Steve Carroll’s background and growth as an artist

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Mr. Carroll has been a professional actor since 1977. He is a member of Actors Equity Association and SAG-AFTRA. He has spent the last 40 years performing in professional theatres, feature films, TV movies and commercials, daytime dramas and industrial films.

Inspired with the desire to create a one-person show for himself, he embarked several years back on researching and writing “Charles Lindbergh: The Lone Eagle,” a two-act play based on the life of this fascinating American icon. Honing his talents as a writer for this project has contributed greatly not only to the development of the play, but also to widening his skills as an artist.

 

How the play has grown

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Audiences from every age group and walk of life embrace the play. Everyone relates to the thrill of flight and how it has shaped and shrunk our world, bringing us closer together.

 

Older generations have specific memories of Lindbergh’s indelible impact on the nascent aviation industry, the kidnapping and murder of his firstborn son, and the controversial stand he took against entering World War II. Younger generations relate to his devotion to the environment and his efforts to save forests and endangered animals in his later years. Following many performances of the play, Mr. Carroll has encountered audience members brimming with reminiscences, facts, and stories about Lindbergh, which, after verifying them, he has incorporated into the play.

 

Surprisingly, even though Lindbergh has been dead since 1974, more and more information has come to light about him, which have been included in the play — particularly the three secret families he kept in Germany, which have only surfaced within the last few years.

 

Why “Charles Lindbergh: The Lone Eagle” succeeds

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First, the play is a compelling work of drama that examines the life of an adventurous pioneer who revolutionized and legitimized the aviation industry. It also serves as a valuable history lesson for anyone interested in the social and political issues that led to World War II and the devastating impact that science and industry can have on the earth’s irreplaceable resources. In addition, it focuses on the double-edged sword of celebrity; how a man can bask in its glory one minute, while the next he can lose his privacy, his home, even his own child — as evidenced in the kidnapping and murder of Lindbergh’s firstborn son.

 

Lindbergh’s is a story of a man whose overwhelming obstinacy and stubborn adherence to his convictions almost irreparably destroyed his reputation. When he opposed entering World War II, he was wrongly accused of anti-Semitism and having Nazi sympathies, two stains that he neither deserved nor did he work hard enough to remove. Finally, his extensive travels in his later years to other countries as a consultant and military adviser led to long and trying separations from his wife Anne, resulting in extra-marital affairs by each, which nearly wrecked their marriage and family. These are all components for a gripping evening of theatre.