Unsinkable Women
The Jena Company, New York, NY
Based on actual diaries, letters and interviews, performer Deborah Jean Templin created a one-woman touring show in which she portrayed nine women who survived the Titanic’s first and only voyage.
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Beginning as an observer to the ship’s departure in a 1912-era skirt, blouse, and boots, Ms. Templin added costumes, accessories, and hair pieces to transform from one character to the next in full view of the audience through carefully choreographed costume changes that were themselves part of the performance.
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Through color, textiles, patterns, and surface ornamentation, the costumes indicated character traits of women ranging in age and affluence from Madeline Astor, the teenage bride of John Jacob Astor, one of the wealthiest men in America, to stewardess Violet Jessop, to Ida Strauss, the elderly wife of Isidor Strauss, the founder of the Macy’s department store.
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