by Pa Rock
Theatre Fan
This past week I have been hosting an out-of-town friend, a person with whom I worked overseas a few years ago and someone who has a great deal of experience both in traveling and living on the international scene. Murphy has been to my modest home in south central Missouri on a couple of previous occasions, and he always finds things of interest to do, but I still make every effort to insure that he has some memorable experiences while he is here. Murphy is well versed in our local tourist sights, and has become a familiar face in area flea markets and other small unique shops, but there has been a signature lack of cultural events to enjoy during the times that he has been here.
This trip, however, we were able to catch the final performance of an extremely well-performed play that was put on by the local high school, and it was an experience that both of us thoroughly enjoyed.
But before I begin a brief discussion of that production, the Triangle Factor Fire Project, I need to provide some personal background because a lot of my own history impacts how I came to regard the overall quality of this local production.
Over the past several years I have been fortunate to live in an assortment of locations in the continental United States while working as a civilian social worker at various military bases and locations. I also resided for two years doing that same work in Okinawa, Japan, where Murphy and I were colleagues. My travels in life have taken me to England, Sweden, Russia, across most of Asia, as well as several countries in Central America and much of the Caribbean - including a week in Cuba.
Throughout those adventures one of the constants in my life was an on-going appreciation of theatre. I have enjoyed plays on London's West End, several remarkable performances on Broadway, ballet at the Bolshoi in Moscow, and many fine shows at regional theatres across the United States. In my time I have seen a lot of really great theatre!
And forty years ago, before that life on the road, I spent a couple of years teaching history and speech and drama - and putting on a few truly awful high school plays - about twenty miles north of where I ultimately retired.
All of that background was respectfully provided here to serve as my credentials for making a few remarks regarding the play that Murphy and I attended last Sunday. I have some observations, and I want it known that I am qualified to make those insights.
First, the history.
The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory was a sweatshop where teenage girls, mostly immigrants who spoke little or no English, worked long hours (usually 12-hour shifts) at sewing machines making shirts in cramped conditions. It was located on the top three floors of a large building in New York City. There were two doors in and out of the sweatshop and a narrow staircase connecting the three floors. Of the two doors, one opened inward, and the other was normally locked from the outside during the workday to prevent stealing by employees - although the door being locked was denied by the factory owners and supervisors during the subsequent court trial. A fire broke out in the factory on March 25th, 1911, and due primarily to the limited escape routes, 145 individuals lost their lives either in the smoke and fire, or as a result of jumping from the upper stories of the building.
The Triangle Fire was the worst industrial disaster in U.S. history and it served to heighten demands for increased worker safety and better working conditions. The disaster also became part of the fabric of the on-going suffragette demand for a national women's right to vote, and it led to a strong demand for union representation of workers.
The fire was a significant event in the history of the United States
As a high school history teacher - and later as history teacher with a community college - I lectured on the causes and impact of the Triangle Shirt Factory Fire on several occasions. I probably told the tale of the fire to a couple of hundred students over the years, and today I am confident that most, and possibly all, of those enthusiastic learners have completely forgotten the important knowledge that I tried to impart regarding the tragedy of the fire and its social and economic aftermath.
But today there is a group of thirty or so high school students in West Plains, Missouri, who have been educated on that same facet of American history, and I will wager that forty years into the future, each and everyone of those young people will still have have an intimate knowledge of what went on that awful day back in 1911, why the tragedy occurred, and what social movements were initiated or strengthened because of the sad event.
The students at West Plains will remember that long-ago inferno because they experienced it. They were challenged by a talented director, Andy Hanson - and his assistant, Jennifer Callahan - to absorb and then perform a remarkable script by Christopher Piehler and Scott Alan Evans - and to do it from a variety of perspectives (multiple roles) and with the added challenge of adopting various immigrant dialects as they gave voice to factory workers and other people involved in the awful affair.
The. West Plains Zizzer production of the Triangle Factory Fire Project was amazing - a totally unexpected and mesmerizing performance of a thoroughly researched and extremely well written script. The student actors, in period costumes, gave clear insights into the lives and motivations of not only immigrant sweatshop workers, but also the factory supervisors and owners, lawyers, judges, politicians, reporters, union activists, and suffragettes. They soaked up a slice of real life from urban America in the early twentieth century, and then shared it with a contemporary audience in a realistic and gripping production.
West Plains is a quiet and comfortable place to live, but it is not a community at the forefront of progressive thought or action in America. There is plenty of room for growth in the understanding of topics like the importance of unions in securing worker protections and rights, and in the continuing need for the empowerment of minorities, and women in particular. Those areas of social concern were brilliantly brought to life with this local production of the Triangle Factory Fire Project.
The students and the audience undoubtedly all got more from the show than they had bargained for.
The Triangle Factory Fire Project was more than just a great high school production, it was a brave choice of material for West Plains, Missouri, and it created a powerful learning experience that will likely remain with all involved for many years to come!
Well done, Director Hanson!
Great job, Zizzers!
