Flotsam

About the Performance "Flotsam"

“Flotsam”, an installation and shadow play performance premiered at Otter Creek Hall, Mt. Desert Island Maine in the fall of 2009. It is the second in a series of pieces that are focused on the landscape, history and folklore of Mt. Desert Island and sited specifically in various locations on the island at different times of the year. 

 

This "performance installation/visual opera" is structured around a marine disaster that occurred July 25th, 1867 out near Egg Rock in Frenchman's Bay, off the coast of Mt. Desert Island. There is a humble plaque in St. Saviour's Episcopal church in Bar Harbor commemorating the event. It was given to the church in honor of two of the passengers - a Miss Mary Elizabeth Houpt, and a Miss Mary Elizabeth Tazewell - by their students at the Normal School in Philadelphia (Founded as a Teacher's college, it became the High School for Girls.) Nine passengers were returning from Bar Harbor to their lodgings at the Island House in Southwest Harbor, when a gale whipped up and capsized their sloop. All were lost with the exception of one Miss Julia Blake. This is the basis for a whimsical reconstruction that weaves in themes of Darwin and evolution, painting in picturesque America, the three fates, destiny, Victorian hairstyles, chaos, social/cultural events of the 1860's and the accoutrement of undersea exploration. It takes the form of sculptural vignettes, live performance, musical numbers and a shadow play performance.

 

"Flotsam" alternately explores the human impulse to "launch ourselves into the unknown" and honors those who live in proximity to the sea, make their livelihood from it, or may have been "lost at sea".

The work is cast with students, staff and faculty at College of the Atlantic and many other members of the Mt. Desert Island community.

The proceeds of donations benefit the Otter Creek Aid Society.