Deep in the Belly of the Broadway Bus

Vol. X No. 1 - WINTER 1999

This was the refrain in the opening number of the show titled “Bus Stops” which was the featured program at our November 7th General Meeting of the Edgewater Historical Society. The actors and actresses of the Scrap Mettle Soul community performance ensemble really wowed their audience with their songs and storytelling in this production.

After the exciting beginning, with a ragtag group of riders on the bus standing on the benches and singing “Deep in the belly of the Broadway Bus,” the play focused on a collage of stories, usually with one protagonist. Others in the company helped by acting in supporting roles. The oldest of the group was a Vietnamese grandmother and the youngest, a five-year old.

The stories told in the play are based on story workshops held by the group throughout the year, many of them at Margate Park where the group is in residence. Among the most memorable were the story of the couple whose home was threatened with demolition and the story of the out of luck resident of a SRO who finds himself locked out of his room in the middle of the night while wearing only his underwear. Perhaps the most poignant was the story of the young dancer stricken with MS. There are a million stories in this city, many of them will never be told but Scrap Mettle Soul has made a good start. We look forward to future performances by this group at our new museum.