Theatre Fan
This past week I have been hosting an out-of-town friend, a person with whom I worked overseas a few years ago and someone who has a great deal of experience both in traveling and living on the international scene. Murphy has been to my modest home in south central Missouri on a couple of previous occasions, and he always finds things of interest to do, but I still make every effort to insure that he has some memorable experiences while he is here. Murphy is well versed in our local tourist sights, and has become a familiar face in area flea markets and other small unique shops, but there has been a signature lack of cultural events to enjoy during the times that he has been here.
This trip, however, we were able to catch the final performance of an extremely well-performed play that was put on by the local high school, and it was an experience that both of us thoroughly enjoyed.
But before I begin a brief discussion of that production, the Triangle Factor Fire Project, I need to provide some personal background because a lot of my own history impacts how I came to regard the overall quality of this local production.
Over the past several years I have been fortunate to live in an assortment of locations in the continental United States while working as a civilian social worker at various military bases and locations. I also resided for two years doing that same work in Okinawa, Japan, where Murphy and I were colleagues. My travels in life have taken me to England, Sweden, Russia, across most of Asia, as well as several countries in Central America and much of the Caribbean - including a week in Cuba.
Throughout those adventures one of the constants in my life was an on-going appreciation of theatre. I have enjoyed plays on London's West End, several remarkable performances on Broadway, ballet at the Bolshoi in Moscow, and many fine shows at regional theatres across the United States. In my time I have seen a lot of really great theatre!
And forty years ago, before that life on the road, I spent a couple of years teaching history and speech and drama - and putting on a few truly awful high school plays - about twenty miles north of where I ultimately retired.
All of that background was respectfully provided here to serve as my credentials for making a few remarks regarding the play that Murphy and I attended last Sunday. I have some observations, and I want it known that I am qualified to make those insights.
First, the history.
The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory was a sweatshop where teenage girls, mostly immigrants who spoke little or no English, worked long hours (usually 12-hour shifts) at sewing machines making shirts in cramped conditions. It was located on the top three floors of a large building in New York City. There were two doors in and out of the sweatshop and a narrow staircase connecting the three floors. Of the two doors, one opened inward, and the other was normally locked from the outside during the workday to prevent stealing by employees - although the door being locked was denied by the factory owners and supervisors during the subsequent court trial. A fire broke out in the factory on March 25th, 1911, and due primarily to the limited escape routes, 145 individuals lost their lives either in the smoke and fire, or as a result of jumping from the upper stories of the building.
The Triangle Fire was the worst industrial disaster in U.S. history and it served to heighten demands for increased worker safety and better working conditions. The disaster also became part of the fabric of the on-going suffragette demand for a national women's right to vote, and it led to a strong demand for union representation of workers.
The fire was a significant event in the history of the United States
As a high school history teacher - and later as history teacher with a community college - I lectured on the causes and impact of the Triangle Shirt Factory Fire on several occasions. I probably told the tale of the fire to a couple of hundred students over the years, and today I am confident that most, and possibly all, of those enthusiastic learners have completely forgotten the important knowledge that I tried to impart regarding the tragedy of the fire and its social and economic aftermath.
But today there is a group of thirty or so high school students in West Plains, Missouri, who have been educated on that same facet of American history, and I will wager that forty years into the future, each and everyone of those young people will still have have an intimate knowledge of what went on that awful day back in 1911, why the tragedy occurred, and what social movements were initiated or strengthened because of the sad event.
The students at West Plains will remember that long-ago inferno because they experienced it. They were challenged by a talented director, Andy Hanson - and his assistant, Jennifer Callahan - to absorb and then perform a remarkable script by Christopher Piehler and Scott Alan Evans - and to do it from a variety of perspectives (multiple roles) and with the added challenge of adopting various immigrant dialects as they gave voice to factory workers and other people involved in the awful affair.
The. West Plains Zizzer production of the Triangle Factory Fire Project was amazing - a totally unexpected and mesmerizing performance of a thoroughly researched and extremely well written script. The student actors, in period costumes, gave clear insights into the lives and motivations of not only immigrant sweatshop workers, but also the factory supervisors and owners, lawyers, judges, politicians, reporters, union activists, and suffragettes. They soaked up a slice of real life from urban America in the early twentieth century, and then shared it with a contemporary audience in a realistic and gripping production.
West Plains is a quiet and comfortable place to live, but it is not a community at the forefront of progressive thought or action in America. There is plenty of room for growth in the understanding of topics like the importance of unions in securing worker protections and rights, and in the continuing need for the empowerment of minorities, and women in particular. Those areas of social concern were brilliantly brought to life with this local production of the Triangle Factory Fire Project.
The students and the audience undoubtedly all got more from the show than they had bargained for.
The Triangle Factory Fire Project was more than just a great high school production, it was a brave choice of material for West Plains, Missouri, and it created a powerful learning experience that will likely remain with all involved for many years to come!
Well done, Director Hanson!
Great job, Zizzers!
No comments:
Post a Comment