STIMULUS

"On the night of May 22, 1903, in Pittsburgh, PA, a large group of mostly young people who attended the Pennsylvania Electric Mechanical Institute were having a celebration party on the fifth and sixth floors of the Donnelley building. About 700 people packed the two floors for the ball, and at around 10 PM another group of seventeen passengers was loaded into the elevator on the first floor, bound for the party on floor six. Just as the elevator reached the floor, it suddenly let go and fell six stories, crashing into the elevator pit. The multi-ton elevator cable and assembly came crashing down onto the elevator, crushing the occupants. When the party goers heard the crash, they rushed to the elevator. In the panic, some nearly fell into the open shaft. Four bodies were pulled from the rubble and taken to a morgue. They were so badly mangled it was not until the next day they could be identified. So mangled were the bodies, they could only be identified by the cloths they were wearing. The others in the elevator, the youngest being only 3 years old, somehow survived. The accident was blamed on overloading of the elevator with 17 people when the maximum weight allowed for only 10-12."

This is the stimulus we have taken to devise our piece from, we chose it as we feel it is fitting to our site as well as to our actors. We were drawn to the idea of a party atmosphere so we could provide the spectators with a journey to partake on. Our idea is to create the atmosphere of a glamorous event before the sound of the elevator crash draws them to move towards the lift. Within the lift we are going to develop a physical piece to perform where we show the crash and the way the peoples bodies are moved by the force. We want to incorporate Colour to represent the blood of the people inside, so we are thinking about having red paint that we throw in the lift to add to the audiences experience.