A Ship Remembers

June-July 2003

Artship, formerly the passenger cargo ship Del Orleans, was renamed USS Crescent City and served as a Troop Transport/Combat vessel in WWII. It carried on average 1300 men on board every day throughout the war. That is roughly, 898,000 men.

A Ship Remembers is an attempt at staged "reminiscences", a poetic reconstruction of sailors personal "memory images". It is set in 1944 in the lull before a major battle and the battle's aftermath. Outwardly the play is all about the men on board — ordinary men caught up in the world's history. As a tribute m the "invisible histories" of their inner lives, the play mines fantasies, fears and dreams, and delicately explores the conspicuous absence of the feminine in the all-male societies of ships in the 1940s.

The performance is staged in close collaboration with the cast co-written (and wrought) with Jakob Bokulich. Conceived, directed, choreographed, Slobodan Dan Paich.

Evolved at "Total Theater-Open Rehearsals" of Artship Dance/Theater throughout 2001. 02, 03. Musical director and Cello accompaniment by Suellen Primost.

Gallery

From performances held in cargo hold #1, the 3 story space offering multiple viewing and performing areas.