“From the Fire”: The 100th Anniversary of the Triangle Fire

1911: The Triangle Shirtwaist Fire. A heartbreakingly preventable tragedy in New York.

2011: The Triangle Shirtwaist Fire Centennial. The Judson Street Church, Washington Square, New York City. Two blocks away.

Tonight I had the pleasure of spending an hour in the fierce embrace of socially passionate artists. The Eugene Lang College of The New School Production  of the commemorative oratorio, “From the Fire,” created by Composer Elizabeth Swados, Director and Writer, Cecilia Rubino, Poet and Labor Organizer, Paula Finn, and Bonnie Roche-Bronfman, Architect and Set Designer, was delivered with enormous moxie and loving kindness by Rubino’s students  in the Theater Program. The company featured 32 actors, yet this epic performance generously conveyed the hopes, dreams, and losses of the 146 people who perished one hundred years ago due to safety violations committed by the Triangle Factory owners.

The dignified performance evoked a range of feelings—anger, humor, and sadness among them, but it avoided the maudlin, and as a result celebrated the lives of these immigrant workers, who placed their faith in becoming Americans. Swados’ music offered a haunting range of emotions, and the powerful combination of sound and song guided the audience on a journey through the claustrophobic hum of the sewing machines, to the successful strike of 20,000 women just one month before the fire, to the personal lives of the people who perished, to the fire itself and the workers’ struggle to escape.

Choreographer Eric Jackson Bradley, an adjunct Professor of Theater at Eugene Lang, deserves high praise for developing cinematic bodies-in-motion sequences to propel the drama of the piece. Dramatic lighting and period costumes contributed to the authenticity of the historical moment. The bi-level set by Roche-Bronfman took maximum advantage of the meeting room space to project photographs on the large rear wall and to continually shift the coffin-like parsons-style tables that, carried by the performers, metamorphosed from sewing tables to factory walls, to the elevator as appropriate. Chairs were significant in their absence from Triangle. Clearly, this production effort was served well by numerous artists and professionals, all paying it forward by structuring these one-of-a-kind experiences for the students.

Earlier this week, I linked to The New Yorker’s piece on this play, which closed with Rubino’s poignant observation—“L’dor v’dor,”  a  Hebrew phrase meaning, “from generation to generation.” By the end of the hour, as the students approached the oratorio’s commanding  conclusion, which names and  identifies the victims one last time, the creators have fused present, past, and future, compelling us to take a multidimensional view of history, With their voices crescendoing toward the great high ceiling of the Judson Church, they delivered the recurring punch line—“They will be remembered one hundred years from now” in such a way that the hundred were doubled and tripled, and so made a promise to the future.

A labor organizer I spoke with after the performance mentioned that, usually there are a respectable number of people attending the standard  memorial, but this year, there were hundreds. Today’s performance at the Judson Street Church was sold out. The tragedy has touched a nerve. Maybe in this second century we can get it right. Let’s hope the Eugene Lang students can raise enough money to travel to Edinburgh to spread the message during the summer. It’s a shonda that the artists need to be thinking about a Global triangle, but “From the Fire” makes a dignified contribution to the literature of memorial and its power to heal. You can find out more about global safety conditions for workers at www.sweatfree.org/bcws