Plot and Creation: Grounded

The Play Grounded by George Brant

Jeanine Tesori’s opera is closely based on George Brant’s eponymous play, which premiered in 2012 and eventually opened at the Public Theater in New York City in a production directed by Julie Taymor and starring Anne Hathaway. But there are several differences between Brant’s original play and his libretto for the opera. Most obviously, Grounded was written as a one-woman play—that is, no other characters appear in the action of the work. Some are mentioned and ventriloquized by the protagonist, like her husband Eric, the Commander, and the Sensor, but none speak themselves. The main character also remains unnamed in Brant’s play; whereas she is identified as Jess in the opera, she is only the Pilot in the play.

In addition to including Eric, the Commander, and the Sensor as fully fledged characters, some even with their own arias, the opera deviates from its source text in the creation of Also Jess, who embodies Jess’s split psyche. Further, in the play, the Pilot and Eric spend three days together at his cabin after meeting at a bar, rather than just one night; Eric works at a hardware store and not as a cattle rancher; and the Pilot stays in touch with Eric while away on a mission via webcam, and even informs him of her pregnancy while she is still abroad. Other aspects of the play remain—for example, a mall scene, Eric’s attempts to teach his wife to “clap off” her workday, and the vision of American soldiers dying that drives Jess to single-mindedly focus on her mission to eliminate the Serpent (called Number Two in the play).

The play Grounded also incorporates a number of scenes that did not find their way into the opera. In one instance, the Pilot goes through an extended training process in which she first learns to operate the Reaper drone she has been assigned to fly. In another, she and Eric attend a couples counseling session—an event merely suggested in the opera. The opera also puts dramatic emphasis on Jess’s car crash, after which she wanders into the desert at night and encounters a chilling scene of white crosses buried in the sand. In the play, the Pilot never crashes her car but instead drives directly into the desert—almost as a routine—to visit these unmarked graves, a clear symptom of her ongoing dissociation.

Act I

Jess appears, led by a prison guard while a fighter squadron chants. An accomplished F-16 fighter pilot, she has waged war in Iraq, finding freedom in the skies. While on leave, she frequents a local bar near Warren Air Force Base in Wyoming. There she meets Eric, a cattle rancher, who nearly gets himself into trouble with the airmen at the bar. He and Jess make an unexpected connection, and she spends the night at his cabin.

Back in the cockpit, Jess becomes distracted during a flight mission as her thoughts wander back to Eric. She is also nauseated. Jess realizes that she is pregnant and informs the Commander, who encourages her to have an abortion. Jess refuses and returns to Eric’s cabin to deliver the unexpected news.

Five years pass. Eric reflects on the birth of their daughter, Sam. Jess, meanwhile, yearns to return to combat. She seeks out the Commander, who offers her the opportunity to operate a missile-carrying Reaper drone, requiring her to work from a remote base outside Las Vegas. She and Eric decide to make the move. She takes her place in an air-conditioned trailer next to the Sensor—a 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.

At their home, Eric—who has taken a new job as a blackjack dealer at a local casino—sings Sam to sleep. Jess and the Sensor complete their second mission.

Act II

Jess takes Sam to the mall to purchase a new dress for school picture day. Besieged by salespeople, she becomes increasingly paranoid, suspecting that she and Sam are being followed by security cameras. As the mall fades away, Jess finds herself back in the trailer with the Kill Chain. They pursue a suspected enemy combatant, and Jess is disappointed when another team reaches the target first. She then realizes that the casualties are in fact American troops and swears to avenge their deaths. She begins to dissociate, her psyche splitting into an alternate self called Also Jess.

Back at home, Eric tries to joke with Jess, but she remains cold and distant—unable to “clap off the game.” Jess and the Sensor meet with the Commander, who gives them their new assignment: They are ordered to track and eliminate a notorious enemy target known as the Serpent. Jess soon becomes obsessed with her prey, a mysterious figure who drives incessantly through the desert, never leaving his car and preventing himself from being positively identified and eliminated. As she pursues the Serpent, Jess begins to imagine herself as the target. One night, driving alone, Jess nearly collides with an oncoming car; she crashes, exits the vehicle, and wanders into the desert. There, she comes upon a bizarre and haunting site: a huge field of unmarked white crosses hammered in the sand.

1961
Jeanine Tesori is born in Port Washington, New York.

1969
George Brant is born in Park Ridge, Illinois.

1983
Tesori graduates from Barnard College with a degree in music.

1991
Brant graduates from Northwestern University with a degree in acting.

1995
Tesori makes her Broadway debut as the dance-music arranger for a revival of How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying.

1997
Tesori composes the score for Violet, an Off-Broadway musical. She wins an Obie Award for the work, which also garners a New York Drama Critics’ Circle Award for Best Musical and Lucille Lortel Award for Outstanding Musical.

1999
Tesori contributes incidental music to a production of Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night at Lincoln Center Theater, directed by Nicholas Hytner. She wins the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Music in a Play and receives her first Tony Award nomination for Best Original Score.

2000
Tesori composes the score for the musical theater adaptation of Thoroughly Modern Millie. The show transfers to Broadway in 2002, and Tesori earns her second Tony Award nomination for Best Original Score.

2004
Tesori composes the score for the musical Caroline, or Change, with a book by playwright Tony Kushner. She receives her third Tony Award nomination for Best Original Score.

2006
Tesori contributes incidental music to a production of Bertolt Brecht’s Mother Courage and Her Children, in a new translation by Kushner.

2008
Brant graduates with an M.F.A. in Writing from the Michener Center for Writers at the University of Texas at Austin.

Shrek the Musical opens on Broadway with music by Tesori, earning her a third Tony Award nomination for Best Original Score.

2011
Tesori’s one-act opera A Blizzard on Marblehead, with a libretto by Kushner, premieres at the Glimmerglass Festival.

2012
Brant’s one-woman play Grounded wins the National New Play Network’s Smith Prize and is produced at the San Francisco Playhouse and the Borderlands Theater in Tucson.

2013
Fun Home, a musical based on illustrator Alison Bechdel’s eponymous memoir with music by Tesori, premieres at the Off-Broadway Public Theater. The following year, the work is named a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for Drama. In 2015, Fun Home opens on Broadway, ultimately winning Tony Awards for Best Musical and Best Original Score.

The Lion, the Unicorn, and Me, a family opera by Tesori with a libretto by J. D. McClatchy, premieres at Washington National Opera.

Brant’s play Grounded wins the Fringe First Award at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival and is produced at the Gate Theatre in London. The play subsequently receives over 175 productions in 24 different countries and is translated into 16 languages.

2015
Grounded opens at the Public Theater in a production directed by Julie Taymor and starring Anne Hathaway.

2019
Tesori’s opera Blue, with a libretto by Tazewell Thompson, premieres at the Glimmerglass Festival, followed by productions at Dutch National Opera and English National Opera.

2021
The musical Kimberly Akimbo, with a score by Tesori, opens Off Broadway. It wins the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Musical, Lucille Lortel Award for Outstanding Musical, and New York Drama Critics’ Circle Award for Best Musical. In 2022, the production transfers to the Booth Theatre on Broadway and garners Tony Awards for Best Musical and Best Original Score, marking Tesori’s sixth nomination and second win.

2023
The opera Grounded, commissioned by the Met and developed by the Metropolitan Opera / Lincoln Center Theater New Works Program, premieres at Washington National Opera.

2024
Grounded premieres at the Met, opening the company’s 2024–25 season.