the fact that she’ll be able to return home to Eric and Sam every night convinces her to take the assignment. She takes her place in an air-conditioned trailer next to a Sensor—an incongruously boyish 19-year-old gamer—who operates the drone’s multiple cameras and introduces her to the Kill Chain, a group of off-site strategic advisors who direct Jess’s actions through her headset. As she becomes acclimated to her new life, Jess discovers she can still experience some of the excitement and satisfaction she once felt when actually flying.

Intermission

ACT II
The 12-hour, seven-days-a-week shifts are grueling for Jess. Long periods of staring at the video monitor to track a subject or detect a threat alternate with sudden action and split-second moral decisions involving lives on the ground—lives that she is accustomed to flying away from. Witnessing the human toll of her missile strikes has a shattering emotional and psychological effect on Jess, and she begins to dissociate, her psyche splitting to reveal an alternate self who can hold the trauma wrought by her actions. The stress also begins to affect her relationship with Eric, who has taken a job working the late shift at a casino.

When Jess is assigned to track and eliminate a highly placed enemy target known as the Serpent, she becomes obsessed with her prey, who drives incessantly through the desert, never leaving his car, thus preventing him from being positively identified and eliminated. As Jess’s fixation on taking out the Serpent overtakes her, she becomes unable to focus on her home and family. Eric tries to help Jess shake off the strain of the job with a ritual he’s learned at the casino, but she is beyond such measures. When Jess comes home late one night in a manic state, she and Eric argue, and Jess withdraws, but he manages to momentarily pull her back from the brink. Soon, however, Jess finds herself back in the trailer. She is thrilled when she tracks the Serpent to his home, and when he finally reveals himself, stepping from his car to wave his daughter away, Jess is instructed to take the shot.

Jess is on the verge of firing her missiles, but suddenly focuses on the Serpent’s daughter—a girl near Sam’s age. In an instant, she realizes she cannot be the agent of this girl’s death. She pulls the drone off course and crashes it. Jess defiantly ignores the outraged voices on her headset but quickly discovers that another drone has been shadowing her, and she watches in horror as its Hellfire missiles obliterate the Serpent and his daughter. Jess is alone, entombed in a cell. She has been court-martialed, but her imprisonment has brought her a degree of clarity and release—and freedom.

第一幕
傑西是一名在伊拉克服役的F-16 戰機王牌機師,她不僅熱愛自己的工作,亦因能夠成為以男性主導的飛行小隊其中一員,以及在她稱為「蔚藍天空」中執行空中任務而樂在其中。在懷俄明州休假期間,她邂逅了牧場主人艾力,兩人在共度的一晚中產生了意想不到的聯繫,傑西意外懷孕,二人最終結成夫婦。

隨後五年,傑西一直留在家中撫養女兒珊姆,但她十分懷念在「蔚藍天空」中飛翔的日子。當她重返空軍時,指揮官給她指派了一項新任務:在拉斯維加斯郊區的一個偏遠基地操控一架「死神」攜彈無人機。起初,傑西很抗拒被降級至「椅軍」,可是當想到能因此每晚回家陪伴艾力和珊姆,她便說服自己接受了這項任務。傑西坐著空調拖車執勤,身旁是一個一臉稚氣、舉止怪異的19 歲玩家「感應器」。他一邊操作著無人機上的多部攝影機,一邊向傑西介紹負責在場外擔任戰略顧問,並透過耳機指示傑西行動的小組「殺人鏈」。隨著傑西逐漸適應新的生活,她發現自己仍能透過目前的工作,體驗到某些過往在實際飛行任務中的喜悅和滿足感。

中場休息

第二幕
每星期 7 天、每天 12 小時的值勤任務,令傑西疲累不堪。長時間盯著影像監視器來追蹤目標或偵察威脅,再加上各種突發行動和需要在短時間內作出關乎道德的決定,這些決定涉及地面上的生命——她曾經習慣飛離的生命。見證著導彈襲擊所造成的人命傷亡,傑西的情緒和心靈大受打擊,她開始逃避現實,同時內心亦分裂出另一個自己,以承受她在執行任務時所造成的創傷。當時,艾力正於賭場擔任一份夜班工作,而傑西所面對的壓力,亦開始損害她與艾力之間的關係。之後,傑西接獲一項任務,要求她追蹤及消滅一個名為「毒蛇」的敵方關鍵目標。這個纏繞著傑西思緒的目標人物,不眠不休地驅車穿過沙漠,同時為了避免被人識別和擊殺,他永遠不會離開車廂半步。

當傑西決心消滅「毒蛇」時,她無暇顧及家庭、丈夫和女兒。艾力嘗試運用在賭場中學到的儀式來協助傑西擺脫工作壓力,可是不成功。某個深夜,傑西帶著暴躁的情緒回家,並與艾力發生爭執,傑西打算離開,但艾力設法暫時讓她冷靜了下來。過了不久,傑西又再身處於拖車之中,並一路追蹤著「毒蛇」。當尾隨著「毒蛇」回家時,傑西興奮不已。終於,「毒蛇」下車現身,並揮手示意女兒走開,此時,耳機的聲音指示傑西射殺「毒蛇」。

無人機的飛彈如箭在弦,但傑西突然將焦點放在「毒蛇」的女兒身上,那是一個與珊姆年齡相若的女孩。一瞬間,她驚覺自己不能將這個女孩置於死地,因此讓無人機偏離航線並撞毀。正當傑西毫不畏懼地忽略耳機中傳來的咆哮聲時,霎眼間卻發現另一架無人機一直在追蹤著自己。她驚恐地看著從無人機發射的致命飛彈擊中了「毒蛇」和他的女兒。事後,雖然傑西被單獨囚禁在牢房中,並且被送上軍事法庭,但在獄中的她某程度上卻有種豁然開朗、如釋重負,以及重獲自由之感。

Content for tab 3.

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