John Dueck and team had the raft
ready early into rehearsals. As much as I loved the raft, it posed new
problems. The raft was so crowded, as it should have been, that we struggled
with staging so the audience could see the actors. It didn’t take long to
realize they could not all be sitting down at the same time. It did not look
interesting at all. There had to be some stair stepping from front to back.
Movement was going to be limited, but we could not leave the cast in one place
the entire play. They had to change positions. Even knowing that, some people
moved very little. We would have to let a few carry the weight of physical
action.
The Bell family always had their
place, They were usually stuck in the front stage right corner, the Bo’sen and
George moved around at the back with George standing on one of the benches
probably more than he should have. He anchored the visual height. We had a
dying sailor for part of the play and needed him lying down but struggled with
how get him high enough to be seen. We ultimately seated the captain on the
bench with the sailor’s head in his lap.
Then there was the movement on the
raft. Basically it moved very little. I had suspected that just the team on the
raft would cause it to rock. No! Rocking it would have to be intentional. So
the team had to learn lines and remember to keep the raft rocking. That did not
always happen. I would get so wrapped up in working the lines with them that I
did not notice how little rocking there was. It ultimately changed.
 |
| One of the few photos that shows most of the raft. Some one was always high and the Bell family always near the front. |
The raft it’s self was too low to
the ground. It needed height. I looked at some raft photos and noticed some had
a makeshift mast made out of a pole of some kind and a piece of canvus. That
helped. It also made sense as a way to collect rainwater. The actual raft came with a limited water supply,
but with nineteen days floating in the Atlantic they needed more.
The only time we really got that
raft to really move was a storm scene. The movement always led to the raft
smacking the stage at the carious corners. The sound effects and the noise of
the action usually covered that noise. You could only hear it on wooden stages.
It looked cool.
Just staging the play was very
time consuming. The actors had input as we tried one thing and then another. The
script keep changing as well. I loved the process of refining the play and
putting it together as a group.
 |
| Another example of trying to get the staging so the audience could easily see.. |
When the play was mostly together,
it was time to sell my idea. I should say ideas! I wanted to fly Bob and Ruth
Bell in from New York and Mary and Elmer Wittbeck in from Lincoln, Nebraska.
Also, I wanted to put them up in a hotel and feed them for two days. I wanted
the premiere to include them and be huge. I was convinced it would be a big
deal for the school and the city.
Then if we did that, I wanted the
tour to extend to both their cities and end at LIFE ‘80. I knew I was pushing
my luck but it was time to get it all out in the open and begin the planning.
The College Board made the final decision and everything was a go. I was
walking on air.
Mel Bowker had written the score
for No Time for Tombstones and I
needed one for Adrift. We use music
for all the scene changes. Dale Dirksen had writing some music and one piece in
particular resonated with me. It was very plaintive. So I approached him to
begin coming to the rehearsals, get to know the moods and feel, watch the
transitions occur and see what he could do. He did a beautiful job. I wanted to
give the audience the feel of long days and nights and the enormous solitude of
drifting with no direction and wondering if they would ever be rescued. His
music was perfect and gave of a long section with no words, just sitting and
looking with longing and wondering about their future. We combined a verbal
description over some musical transitions. Mrs. Anna Rose recorded it for us.
The voice was perfect. The music was perfect.
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