Unsinkable Women: Stories and Songs from the Titanic

March 7 - March 7, 2005

Created and performed by Deborah Jean Templin

The great ship Titanic sank below the freezing waters of the North Atlantic at 2:20 a.m. on April 15, 1912, with 1500 people still on board. Though it went down 90 years ago, the story still fascinates a vast audience. This new play focuses on the women who survived that night. Their stories of their time on the ship and their lives afterward are startling, funny, unique and moving.

Filled with evocative period music, their stories of that night and the remarkable lives they lived afterwards, this production is startling, funny, triumphant and compelling. Created and performed by Deborah Jean Templin, the show is based on independent research she conducted while playing several women’s roles in the Tony Award-winning musical Titanic. Among the characters Templin plays are an heiress to one of America’s greatest fortunes (Madeline Astor), a stewardess and New York house wife (Daisy Spedden), and of course the feisty and plain-spoken Unsinkable Molly Brown. Templin brings each figure to life through artfully arranged storytelling with elements of dance and songs ranging from vaudevillian turns to the tender ballad Toyland. The two children’s performances will include audience participation and interaction.

Templin is the recipient of the Barrymore Award for Best Actress in a Musical and the Richard Burton Award in Acting. Her first tour of the United States was as Grace Farrell in the hit musical Annie. She has played the lead role of an Auschwitz survivor in Playing for Time and her television and film work includes All My Children, Guiding Light and The Insider.