SUMMER OF ‘79 chapter 219

It was time to get serious. I needed (wanted) a new play for the coming school year. I re-read both One Shall Chase a Thousand, the story of Mable Francis and Adrift, the story of missionaries on a raft in the middle of the Atlantic for nineteen days.

I liked the Mable Francis story better: more topical, a recognized individual, a feisty woman and the possibility of a cast with more women. I played around with a plot and outline. While she was under house arrest in Japan during World War II, the conflict was weak. I needed some tension and looked for every potential conflict in the story. I did not believe there was enough to hold interest for a play. It might have worked as a skit, but I could not find an hour’s worth of material so finally turned to Adrift.

Adrift certainly had drama. It was a life and death struggle. I struggled with what to do with the cast of characters. There were 19 sailors, one woman and four children. I was bothered by both the size and lack of female parts. Did I dare do another play with one woman?

The book had more problems than just the potential size of the cast. I figured I could whittle the cast down to van size, but there were many holes in the book. The book was written during the war and way too many things were censored out or just eluded too. There were few real descriptive passages so it was hard to get a clear picture of the people. The most intriguing part of the story was the raft. I loved the idea of nearly the entire cast being on stage for the entire play and that there could be no scene changes.

I decided early that I would begin with the people getting on the raft after the Merchant Marine ship they were traveling home on had been torpedoed. That would keep the play to a single scene. Then I had to whittle down the cast. What was the minimum cast needed to still fit in the van for travel and still make the raft appear crowded? Then I wanted to know what the raft was like? There was one photo in the book of people being rescued from the raft but little was shown and there was only a limited description in the book.

All of that slowed me down. I knew the story had to focus on Mrs. Bell and her two children, one boy and one girl. The sailors were more essential to the story. I dropped the two Shaw children. Mary was 14. I could surely find a girl to play 14. Robert was a bigger problem. He was ten. Because of voice and size he would have to be played by a girl. It helped that while young, he was nearly as tall as his sister Mary.

Mrs. Bells story was already one of tragedy before being on the raft. While on their last furlough, Mr. Bell was hit and killed in a tragic bus accident. She decided to return to the Ivory Coast with her children. Their ship was torpedoed while returning home for the following furlough.

Copy of telegram notification of ship sinking.

I did not write any of the script that summer. I did all that after school began in the fall. I did, however, write several letters to try and get more information. I wrote to the now adult children of Mrs. Bell to explain what I intended to do. Bob Bell was a school principle at Stony Brook on Long Island, New York, and Mary had married Elmer Whitbeck, a pastor on the Back to the Bible radio broadcast out of Lincoln, Nebraska. I wanted more details about life on the raft, what they and others were like, what they wore, what they felt, what they saw, what they experienced. I wanted to know about the raft, food, going to the bathroom. I heard from them and had obviously not convinced them I could rise to the challenge so got very little help. Later phone calls were much more helpful.

I was looking for any descriptions I could get. I contacted the US Navy about the names of ships and what the raft looked like and they sent me photos. This material set my mind racing. I knew the play would work.

Now what sailors would I need? I began whittling away and combining personalities. I had the characters clearly in mind at the beginning of school, at least enough to begin casting. This was going to be a big sales job to the administration. What I wanted to do was going to cost more than Tombstones and at that point I had no idea how big it would get. I just knew I needed support. I love 

Dave Rambo.

Both pictures are of the West Lashaway ship before it was sunk.

I received this photo of a raft like the one in the story. I cannot remember
the size, but there were nineteen people on board.

I have all the photos and historical  documentation in photo files on my Facebook page, You can fine them there if you want to see everything. You will also find notes, articles and related photos. If you are no my friend on Facebook and are interested, send a request to Clyde Walker, Silverton, OR and if I do not now know you note you are a friend through my blog. I do not accept people I do not know. You will find every photo I have of all the years with Portrait plays and several comments made by team members.