'Titanic, the Musical!' Comes To Port

In anticipation of next year’s 100th anniversary of the Titanic’s fateful voyage, Upper Darby Summer Stage will present the epic musical, which won five Tony Awards in 1997 including Best Musical, Best Book and Best Original Musical Score. 

Director Marcus Stevens, who created Summer Stage’s production of Ragtime, returns to bring this epic tale as the main stage production for the The musical depicts the maiden voyage of the Titanic and the fateful stories of her passengers and crew as they face their deaths.

“The thing that really grabs me about the play is that it is not a linear story line,”  say Stevens. “There are impressions, like little snapshots of what may have happened or may not have happened. What I like about that is it lends itself to being abstract, like a memory or even dreamlike.”

The play in this dreamlike way with three women called The Moires who are under water. The Three Fates or moires are goddesses that appeared in Roman and Greek mythology who determine the fate of a person.

“They come out and dance a ritual and the audience begins to understand that they are cutting the thread of life, determining the fate of the passengers and crew aboard the Titanic," Stevens explains.

The Moires’ are always in black but they take on different roles, says Stevens, adding, “Because they are spirits, they morph into different characters that appear on the ship. Sometimes they appear as stokers, sometimes they appear as first class women passengers and sometimes they appear as officers. At the end of the first act, we see them cut the thread, the lights go out, and we hear the ship scraping against the iceberg as the audience sits in darkness.”

Harry Dietzler, executive director of the Upper Darby Summer Stage program, says that this production of Titanic “is a big production with big effects, you see the story unfold right before your eyes. It is as much about what you do not see as what you do see. It is told in a bit of a flashback sequence.

“This is a big production with a huge cast, complicated effects and the costumes are intricate as well.”

Many of the cast, some from Haverford Township whose names can be found in the accompanying cast list, get to wear costumes from a veteran costume designer.

Mary Folino is the costume manager for the Titanic production and says, “this is a challenging project," but assures that she is up to the job. For the last seven years, Folino has worked in the costume shop at the Walnut Street Theater and is now the assistant costume shop manager and designer.

For each of the last four years as the Walnut Street theater “goes dark” for the summer, she has been working for Upper Darby Summer Stage.

Folino explains that some costumes are made from scratch and some of the first class passengers and officers’ costumes are rented from a costume shop in New York, while others are rented from The Walnut Street Theater at a deep discount or donated for the show.

“Many of the men’s costumes are borrowed from the Walnut Street Theater’s production of Fiddler on the Roof last year since the costumes are roughly from the same period,” Folino says.

Still other costumes are fashioned using the “shop and chop” method, which means taking a portion of one costume and matching it with another to create a period costume.

Stevens, who is a veteran summer stager himself, started in the children’s theater in 1992 then moved on to main stage productions, acting periodically from 1994 through 2003 until he earned his BFA in Theater Arts from Point Park Conservatory in Pittsburgh. He has been directing productions at Summer Stage since 2000.

Stevens says he often sees himself in the young actors he directs. Two of his favorite roles as a Summer Stager were when he played Aladdin and Prince Charming in one summer, and got to kiss two different girls on stage. “I knew then that I wanted to be an actor.”

In talking about his experiences as a Summer Stager, he says, “It was Summer Stage that showed me how collaborative theatre could be. It was my first experience with the idea that theatre creates a family of people who share in making art together. I knew that was something I could not live without.”

Stevens is also a professional actor, director, playwright and winner of the prestigious Richard Rodgers Award for his musical Red. Marcus has recently performed in The Last Five Years at the Media Theatre and in Fiddler on the Roof at the Walnut Street Theatre. He has also performed at The Pittsburgh Public Theater, Pittsburgh Civic Light Opera, and many others

As a writer, he has collaborated with composer/lyricist Brian Lowdermilk on the Richard Rodgers Award-winning musical Red, as well as the children’s musical Elliot and the Magic Bed. Recently, he collaborated with composer Sam Willmot on the musical Yo, Vikings! which premiered last summer at Upper Darby Summer Stage.

There will be a sneak peek of the opening number and talk back engagement of Titanic, The Musical! Wednesday evening, July 13 7 p.m. to 8 p.m. There is no charge for this event, but you must register. Please register by Monday, July 11.

The evening will include a brief background of little known historical facts by a member of the Titanic Historical Society; creative insights from Stevens; production numbers performed by the cast; and a brief question and answer session—all followed by light refreshments in the lobby.

To register, please click here. Those who have registered will be admitted into the Preview.

For tickets to the Main Stage show of Titantic visit the Upper Darby Summer Stage website, www.udpac.org.