The play, Triangle, written and directed by Fremont’s own theater teacher Ms. Patterson is based on Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire in 1911 which took 146 workers’ lives, mostly being young women. The advanced theater class is working to bring this production to live with the performing dates being March 13th and 14th.
Unlike other plays Triangle doesn’t have a linear progression, throughout the show the story “resets’” to the beginning allowing for a new point of view for each character. Most characters are a culmination of the victims stories, with the exception of a reporter William Shepherd who gave a real time report over the phone.
Triangle involves a multitude of moving parts that includes three triangle platforms (with the nights of 6,2ft, 4’10ft and 3’1ft) and wooden blocks that are moved throughout the show. There’s many times where actors rush on and off stage taking benches and moving platforms as they go. With 33 students in the play there’s a part for everyone.
“It’s very, very ensemble heavy so it gives a lot of opportunity for the whole class” Ms. Patterson says.
Opening scene of Triangle. 
Addison Koford jumping off six foot platform.
It’s important to have chemistry with your acting partners in a play like this, especially when you trust fall from 6’2ft in the air. Addison Koford plays the character Sarah, a resilient young woman who is dedicated to her work at the factory. Near the end of the play, Sarah has to make the hard decision of jumping from a window to escape the flames. This is done by climbing a platform of 6ft and relying on 7 of her peers to catch her.
Addison Koford reflects on this experience saying, “It’s so scary, it’s so tall, I haven’t even fell from the tallest platform but falling from the 4ft one is scary!”
Ms. Patterson shares that Triangle wasn’t written through the traditional means of sitting down at a computer and furiously typing, but instead through college peer colaportation and improvisation. Patterson decided to publish her play after she originally wrote it in college. “We were in a room and I had 9 actors. It was kinda their development of the characters themselves. We would just improv and say lines until we finally got to the point where the characters were developed.”
She goes on to say that instead of having a pre-written script which the characters are
based on, it’s the other way around.
Although the publishing is still a work in progress, it was a great performance to watch March 13th and 14th.
