Treat Williams, Actor, is best known for his work in motion pictures, television, and the stage. But he has three other very important titles: Father, Pilot, and Children?s Book Author. All titles, combined, have resulted in a picture book called ?Airshow,? which is beautifully illustrated by Robert Neubecker and published by Disney Hyperion (2010).
Disney Dads met up with Treat Williams in Great Barrington, Massachusetts, where he was rehearsing for a stage performance that was part of a fundraising gala for Berkshire Playwright?s Lab. The rehearsal was in between appearing in a television series in New York City (?White Collar,? USA Network) and spending time with his family and flying airplanes in Vermont, where he lives.
He shared with us how, as a kid, he became enthralled with flying, and he told us about his next flying book for children, which is now coming into focus in his mind.
?When I was a kid of six or seven, my father built this extraordinary toy for me. It was basically a very large suitcase inside which he had installed an electrical plug and all kinds of bells and whistles. When it was open, it looked like the cockpit of an airplane. He even put in a fan so that it whirred when you turned it on.
?I have a picture of it somewhere. I want to try to dig it out ? we just moved all our things to Vermont, so everything is still in boxes. But I do have a picture somewhere of my sister and me at the controls of our box, wearing helmets that we had seen advertised on cereal boxes.
?For me, that toy is my ?Rosebud.? It elicited in me such joy and excitement as a kid. It was made with care. My dad was a businessman, and he had this wonderful ability to, every once in a while, build us something that sparked our imaginations. One time, he built us some miniature box kites. They were very small and made of balsa wood and toilet paper. They were so small that they needed almost no wind to fly. And they flew beautifully.
?As a kid, I was fascinated with flying. I had fantasies and dreams about flying. I remember driving my tricycle and thinking that if I went fast enough I would achieve lift-off.
?Over the last 30 years, being in the cockpit of an airplane has elicited that same feeling in me as when I was a kid sitting in front of that suitcase and imagining myself flying. I still get that same joy and excitement every time I fly.
?So I went to Robert [Neubecker] and asked him, ?Why don?t we do a picture book about airplanes?? I was hoping to evoke the feelings I had as a kid about airplanes in other small kids.
?The book is my love letter to the lifetime of real joy I?ve had with airplanes. But first and foremost, it?s a picture book. Robert?s drawings are larger than life. I think of it really as his book. The pictures really capture the joy of what it?s like to be in an airplane.
?I would love to write another flying book for children.
Williams explained that he has not started writing the next book yet but that the idea is coming into focus more and more. This time, he wants to write a father/daughter book about flying airplanes. It?s inspired partly because he is currently building a plane with some friends of his.
?The story idea is that Ellie, my daughter, learns to fly. She is 13. Thematically, I really want to incorporate failure into the story. It would be a metaphor for the process of learning. You learn in steps, and sometimes there are setbacks.
He added that piloting planes has always been one place in his life where he felt he was immune to anyone?s criticism. He says an actor?s successes in film and television are sometimes ?nebulous.? For example, actors may feel they were really successful at something, but the critics disagree.
Williams likes the metaphor of success and flying ? and the process of learning to fly ? in terms of his daughter?s place in life at the age of 13. ?Emotionally, like any 13-year-old, she?s all over the map. I would love to see her learn to fly.?
Watching Ellie grow up, Wiliams knows from having a son, Gill, who is seven years older than Ellie, that children don?t ever really grow up and leave. ?They fly off and come back.?
A nice thought. Life as a series of round trip adventures.
Related posts:
- Lookin? Good in the Fatherhood
- Treat Your Child?s Artwork Like Fine Art
Source: http://www.disneydads.com/treat-williams-fatherhood-a-flight-of-fancy/
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