Navigate to Home page

Dead Reckoning

Loose Tea Music Theatre

Video Adaptation released online 

October 2020

A scene from Alaina's production of Dead Reckoning
Scroll to production details

Production details

Description

Dead Reckoning is a new Canadian musical with book and lyrics by Lezlie Wade and music by Scott Christian. It is written for five female actors and focusses on the life of Amelia Earhart and the true story of the teenage girl who received Amelia’s final distress signal. Thematically, Dead Reckoning explores the impact people have on our lives through acts of courage, tenacity and strength. The challenges facing Amelia Earhart as a trailblazer, as well as those faced by Betty Klenck struggling through adolescence to find her unique voice within societal norms, are themes as relevant today as they were then. Full Musical Synopsis: In 1937, fifteen-year-old Betty Klenck is struggling with her sense of identity. Bullied in school for being “different natured from everyone else” she finds solace in the person of Amelia Earhart and the possibilities she offers to the future of young women. When Betty’s mother dies, she sinks into depression. Her father, desperate for a way to help her, sets up a short-wave radio in her room. At night, Betty finds solace imagining the far away voices scrambled with static belong to her mother. When Betty hears Amelia Earhart’s distress signal on the night of her fateful last flight, she persuades her father to alert the authorities. But who will take a 15-year-old girl seriously?

Creative Team

  • Lezlie Wade, Director, Book and Lyrics
  • Scott Christian, Composer and Producer
  • Alaina Viau, Creative Producer and Director of Photography
  • Auston Check, Editor
  • John Chou, Technical Assistant 
  • Alicia Barban, Assistant Producer

Performers

  • Laura Larson, Amelia Earhart
  • Kelsey Falconer, Betty Klenc
  • Alicia Barban, Aisha Jarvis, Sara Shanazarian, American Trio

Production Videos & Photos

  • A scene from Alaina's production of Dead Reckoning
  • A scene from Alaina's production of Dead Reckoning
  • A scene from Alaina's production of Dead Reckoning
  • A scene from Alaina's production of Dead Reckoning
  • A scene from Alaina's production of Dead Reckoning
  • A scene from Alaina's production of Dead Reckoning

Press & Reviews

  • “I’ve been looking for a musical for Loose Tea to produce, but it had to be the right musical,” Viau explained. Composer Scott Christian was Viau’s music director for Carmen and they had begun talking about Dead Reckoning as Carmen was being written. Christian’s own composing style, she says, is similar to Stephen Sondheim’s, something that attracted her to the show: “It’s complex and needs to be well sung. It sits in that grey area where the lines are blurred between opera and musicals.”

    theWholeNote Sept 2020

Connect with AlainaContact

Contact / ‘kɑntækt’

Email

Let's Connect

You can reach Alaina by email, on social media, or by sending a message using the form below. Feel free to get in touch!