| The Heidi Chronicles: Chapter Two Titanic! |
| Ship of Fools received its name at a time when a lot of teachers and students were concerned as to where the school was headed. It was looking like things were becoming a little more "policed"; several long-time staff had departed, and there was a sinking feeling in the Spring of '94. Those who remained at the school, those who stayed in Dolly, those who still had this place in their hearts were gathered on a metaphorical Ship of Fools, or so it seemed. The general malaise carried itself into the Theatre, so the Drama Workshop set sail with a show that would have a nautical feel to it. The side curtains, or "legs" as they are called in the business, were hoisted up like ship sails; everything was painted a rusty teal color, and many of the scenes had to do with the sea. When Mr. H was young, his mother had a book about the sinking of the Titanic on her shelf. The story always fascinated him when he was a child, and it always seemed a part of him. The sinking of the Titanic seemed a perfect story on which to build a play, so "H" began researching and researching (this was four years before James Cameron, he will tell anyone unfortunate enough to be listening). Why this story had never really made it to the stage was a mystery. The scene almost wrote itself. The yadda "tribe" would come out at the end of the show, wearing masks and bearing white candles. Their white masks would be illuminated by the candleglow, and they would walk slowly on stage and position themselves at various levels, staring at the audience. It was immediately reminiscent of the opening scene from the first Workshop show, Silents. Then, one by one, each would lift his or her mask, and speak a combination of poetry, and actual quotes by the survivors of the Titanic. The language came out beautiful, almost a chilling theatrical poem, which told the story of the great sinking. The lights would go down, stars up (the night the Titanic sank, the stars were dazzling, and shooting stars went on all night), and each survivor or poet would tell the tale. The sound effects were chilling. Ocean sounds mixed with an obscure sound experiment from the famous San Francisco band Jefferson Starship. The piece was called Titanic, and was an eerily accurate work of art. Each night that the cast would rehearse the piece, it would suddenly get cold in the back part of the Theatre, and in the right rear section (house rear, for you theatrical purists), the seats would begin clicking, first slowly, but as the scene moved to a climax, the clicks would come from different seats almost every three to four seconds. As the scene would end, the clicking would calm down, and the rear section would return to a normal temperature. Every night. |
| The Heidi Chronicles, continued... |
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