A veritable “titanic” build is underway on the stage of the Frances Marion Brown theatre in the form of the set being built for The Oswego Players’ upcoming production of Luke Yankee’s “The Last Lifeboat”.
The play explores the life of J. Bruce Ismay, owner of The White Star Line. An upper-crust Englishman who always did what was expected of him, Ismay went to the best schools, married the right society girl (even though he was in love with someone else) and vowed to his staunch, unfeeling father on his deathbed that he would take over the family shipping business and build the biggest, most opulent ship the world had ever seen: the RMS Titanic.
The production featuring an ensemble cast of twelve will run weekends July 14 through 23 at the Frances Marion Brown Theatre at Fort Ontario, Oswego, NY. Friday and Saturday night curtain times are at 7:30PM, with Sunday matinee times at 2PM. Tickets are $15 for adults, $10 for students and seniors. Reservations may be made by calling 315-343-5138 or going to https://oswegoplayers.org.
Over the course of three days, the Players’ home stage, basement, and back deck were filled with the sounds of wood being measured, cut, and screwed together into a superstructure of ramps, platforms and stairs. Acting blocks being turned into steamer trunks, with furniture and props brought up out of storage, forming what will be an interesting acting space.
While the plays centers on the sinking of the Titanic and it effects, it does so through the life and the memories of Ismay and those who crossed paths with him. To bring this to the stage, guest director William Edward White’s vision for the production design is a Titanic Museum filled with images and memories that literally cover the walls.
“Ismay survived the sinking of the Titanic, but in so many ways he left her. For the last 25 years of his life he was haunted by those events and how history painted him,” White explained.
We all know the story of how the ship sank…or do we? Ismay saved as many people as he could and finally, with no women and children in sight, he stepped into the last lifeboat…and was branded a coward and traitor forever. The world needed a scapegoat and Ismay became the perfect target.
“So what Navroz Dabu, our show’s scenic designer has given us is a set that at one moment Ismay’s childhood home, the next a party at William Randolph Hearst’s penthouse, the next the promenade of the great ship itself, and finally a lifeboat in the North Atlantic,” the director continued.
While “Lifeboat” is their first collaboration in Oswego, this is far from the first time the director and designer have worked together. Of the 29 shows White has directed over the last 23 years, Dabu has designed seven of them, including 2019’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, which garnered the artist/designer one of his multiple SALT (Syracuse Area Live Theatre) Awards for scenic design, and beginning with The Dragon – which won TANYS’ inaugural BMI Award for Scenic Design in 2007.
To bring all these fevered memories and designs to reality, the construction is in the capable hands of veteran Oswego Players, headed up by Master Carpenter Ken Snow, who has two decades experience pulling off wooden miracles on the stage of the Frances Marion Brown. Working with him are Sonia and Norm Berlin, and Corky Kunzleman.
“I have built too many shows myself, so it is just a wonder to watch this team work. It’s like a well-oiled machine, and suddenly there’s the deck of the Titanic staring back at you,” White said.
The Oswego Players’ production of “The Last Lifeboat” is presented by special arrangement with Broadway Licensing, LLC, servicing the Dramatists Play Service collection.
The set construction crew “The Last Lifeboat” tests out the strength of the railing of the main promenade at the center of the play about the sinking of the Titanic. From left: Master Carpenter Ken Snow, Sonia Berlin, Norm Berlin, and Corky Kunzleman. The play runs weekends July 14 – 23.