The Odyssey on Alma
Set aboard a historic schooner and staged as the craft sails the San Francisco Bay, We Players’ new adaptation of The Odyssey exemplifies how, in theater, the marriage of text with place can reinvigorate both.
In autumn 2011, in partnership with San Francisco Maritime National Historical Park, We Players shared episodes of the classic sea story The Odyssey aboard the park’s 1891 scow schooner Alma. Alma’s broad, sturdy deck evoked Odysseus’ sleek black triremes, and helped tell the unlucky sailor’s tale of travel, exploration, and homecoming.
Each performance took place during a three-hour sail on San Francisco Bay, as the cast and crew wove real-time line handling with Homer’s stirring account of weary seafarers striking sail for home.
We Players thanks the San Francisco Maritime National Historical Park and the San Francisco Maritime National Park Association for their partnership in creating this exciting event.
The performances aboard Alma mark the first phase of We Players’ multi-year exploration of the arc of leaving home, journeying, and returning, via Homer’s ancient epic, The Odyssey. This limited engagement event was the first time that We Players charged a ticket price, as we needed to ensure cost recovery for our park partners and ourselves. Thank you audience for filling our sails!
More about The Alma
The Alma is a flat-bottomed scow schooner built in 1891 to haul goods on and around San Francisco Bay. Alma is similar to scows that were launched and sailed on Chesapeake Bay, the Gulf Coast, the Great Lakes, inland rivers, and other coastal waters of the United States. No scow schooners save Alma are known to survive afloat in the United States. In 1988, she was designated a National Historic Landmark and is now one of the exhibits of the San Francisco Maritime National Historical Park and is to be found moored at the park’s Hyde Street Pier. Visit San Francisco Maritime National Historical Park for more information.
