Up, Up and Away
Miami Actress Flies High with Latest Role

By Mary Damiano

	Annemaria Rajala in front of the Cessna that helped her prepare for her role as a search and rescue pilot in The Women’s Theatre Project’s production of Ellen McLaughlin’s Tongue of the Bird Photo: Mark Rossmore

In her role in Tongue of the Bird, the new production from The Women’s Theatre Project, Miami actress Annemaria Rajala plays a search and rescue pilot. Ironically, the production’s sound designer Mark Rossmore is a licensed pilot who flies the same kind of plane specified in the play. Rossmore took Rajala up for a flight so she could better prepare for her role.

The pair took off from Opa-locka Airport, the same airport from which Amelia Earhart departed on her last, ill-fated flight.  The plane, a 1970’s-era Cessna 172, was the smallest plane Rajala, a native of Finland had ever been in.

“It was incredible,” said Rajala, who has starred in many productions at New Theatre and was recently in the Mosaic Thetare’s production of Red Light Winter. “I almost felt like I had wings on my back. You sit very tightly;.there really is no room to move around.  You can almost get a feeling of floating in the air when you look down from the window.”

The weather was beautiful during the hour-long flight, and Rossmore took Rajala towards Miami Beach and flew along the coastline and descended to 500 feet over the ocean. As they flew, Rajala asked Rossmore many questions relating to her character and about being a pilot in general.

“Mark was extremely patient with me,” Rajala said. “He explained everything in great detail, from the preparation to the actual flying, all the technicalities, the switchboards.  I had a million questions; I wanted to know everything, and Mark answered all of my questions. He, himself, was a very calm and relaxed pilot, not once did I have to fear for my life. I am afraid of heights.”

Tongue of the Bird by Ellen McLaughlin concerns Maxine,played by Rajala, a search-and-rescue pilot, who is desperately seeking a missing young girl.  Haunted by visions of her dead mother, and the lost girl, Maxine struggles to come to terms with her forgotten past. 

	Actress Annemaria Rajala prepared for he role as a pilot in Tongue of the Bird by taking flight in the same kind of plane specified in the play Photo: Mark Rossmore

As Rossmore piloted the plane over Key Boscayne and Stiltsville, the group of Prohibition-era houses built in the middle of Biscayne Bay, he gave Rajala insight about her character.

“Keeping the plane low and slow, I demonstrated search and rescue-style rectangular and spiral patterns, explaining that even from this low altitude one needs sharp eyes to spot a human being,” Rossmore said, who is studying to be an air traffic controller. “Annemaria’s character would have had to look for the glint of metal rather than an actual form in the forest. Out in the water, to spot a human head you’d need to find something the size of a volleyball amidst the ocean waves; challenging work by any measure.”

Heading back toward Opa-locka Airport, Rossmore let Rajala get a feel for the controls.

“At first, she said no,” Rossmore said. “But after I assured her I would be following her every move with my hands on my own set of controls, she seemed more confident and took her wheel in hand, 1,000 feet over Miami Beach. I explained to her that a light plane needs to be flown gently, just soft turns and gentle climbs and descents. She was very surprised at how little movement of the wheel it took to make the plane respond, and I explained that Cessnas are extremely stable and forgiving. While many people think pilots fly with some kind of “death grip” on the controls, I demonstrated that most flying is actually done with just a light touch of fingers and thumb on the yoke. She did well and was far more relaxed than some others I’ve taken up.”

“Mark let me take the controls and actually fly the plane for a while, so I got to feel what is was really like, nothing like I imagined,” Rajala said. “The plane requires minimal movement. I got to physically see what it would be like to search for something, where to look, and the distance. Mark also explained what meters to follow on the control board and what types of search patterns are common. After this experience I will be able to bring the truth to the stage, not just something I imagine.”

The flight proved insightful for the actress and the pilot.

“It gave me incredible insight,” said Rajala. “There are numerous scenes that take place in the plane. It was amazing that the plane was exactly like Maxine's plane in the play.”

“It’s always exciting taking someone up for the first time, because you never know how they’ll react,” said Rossmore. “From where I was sitting, Annemaria looked like a professional pilot: calm, relaxed, focused, always looking at the world outside the cockpit, just like her character. She even had the sunglasses down.”