“One time there was so many jobs.” (go to mins. 49:00-56:25)
“And so we’ve come to the end of your world.”
In a remarkable scene (go to mins. 49:00-56:25) in a play filled with remarkable scenes, Steelbound calls the roll of the jobs that have ceased and the buildings that housed them in those “five miles of buildings.”
Like Walt Whitman in those “Song of Myself” catalogues of American diversity, Steelbound names and ennobles each and every aspect of working life in the mill.
This is a cluster of obituaries culminating in a mass burial.
But there is no whining and mewling.
The voices of the steelworkers as they contribute a tool of their trade to a fire-less funeral pyre are still strong, still proud.
They have laid down their tools, but they have not laid down their lives.
The epitaph is simple, without melancholy, and is about birth not death:
“The first iron was made here on this spot in 1863.”
And the sounds of the mill that frame this ritual requiem are literally a deafening reminder of the almost superhuman power that was BETHLEHEM STEEL.
Gadfly has said that Touchstone Theatre is one of the things that makes Bethlehem special, very special.
Some of you went to the Wednesday film showing of Touchstone’s “Steelbound,” the 1999 play about the closing of Bethlehem Steel that provides the point of reference for “Prometheus/Redux,” the central event of this year’s 10-day “Festival Unbound.”
Let’s see, Holly; Geoff; Ron; Sharon; Kathy; CB, yeah, you were there, CB; Gene; neighbor Mrs. Bader; etc., etc. — a nice crowd.
But many of you weren’t there.
Well, now, you missed something!
But all is not lost >>>>>
In an incredible opening scene — which must have been simply fantastic to watch in the actual old deserted Steel building that acted as the stage — a steelmaker — Prometheus — a man locked in the past now that the Steel has closed — is chained to a huge — I mean HUGE — machine — a ladle.
A victim of “History, Progress, the invisible forces of fate, the inevitability of change.”
Prometheus isn’t going quietly into what he sees as the dark night of the future as he was “supposed to.” He’s welded to the ladle because he’s a “whining son of a bitch” and people have “run out of patience with his mewling.” His fate as representative steelman is not pretty for “every once in a while progress needs a little brutality and indifference to close the deal.”
Prometheus is full of anger — outrage, really — and self-pity. He did his job, giving the nation “its planes, its guns, its paperclips” — its bridges, moon rockets, skyscrapers. “Steelmen made our time,” he says, and when people asked “What do you do?” those steelmen replied, “I’m building America.”
Well, that grand role only got Prometheus and his fellows a place in the unemployment line when the Steel closed, “the shame of greed and bad planning.”
In the final analysis, he’s “a sucker who gave his life for a promise unkept, his “reward . . . to be pushed out to make room for the 21st century” — “agony with no end in sight.”
And he doesn’t want to capitulate to the forces of Progress and move on: “Time will come for us again” . . . “Progress is going to need me.”
Surrounding voices of reason argue, beg, cajole him to leave. But “the only way to get out” Prometheus can see “is to promise to shut up and quietly give up my place in the world.” “It’s too late for a new beginning for me,” he laments.
This is the end of Prometheus’s world and, symbolically, the end of Bethlehem’s life as it was known for generations, a life nobody imagined would end.
The potential death of a city, a community?
“Steelbound was not about the future as we had thought it might be,” said actor and Touchstone artistic director Mark McKenna, “It was about closure on the past.”
Are you seeing how important this play is/was to our understanding of the life of our City at the closing of the Steel?
We’ll come back and talk more about that closure on the past and details of the play next time.
But for now Gadfly encourages you to watch “Steelbound.”
For Gadfly, Touchstone Theatre’s “Festival UnBound” actually starts tomorrow with the viewing of “Steelbound,” the play performed twenty years ago that is the point of reference for its sequel “Prometheus/Redux,” which is the centerpiece of the Festival that begins October 4.
The “Steelbound” viewing will take place in the National Museum of Industrial History. Doors open at 6, opening remarks by Hank Barnette at 6:15, and the video at 6:30. Admission free.
Bill George performs as Prometheus in a 1999 production of Touchstone Theatre’s ‘Steelbound,’ a modern-day adaptation of a Greek myth in which a former steel worker laments his fate while chained on top of a steel ladle. (Morning Call text and file photo/TMC)
“Steelbound,” was an adaptation of Aeschylus’ “Prometheus Bound,” a Greek tragedy in which Prometheus stands for human progress against the forces of nature. “Steelbound” featured a prematurely retired steelworker chained to a 24-ton ladle. The cast featured more than 50 people, including former steelworkers and their families and neighbors. The sold-out production was presented in the iron foundry of the closed Steel plant in south Bethlehem. It included music by Ysaye Barnwell, founder of the a cappella group Sweet Honey in the Rock. Some of that music is included in “Prometheus/Redux.”
If this video doesn’t make your hair curl, your nose bleed, your palms sweat, your piggies wiggle, and your loins leap, then you are following the wrong blog!
VOLUNTEERS – We’re looking for a monumental volunteer brigade to help us power ten days of community-wide creations! Interested in getting involved? Email mike@touchstone.org or fill out the volunteer form on our website.
“STEELBOUND” SCREENING – Curious about the production that inspired it all, Touchstone and Cornerstone Theatre’s Steelbound (1999)? Join us for a screening of that unforgettable production, as we prepare to celebrate where we are twenty years later. Steelbound will play at the National Museum of Industrial History on September 25, with opening remarks by Hank Barnette, former CEO of Bethlehem Steel beginning at 6:30p.
HAPPY HOUR AT APOLLO GRILL – Our friends at Apollo Grill are kindly hosting a happy hour to benefit the festival! Join us Thursday, September 26, 5:00-7:00p, where you can enjoy munchies and drink (and the company of the Touchstone Ensemble). We’ll have a raffle basket, and $1 from every Jack Daniels drink goes toward Festival UnBound. A delicious way to support art! Learn more here.
JOIN US IN SONG – Like to sing? We are seeking Touchstone friends to be in a Pop-Up Choir, led by the Valleys Kira Willey, for the Opening and/or Closing ceremonies – since we hope you’re already planning to be with us for performances, why not have a hand in making art as well? Please go to our Google sign-up here to indicate your interest and availability.
