Food, water and the comforts of home were scarce after Hurricane Katrina ravaged New Orleans, but a group of strangers stranded on an Interstate 10 overpass managed to sustain themselves because they had each other.
Katrina: The Bridge, which made its world premiere Friday at the Wortham Theatre, is an uplifting portrait of people sharing what little they had left after being relegated from one bridge to the next.
Actress Demetria Thomas said the play is written as a slice of life that examines the way humans react in a crisis, as well as the way we recover emotionally through our culture after a natural disaster.
The production is set against a backdrop that allows faint images of Hurricane Katrina and its aftermath to be seen. Each of the characters reflects on aspects of his or her life before the storm, and an accompanying image further illustrates the loss caused to them because of the chaos and destruction.
Ernest (Kendrick Brown), a roughneck with few relatives and fewer friends, had to leave his dogs behind so he could board a boat moving people to higher ground. Pictures of his rottweilers swimming in flood water comment on the countless number of pets left behind.
The multimedia production also includes a shadow dancer, a jazz band and upbeat gospel numbers. Sharon (Demetria Thomas), a high school teacher and mother to a teenage son and daughter, bonds with Ms. Beverly (Stephanie Berry), an elderly woman with diabetes, over an old hymnal each used to sing in their respective churches. The women rouse the others to join in, and the group has a makeshift church service there on the bridge.
Happenstance brings the group together and creates relationship otherwise unlikely.
Based on the true stories collected by Carl Lindahl, playwright Nathaniel Freeman crafted a production that highlights the survivors’ ability to persevere because of their connections. Survivors also shared their testimonies with the cast in preparation for their roles.
"I can remember the school bus driver saying that the frustrated look in everyone’s eyes seemed like a movie. It was very surreal for her to see thousands and thousands of people just waiting," Brown said. "Just sitting and listening to (Katrina survivors) speak on their experiences was unbelievable. I couldn’t believe some of the things that they were saying were happening to them."
Portraying the accurate accounts based on survivor stories, characters must grapple with issues ranging from toileting to a shortage of medicine. Hungry, tired and abandoned, they anxiously wait for someone to rescue them and scoff at policemen and reporters who have been unable to help them.
The production does not intend to point fingers, but it does address the lack of response on the part of the local, state and federal government.
"Because it is such a recent event, I don’t know that we as a country, as a culture, as a society have really decided what went wrong. I don’t know that we’ve had time to think about what really happened," Thomas said. "I want people to know that this moment in history affects all of us."
Katrina: The Bridge runs through Sunday. For more information visit www.theatredance.uh.edu or call 713-743-2929.
