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BOYERTOWN - For the first time in
history, this town’s greatest tragedy will be re-enacted in “The
Opera House Fire,” a play about the disaster that cost 171 lives
almost a century ago.
Premiering on the 99th
anniversary of the fire, the curtain is set to go up Jan. 13,
2007, at the Odd Fellows Hall, 35 E. Philadelphia Ave.,
practically across the street from where the conflagration
actually took place.
Boyertown resident Dawn Haas Rhude
will direct the play for Town Archive, Inc., a non-profit
company based in Earlville, whose mission is to educate
residents about their communities.
With dialog culled from stories that
appeared in national newspapers of the time, playwright Bernard
J. Colan has written a play that resurrects the humanity within
the raw numbers of men, women and children who lost their lives
as a result of the blaze.
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It was a time when electricity had
been introduced but not yet widely used in public buildings; of
the realization of local fire companies that technology did not
measure up to disaster, and when love and bravery refused to go
up in flames.
Also the director and
owner of Boyertown’s Miracles In Motion Dance School, Haas-Rhude
has decided to use dancers to portray the malevolence and
brutality of the fire. She will work with dialog ripped from the
words beneath the headlines of the yellow press to tell the tale
of tragedy without ignoring the triumph.
Public auditions will be held in
early October for a cast of players that will include eight male
characters, three females, a 10-year-old
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Dawn Haas Rhude, who usually directs dancers in
her Miracles In Motion Dance School in Boyertown, will direct
actors in “The Opera House Fire,” an original drama opening in
January that shows the vitality of love and rebirth among the
ashes of tragedy. |
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girl (with vocals), three performers
with the vocal ability to “rap,” along with a technical and
stage crew.
Actors from the local community are
encouraged to become involved with this historic project, the
only re-enactment for nearly a century after what publications
called “The Boyertown Horror.”
Those interested in the technical
and stage crew positions should sign up as soon as possible so
they can be involved in the planning.
Rehearsals will begin in November,
with performance dates of Jan. 12-13 and 19, 20. For more
information please call 610-367-8022 or surf to
www.townarchive.com/operafire.
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