A new play by
Barbara Kahn
Directed by Robert Gonzales Jr. and Barbara Kahn
The Three-Mile Limit dramatizes a voyage aboard a transatlantic ocean liner in 1927. Real-life and fictional characters reflect the diversity of the passengers and crew. Conflicts resulting from class and ethnic differences, race relations and sexual identity come to life in the play.
Featuring Kendra Augustin, Danielle Aziza, Steve Barkman, Robert Gonzales Jr., Ruby Hankey, Robert Homeyer, Micha Lazare, Sarah Teed and Steph Van Vlack.
Set design by Mark Marcante
Lighting design by Shawna Cathey
Costume design by Everett Clark
Sound design and operation by Joy Linscheid
Graphics design by Virginia Asman, illuminage studio
Photography by Joe Bly
Stage manager Bill Bradford.
Alla Nazimova, famous star of stage and film; Florence Mills, African-American singer, dancer and actress returning from a triumphant European tour; Beniamino Gigli, popular Italian tenor looking forward to playing New York’s Carnegie Hall; a young woman from Russia wondering if her husband from an arranged marriage who had emigrated five years earlier will meet her on arrival; an American crew member who has been living a lie; and a wealthy Southerner traveling with his mistress who still hopes for marriage and respectability. With memories of Walter Winchell, Louella Parsons and Dolly Wilde. The interaction of these characters reveals the conflicts and prejudices of the time and place.
Gigli: When I sing into the wind, she sends my voice back to me, and it’s like singing a duet with myself. When I sing with the wind, she sends my song to soothe the creatures under the sea.
Florence: I’m exhausted. The doctors say it’s because of singing too much. That’s like telling me it’s because of breathing too much.
Alla: What would you have me do? Cry? Tear out my hair? Keen in mourning for my movie career? I am made of sterner stuff. My life will never become a Chekhov play.
Rina: They say that two people can learn to love each other after the wedding.
Albert: It isn’t no good dreaming for someone like me. It leads to unhappiness when your dreams don’t come true.
Mack: I‘m like any other self-respecting gentleman who meets a woman like you. The women in my set care about going to the opera and being seen wearing the latest clothes. But they’re the ones we marry. You’re for fun, Marge. Just for fun.
Marge: I don’t know you when you get like this, when you drink.
Announcer: Bienvenue à bord de La France de la Mer. Welcome aboard La France de la Mer, the most modern of the French fleet of transatlantic ocean liners.
