Come from Away

When “Come from Away” opened on Broadway in March 2017 I was fortunate to be given a preview ticket. At the time I knew little, if anything, about the musical, only that it had something to do with 9/11. My recollection of that evening is vivid. When the curtain came down the audience, standing at their seats, burst into loud applause, and cheering. The sense of joy and lightness was palpable.

At exactly 9:26 am on the morning of September 11, 2001, after the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon in Washington, the United States Federal Aviation Administration closed U.S. airspace. Approximately 4,000 flights had to be diverted. Thirty-eight civilian and four military planes were asked to land in Gander, Newfoundland. The 6,600 passengers and crew members who filled those planes, from airlines including Olympic Airways, Air France, Lufthansa, British Airways, Alitalia and more, found themselves in a small 40 square mile community for up to six days, until the planes were cleared to take off.

It no longer mattered if you were traveling First Class or were seated in the last row next to the bathrooms in the rear of the plane. Everything was equalized. There were no hotels to book or large convention centers to reconfigure, it was a matter of everyone coming together to figure out how to provide food, water, and places to sleep. Of course, not one of these people knew exactly what had happened, what was going to happen next, how they were going to reach their destinations or when they might return to their homes.

The musical has been on my mind as I think about all the events being planned to “celebrate” Laconia and work to strengthen the sense of community. The production, with a community cast, of Thornton’s Wilder’s “Our Town” through the Powerhouse Theatre Collaborative, a program of the Belknap Mill and the resident theatre company of the Colonial Theatre and directed by Brian Halperin, is just one step.
The Laconia Daily Sun is hosting a symposium on September 21 designed to create a more civil dialogue and understanding among those who disagree. The forum is being held at the Colonial Theater and will include Stephen Duprey, who played a role in Concord’s revitalization, local businesswoman Karen Bassett, Mayor Andrew Hosmer, and Meredith developer Rusty McLear.

The exquisite renovation of the Colonial Theater in downtown Laconia is a reason to come together. To celebrate the history of the community and to plan the future. To think together about how to solve the myriad problems we face both as Americans and citizens of the planet.

It is through music, performance, theater and feeling a sense of community that change is accelerated. The creative process can lead to moments of compromise, often misunderstanding and eventual revelation.

When the curtain goes down on the community performance of “Our Town” at the Colonial, I expect the theater will be filled with applause and cheering in recognition not just for the performance, but for the people working together, harmoniously to stage the play, coming away to find comfort in home, the community of Laconia.

“Come From Away” was written by Canadians Irene Sankoff and Davi Hein and directed by Christopher Ashley. During the pandemic, when the Broadway was closed, a performance of the musical was filmed and released on September 10 in time for the twentieth anniversary of September 11. It is reopening on Broadway in September.