Third-graders in teacher Ann Ashley’s class at Clear Lake Elementary brought a chapter of history to life Monday with a 20-minute play about the sinking of the Titanic.
Entitled ‘A Titanic Friendship,? the play centered around the friendship of two little girls, Ashley DeMark (played by Riley Juntti) and Cora Davis (played by Miranda Bouren), who met on the ship’s first and last voyage in April 1912.
DeMark was from a wealthy family traveling first class from England back to their native Boston.
Traveling in third class quarters were Davis and her family, who were looking to start over in the United States, the land of opportunity.
A game of hide-and-seek leads to an immediate friendship between the two young girls.
Along the way, the pair literally bump into famous Titanic passenger (and later survivor) Molly Brown, who was played by Alexis Strausbaugh.
To symbolize their friendship, DeMark breaks her locket in two and gives half to Davis so they ‘will always be thinking about each other, no matter where we are.?
When the massive ship hits the iceberg and sinks, the two girls are separated.
Both escape in lifeboats with their mothers. Both were forced to leave their fathers behind to face a watery grave.
Neither knew whether the other had survived until 1985 when the two, now old ladies, were reunited at a Titanic memorial. Each still carried her half of the special locket.
Bailey Brocco and Hannah Schonfeld played the older versions of DeMark and Davis, respectively.
It took Ashley’s class about six weeks to prepare for the play.
Sets, costumes, lighting and music from the 1997 ‘Titanic? movie really helped set the mood as each little actor brought his or her character to life.
Each playbill handed out to audience members prior to the performance contained the name of a real-life Titanic passenger.
When the show was over, the audience was encouraged to check a poster in the hallway to see if their passenger survived or perished during the sinking of history’s unsinkable ship.
Of the Titanic’s 2,200 passengers, a total of 1,500 died in the frozen waters of the North Atlantic.