World premiere of ‘The Music of Flight: The Falcon’ soars into Colorado

The Colorado Chamber Players conclude their 29th season with an original play about superheroes.

Back in February 2022, Simu Liu, an actor known for his role in Marvel Studio’s Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, gave a talk at the University of Colorado Boulder. Among the throngs of MCU fans sat Barbara Hamilton, artistic director and violist of the Colorado Chamber Players, who had been invited to the event by her son.

Paul Nagem, Barbara Hamilton and Paul Primus

“I was searching for a theme for the Colorado Chamber Players’ 29th season at that time,” Hamilton says. “As I sit in Mackey Auditorium, I start looking around at all these college kids who are excited to see this superhero actor, and, based on the superhero vibe, I was able to come up with the whole season in 30 seconds. We based our four programs loosely on superheroes from the Marvel Universe; we did a program in the fall inspired by Dr. Strange with spooky Baroque-era music; a show in November inspired by Shan-Chi featuring works by Asian artists; a program inspired by Black Widow with Russian composers; and now, we’re doing Music of Flight: The Falcon.”

And after a season of superhero smashes, the Colorado Chamber Players, a fully professional mixed chamber ensemble specializing in intimate performances of classical music across the Denver area, will be closing its season with a touring production of The Falcon at the Studio Loft, Ellie Caulkins Opera House in the Denver Center for the Performing Arts on May 4-5, the People’s Building of Aurora on May 6; and Parker Schoolhouse in Parker on May 13. The show features live music performed by Hamilton on viola, Paul Primus on violin, Sarah Biber on cello and Paul Nagem on flute. 

“The Falcon was the easiest show to put together this season because we had a piece called ‘Pennipotenti for Flute and Strings’ by Maria Newman with four movements based on four different birds that we had played about ten years ago,” Hamilton says. “The final movement is about a falcon and has a somewhat cinematic quality to its sound. When we played it the first time, I knew someday we’d come back to it and we would put it together with some kind of text because it was just longing for something a little more theatrical than sheer music.” 

To write a narrative that would connect the nine different pieces of music centered on birds that the Colorado Chamber Players would be playing, Hamilton commissioned Colorado playwright Josh Hartwell. 

This is Hartwell’s fourth collaboration with the organization, following their previous work on Revolutionary Times: Haydn and Washington and composer portraits of Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky and Dmitri Shostakovich. The Falcon was an ideal match for Hartwell, who has been a self-described “superhero nerd” since his childhood.

Playwright Josh Hartwell

“I didn’t buy the comic book because that’s expensive and I didn’t have any money,” Hartwell says, “but Marvel did put out an encyclopedia with information about the heroes. I would use that book to create different teams of the ones I liked best and put them into different battle situations. I just loved the characters, particularly the X-Men, because they were dealing with bigotry and chosen families, which was important to me as a teenager trying to figure out my way in the world.” 

Hartwell’s show uses superheroes as a way to explore contemporary issues of identity. Darlene, portrayed by Michaela Murray, is a young child with a vivid imagination who is attempting to discover who she is and imagines the superhuman Falcon, portrayed by Ronald McQueen, assisting her. But when he arrives, Darlene realizes that even superheroes have problems, as the Falcon is riddled with doubt. 

“The Falcon is loosely based on the Marvel character, but I didn’t try to make him just like the character from the movie or comic books,” says Hartwell. “He’s dealing with an identity crisis partly because he is within the imagination of this girl, but he is struggling with whether or not he can be a hero; the Falcon is even questioning whether he is worthy of flying through the air. He has respect for birds. She helps him through his crisis because he is imaginary.”

“This play came to me quickly,” he continues. “Maybe I’m jinxing myself for the next one, but because it had clear spots that included music, it made it easy to outline; it goes play section, music, play section, music—it’s like writing a handful of five-to-ten-minute plays set to music. Some of the other plays I did for the Colorado Chamber Players required a lot of research, but this happened to be something I was already knowledgeable about, plus The Falcon and The Winter Solider had just come out, so this idea just felt fresh.”

During the writing process, Hartwell reached out to Betty Hart, a local actor, co-artistic director at Local Theater Company and president of the Colorado Theatre Guild, to discuss directing the production. Hart had acted in some of his recent projects, but the duo had not collaborated as a writer and director. 

“Six months ago, Josh reached out because he knew how busy my schedule was and asked me to direct The Falcon,” Hart says. ‘It took me two months to say yes, due to so many other things I have going on, but I was so happy to be able to say yes to this project. My career started in theater for young audiences; I have a mad passion for this work, so it was a treat for me to return to my roots. The Falcon is a smart play that doesn’t talk down to young people and allows them to learn something while having an authentic experience with laughter.”

Betty Hart

Along with the script’s jokes, it packs in sensitive moments of self-reflection.

“One of my favorite lines is this sensitive moment when the Falcon is discussing flying,” Hamilton says. “The Falcon says, ‘I have so much time for self-reflection in the relative quiet wind of the sky; the private music inside my head when I’m there is the music of flying.’ Josh is so smart because most of the time when you focus on flying, writers focus on the spectacle of the experience, but what about the sounds a superhero hears in the sky? Following that line, we perform ‘The Falcon,’ which is this transcendent piece of music that allows the audience to experience what it sounds like for a bird to soar through the sky.”

“The play asks great questions about our lives and who we are,” Hart says. “Ronald hadn’t seen The Falcon and The Winter Soldier, and watching the show was deeply moving for him; getting to see a black Black man be a superhero with emotional intelligence, empathy, and strength, and the recognition that I had seen those qualities in him, was really beautiful.”

When asked who the show’s target audience is, the creators of The Falcon replied that it is the perfect show for Marvel fans of all ages. “It’s for fans ages 8 to 80,” Hamilton says. “The music is very sophisticated but super energetic, so people of all ages will enjoy it, and it’s not nearly as long as an opera.” 

“The big thing about this play is that anyone, regardless of gender, culture, or sexuality, can be anything they want to be,” Hartwell says. “Kids should strive to achieve their dreams without the judgment of our society, which is obviously there, and about the importance of respecting nature and honoring our heroes; all that in a one-hour play that is also a love letter to the Marvel comics with live chamber music!”

The Falcon runs May 4–13 at various locations and times. Find more information at coloradochamberplayers.org.