Men on boats dramaturgy
Expedition Timeline
2.1 The Next Day
Split scene: Sumner and Dunn boat to the No-Name wreckage while Powell and Bradley climb a
ridge for a better view. Dunn and Sumner have a frank conversation about the Powell/Dunn
tension. Powell gets stuck on the cliff face— no arm, no way up or down. Bradley saves Powell
by lowering his pants for him to grab and haul himself up.
2.2 Dinner
Reunion around the fire. Powell recounts nearly falling to his death. Bradley celebrates saving
him. Goodman is celebrated for his fishing. Powell gives a toast about the spirit of the
expedition. Old Shady sings again.
2.3 On the Boats
With the No-Name gone, the crew reshuffles onto three boats. The Emma Dean gets caught
between rocks and capsizes. Everyone goes overboard. Powell is pulled out by Hawkins.
Goodman ends up stranded on a rock.
2.4 Goodman Chooses to Leave the Mission
Goodman announces he’s done — he came for splendor, not survival, and he’s seen enough.
Dunn notes this saves food. Powell lets him go graciously. They arrange for Sumner to escort
Goodman to the Ute tribe, who can point him toward a Mormon settlement and give him a horse.
2.5 Atop the Ridge
Powell, Sumner, and Goodman meet Johnson and Just Jim. They are composed, wry, quietly
sharp to their land and their awareness. Johnson and Just Jim offer a horse to Goodman and food
to the explorers. The explorers tell them that they have no contingency plan. Johnson and Just
Jim offer crops and direct them to a trader named Johnson’s farm. Goodman gets his horse.
Powell and Sumner head back. Just Jim tells Goodman he made the right call.
2.6 The Mouth of the Little Colorado
August 13, 1869; Back on the river, now with a reshuffled crew. Bradley falls overboard in a rough rapid. Old
Shady dramatically rescues him by reaching his arm into the water and hauling him out. Bradley
survives. The crew banks and looks up; They’ve arrived at the Grand Canyon.
3.1 The Big Canyon
Powell journals from a bench, describing the Grand Canyon in lyrical terms while Old Shady
hums. Powell marvels that no one knows how far they still have to go.
3.2 Camp at Dusk
The crew is worn down, the fire barely alive. A rattlesnake nearly gets Sumner; Hawkins kills it
with the coffee pot, then picks it up and nearly gets killed again when it twitches. Powell and Old
Shady return with two more dead snakes. Hawkins gives a grim inventory. The survival odds are
estimated at 5 percent. Powell pushes back by saying five percent is still a chance. Powell gives a
speech about the Great Unknown, and the crew packs the boats in a kind of humming, rhythmic
dance.
3.3 Blinding Daylight
Running the rapids inside the Grand Canyon. They encounter a waterfall they can’t portage —
Powell orders them to run it. O.G. Panics; Hall is ecstatic. The Maid goes over first, crash-lands
safely. Then Emma Dean, then Kitty Clyde. Collective hysteria and relief. Immediately, another
waterfall. They run that one too.
3.4 Campfire, Dusk
Wet pants, lost maps, mealy apples, no bacon. They pass around the one good apple and each
person takes a single bit. A quietly devastating image of shared scarcity. The Howlands tell a
strange childhood story about their parents tying their hands to a fencepost to teach them
survival. Dunn announces that he, O.G., and Seneca will not be continuing. They believe the
remaining crew will die.
3.5 Campfire the Next Morning
August 27-28, 1869; Hawkins produces a hidden plate of biscuits he baked for them. The Howlands offer them back; everyone decor them together. Handshakes, farewells. Powell gives Dunn a shotgun and asks him to fire it when they’re safe. Dunn and the Howlands leave. The remaining six watch in silence.
3.6 The Men on Boats
August 29-30, 1869; The final run. The rapids build to a climax and then suddenly, the walls flatten. The Grand
Canyon is behind them. Powell asks Sumner to fire the shotgun to signal Dunn. They fire twice.
