Flight 202

PAUL OSBORN FLIGHT 202 Paul Osborn received a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1923 from the University of Michigan, where he formed a lasting friendship with poet-in-residence Robert Frost. After receiving an M.A. in Psychology in 1924, he taught rhetoric at the University for two years. In the decades that followed he made a rich contribution to the American theater with such plays as The Vinegar Tree; Oliver, Oliver; On Borrowed Time; Morning's at Seven; The Innocent Voyage; A Bell for Adano; Point of No Return; Maiden Voyage; and The World of Suzie Wong. His best-known screenplays are Madame Curie; The Yearling; Portrait of Jennie; East of Eden; Wild River; South Pacific; and Sayonara. This short play, previously unpublished and unperformed, dates from the 1960s. Mr. Osborn, who is 86, lives in New York with his wife Millicent. MQR wishes to thank Kent Paul for bringing Flight 202 to our attention. Before the lights go up, we hear, in the darknessPUBLIC ADDRESS SPEAKER: All passengers for Flight Number 564 will please go to Gate Number 5. Flight Number 564 now loading for Paris - Rome - Athens - The lights go up. In an airport waiting room, two men sit in adjoining chairs. We have the feeling of people going to their planes in the surrounding darkness. In one of the chairs sits EDWARD. He is a man in his middle fifties, well-dressed, reserved, obviously a man of substance and some position in the world. In the chair next to him sits GEORGE. He is a small man, probably a workman of some sort, from a different and less affluent and established class than EDWARD. His face is alert and alive, however, in contrast to the reserved and withdrawn face of EDWARD. As the PA speaker con 463 0