On the road through the fire

COEUR d’ALENE — The Great Fire of 1910 provides a historical backdrop for a new musical that smolders with emotional intensity and entertains the audience with the men and women swept up in one of the worst natural disasters in U.S. history.

"Living Through the Fire" is a 45-minute play being performed for children at Inland Northwest area schools. There are currently six shows scheduled. There is also a public show at Le Peep Cafe at Riverstone at 7 p.m. on Oct. 22.

“I think two of the most important things we can do as artists in this region is show that art can be as good here as anywhere and also that the history here is relevant,” said Jadd Davis, artistic director for the Coeur d’Alene Summer Theatre. “If we can create and interest in those two things that’s a good thing.”

"Living Through the Fire" recalls that fateful day of Aug. 20, 1910, when Ed Pulaski saved 40 men from perishing on a burning mountainside, and jumps between that and present-day Wallace. The play casts four actors to portray 20 characters — an ambitious effort that seems impossible.

“This has been a really different experience than anything I have done in theater because we have a limited amount of time, a limited amount of people for the roles — it’s nonstop,” said Aubrey Shimek Davis, who plays roles of Elsie and McKenzie. “We are always moving and it’s chaos backstage but it’s always fun.”’

The production is part of the Coeur d’Alene Summer Theatre’s On the Road program, which hopes to bring stories to life for students through the stage. On the Road is designed for educating kids in schools.

The fires of 1910 in the Silver Valley, locally known as the “The Big Burn,” left a mark on our forests and are burned into history. The fire destroyed more than 3 million acres of wildland, and out of necessity spawned Ed Pulaski's famed Pulaski tool that combines an axe and a mattock. Pulaskis are a mainstay in forest firefighting today.

Over the years, Pulaski has become a household name in the Northwest and around the nation with firefighters, but the story doesn’t stop with Pulaski and his famous tool.

Jadd Davis said the play sheds some creative light on the families of the men who battled the blaze more than 100 years ago.

"Living Through the Fire" was written by Christian Duhamel and co-written by Jadd Davis. The play follows the story of a young girl named McKenzie in present-day Wallace. McKenzie is given a school project to read and write about the diary of Elsie Pulaski, the daughter of Ed.

“The concept for this show was based on a fifth-grader's creative writing assignment called the Observer Creative Writing Project at Sorensen,” Davis said. “A student named Elizabeth Edmunds wrote the diary of Elsie Pulaski and we used that as the basis.”

Davis said since he took the position of creative director two years ago, he had his eye on starting the On the Road project. During the time he spent in Seattle he witnessed the impact the theater can have on students when used to tell history and he wanted to bring that back to his home state.

Davis said he hopes to bring a story to life about the Coeur d’Alene Tribe’s history for a future production. He said he would love to explore their stories and history through their own memories and lore.

“I grew up in Post Falls and never learned anything about them other than what the white man said,” Davis said.

For now Davis is focused on bringing the On the Road show to students in Idaho and Washington with Pulaski’s story.

For more information or to book a show a visit www.cdasummertheatre.com.

Jamie Sedlmayer can be reached at jsedlmayer@cdapress.com