No response comes back. They call out names— Dunn, Seneca, O.G., — into silence. A stranger,
Mr. Asa, appears and tells Powell he’s famous, that the newspapers reported him dead. The crew
introduces themselves one by one, each naming their boat. Mr. Asa grows wistful, already
rewriting the story in his own favor, predicting that Powell will be celebrated while his crew will
drift into obscurity. He walks away mid-reverie. The canyon walls tower behind them. The crew
looks up, looks ahead. End of play
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1.1 The Boats on the Water
May 24, 1869; The Emma Dean (Powell, Dunn, Sumner), the No-Name (O.G., Seneca, Goodman), the Kitty Clyde’s Sister (Old Shady, Bradley), and the Maid of the Canyon (Hall, Hawkins). The Maid
nearly capsizes and has to be pulled to safety by line. They bank and Powell does a roll call.
They’ve lost a thing of bacon.
1.2 The Emma Dean
On land after the rapid. Dunn tries to name a mountain after himself. Powell and Sumner
shoot down most of his ideas using the “Unwritten Rules” of naming. The mountain is ultimately
called Knife’s Point. Powell writes it in his journal, awkwardly, with one hand.
1.3 The Maid of the Canyon
Campfire, mid-morning. Hawkins and Hall bond over breakfast. Hawkins reveals he believes
O.G. has been secretly stealing tobacco on nightly “bathroom breaks.” Hall is sympathetic to the
Howlands but also entertained. They celebrate their boat as the “Party Boat.”
1.4 The Kitty Clyde’s Sister
Bradley chatters nonstop at Old Shady while they prepare the boat about his dead mother,
Wisconsin, the Civil War while Old Shady says almost nothing. Powell bursts in cheerfully with
satchels, and explains the origin of Old Shady’s nickname: he used to stand in a field pretending
to be a tree with his brother.
1.5 The Rapids from Knife’s Point
Ending in a thrilling steep descent. All four boats navigate it successfully, ending with collective
sighs of relief and excitement.
1.6 Carrying the No-Name
During portage, Goodman, O.G., and Seneca carry their boat overhead. Goodman struggles
while the Howland brothers smoke cigarettes calmly. They discover a rock inscribed with
“ASHLEY” and a date, which is a reference to a previous explorer whose boat was destroyed on
this river.
1.7 Campfire
Powell tells the story of Ashley, a man who attempted the same river before them and mostly died. Bradley is surprised to learn they’re not the first. The crew debates the nature of “frontier.” Hall and Hawkins return with massive hauls of fish. Sumner toasts Ashley. A tobacco confrontation erupts between Hawkins and O.G., with Hall loyalty defending his boatmate and Powell stepping in to mediate.
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1.8 The Morning Summit
Powell and Dunn survey the river from a cliff at sunrise. Dunn advocates for portaging the
upcoming section; Powell wants to run it with lines. They admire the vermillion canyon walls.
Powell names a cliff after Dunn (“Dunn’s Cliff”) as a peace offering of sorts.
1.9 Rapids from Dunn’s Cliff
June 8, 1869; The crew runs the rapids beneath the cliff Powell just named after Dunn. It’s the most dangerous rapid sequence so far. The No-Name gets into serious trouble — they lose an oar, get caught in a whirlpool, and despite desperate attempts to grab lines thrown from the other boats, the No-Name spins, hits a rock, and flips. O.G., Seneca, and Goodman all go overboard.
1.10 Dinner
The crew gathers around a somber campfire on the bank, a stark contrast to the celebratory fish
dinner of scene 1.7. Hawkins takes inventory of what survived the No-Name capsizing: they still
have flour, some rabbit meat, apples, sugar and onions — but they lost a lot of smoked fish and
bacon. Then Dunn delivers the worst news: they lost the whiskey. Plans are made for the next
day — Dunn, O.G., Sumner, and Seneca will hunt, Hall will stay back to work on maps, and
Powell proposes going down to the wreckage of the No-Name to salvage what they can,
particularly the barometers and sextants, Dunn pushes back, arguing it’s waste of daylight and
unlikely to yield anything useful. Dunn directly challenges Powell and asks pointedly why
Powell is leading the expedition at all given his physical limitation. Powell responds with his
most forceful speech in the play which invokes his connection to the President, his extensive
river experience going back to the Mississippi at age 17, and reframing the loss of the No-Name
as a near-win since nobody died and supplies were distributed across boats. He ends by pointedly
telling Dunn he already got his cliff, and suggesting they move on to dinner. Hawkins hands
Powell a plate, Powell passes it to Dunn — a small but meaningful gesture of reconciliation.