STAGING AN EXPEDITION: Big Dawg explores humor and history with ‘Men on Boats'

Chase Harrison
2 days ago
6 min read

Three sturdy, small wooden ships whip and rag doll down the winding rapids of the Colorado River. Their inhabitance, fearless explorers of the 1860s, grasping to these vessels for dear life, violently crashing from side-to-side within them, at Nature’s mercy. One boat’s team hollers out to another, trying to have their voices rise above the roaring rapids; they warn of rocks jetting out from the freezing river waters like near invisible thorns! The expedition’s leader, John Wesley Powell, cries out to his men, “LEFT! Keep Left!” His last word leaves his lips, a warning and damnation, “ROCKS!”

The next sound heard though calms the raging rapids and eases the nerves of the exacerbated explorers. “That looks incredible!” The voice of Beth Swindell perks up, “It’s really taking shape. Okay so, let’s take it back to the top and we’re going to run that again but this time with the score playing against it.” The 10-woman cast acknowledges their director and finds their places for the top of the show. Swindell, who is directing Big Dawg Production’s upcoming offering "Men on Boats" cries out to her cast, “Oars Up! Oars Out!” In unison the phrase is echoed back to the director by her cast as Thursday night’s rehearsal continued.

And there I was, to document this theatrical expedition on its last leg, before the production reached its destination, opening night on May 14. Prior to witnessing the controlled chaos of canoeing, in the back offices of Big Dawg Productions. Swindell and three of her motley maidens sat down with me to discuss the production, what they hope audiences get out of it, and most importantly the sense of adventure they have gotten out of the show itself.

Swindell, who’s taken up the director reins for "Men on Boats" a second time now, spoke on her own history with the production. “I can’t say enough about Steve Vernon and Big Dawg, I come to theater from a dance background. I’m a musical theater person. Steve brought the show to me the first time because it does require a sense of movement; and not in a blocking or choreography sense, but in controlled movement. The show is really physical and everything I come to in this art form involves the body, and how your body can translate art on to a stage. Steve was like I think you’d be really good for this.”

Swindell elaborates, “Movement, to me, is a principal element of everything you do on stage. Here we have the task of creating the rapid. Now we don’t have rapids, we don’t have boats, but we need to show the audience these boats going down the river, hitting rocks, going over waterfalls! That’s where I really brought in more of my dance background, this stylized design of movement on the rapids.”

“Allow me to add…” Cast member, Maria-Luisa Winslow interjects with “VERY stylized.” The room erupts in laughter.

Swindell looks over the three cast members with her, beaming a smile of pride telling them directly, “You all are extremely funny. I’m laughing at things I didn’t even see, and I’ve read the script a bazillion times.” Swindell goes on to detail that sense of sisterhood found among the all-woman cast. “There is something about working in a space with ten women and having that collective that was so…” Swindell stops, caught in a memory, she reminisces for a moment, “When Steve asked me to do this show again, I just started crying. I am not kidding. He says to me I want to do 'Men on Boats' again; would you direct it? I literally start tearing up right then and there. I had just moved back from London, so what a great welcome back right?”

Also returning to accompany Swindell on her second voyage with this production is the always elegant Erin Hunter. Hunter was aboard the cast back in 2019 in the role of Dunn. In this iteration, Hunter brings her immense talent to the role of Old Shady. “I think it’s very fascinating to be directed, in the same show by the same director, and watching you (Swindell) evolve. Hunter adds “The first time you had a ton of insight and a ton of enthusiasm for the script, and we had a good cast. I just feel that this time you have experienced more life and you have brought in more smaller details, that I don’t even think you had thought about during that first run.”

Swindell takes her friend’s words to heart, “Thank you. I have ten of the most talented and fearless people, regardless of gender identification, that I am working with on this and they are all extremely talented, and just get my vision, get what I’m going for, they just get… it.”

Maria-Luisa who is playing the role of O.G. says of the director, “From the get-go, Beth’s priority was to make a very welcoming set and to have us all bond in a safe space. I came into this knowing it would be a very physical show, and first you have to feel comfortable with one another, to me that makes an enormous difference.” Winslow looks over to her Captain on this journey and tells her “You (Swindell) are the most conscientious, loving director, always making sure that we all feel safe and ready to go.”

Blake Carter, who plays the role of Sumner, an ex-solider on the expedition, mentions the sense of community she got from being a part of this production. “I needed connection right now more than anything and being in a space where the… Beth you said something early on in rehearsal that you wanted this show to be in your own bodies.” A smile appears across Swindell’s face as Carter recounts, “That made so much sense to me, and I was able to find that in this space with everyone, in our celebration of womanhood. That allowed me to find the role without having to worry about judgement.”

On the technical side of the show, Swindell is incorporating new elements, not featured in her last interruption of the text. One she is quite proud of is the original score that will undertone moments. “I had this idea that I wanted to add a sound element to the play. I was so honored and grateful that Justin Lacy (local genius musician) agreed to write original music for scenes. The cast keeps joking I’m trying to turn this into a musical, I’m not, however it is tech heavy.”

To help her traverse the traitorous terrain of technical theater, Swindell has enlisted the best of help. “Cole Marquis and I have designed and plotted the lights, and he’s been amazing with that. I had a specific set design in mind, I really wanted it to be an immersive adventure for the audience, so Terry Collins has collaborated with me on that.”

Swindell returns to geeking out over the script, “Oh so, Jaclyn Backhaus, the writer, she is so cool. This script is true to the history it’s based on, there are verbatim lines that are from Powell’s journals. Most the men featured in the play have had journals published about this expedition. Backhaus pulled from those in her adapting of the script.” Swindell adds “It’s very historically accurate, but Backhaus does find places to throw in the humor and highlight the points and themes she is trying to make.”

Swindell, who possesses that adventurer spirit herself, recounts the effect directing the play had on her. “I have actually gone and retraced most of the route that the story travers. After I directed the show for the first time, I fell in love with the history of it. So, for my birthday I took myself out to area where the play is set. I rode on the rivers; I walked the trails. I was just really captured by it all.”

The director takes a deep breath in remembrance and lets it out, “If you have ever been to Arizona, Southern Utah, any of those areas, it is a very profound place. Its palpable, the awe of that land. This time around, everything I did was really informed by those places and the importance of that land.”

The slightest of welled-up tear appears in Swindell’s eye, as she adds “I can’t tell you how happy I am to get to do this show again. Certain shows you want to leave in their time and place and be happy it’s there. This one, this one though, yes, let me at it again, I got more I can bring to it.”

And like explorers setting off to unmapped lands, Swindell and her cast left our interview to begin their rehearsal. Get ready to grab an oar and hop aboard Big Dawg’s "Men on Boats." It’s time to find your adventurer spirit!