Meet the Crew

One of the unique features of Titanic: The Artifact Exhibition at the Science Museum of Minnesota is the cast of actors who bring real crew members from Titanic to life, allowing visitors to make personal connections with the exhibition.

Take some time to meet some of those crew members (and the actors who portray them) below.

Got a question about the Titanic story? Submit a question here and get the chance to have it answered by one of our Titanic crew members. We'll post their video responses starting July 24 and each Friday after through Thanksgiving.

Captain Edward J. Smith (Richard Rousseau)

Edward John Smith left his home in Henley, England, journeyed to Liverpool, and went to sea at the age of 13. He joined the White Star Line as a Fourth Officer at the age of 35 and, seven years later, he was given command of his own ship. At the age of 62, Smith was the Captain of the Titanic. He had the reputation of being the best in the business and was a favorite of first class passengers.

Richard Rousseau is a veteran actor and nationally recognized storyteller with extensive museum experience. Richard has appeared in numerous roles for the Science Museum of Minnesota during the past 28 years. Most recently he has performed for the Minnesota Historical Society at Mill City Museum including a portrayal of Minneapolis hydro engineer William de la Barre and the Ghost of Mill City Past in the holiday production of Eventually Christmas. He is a regular performer at Cheap Theatre's monthly Salon series and is a recipient of the Northstar Storytelling League Talking Stick Award for excellence in storytelling.

Annie Martin (Melanie Wehrmacher)

Annie Martin, first class stewardess, was born in Guernsey and lived in Portsmouth. She was 33 years old in 1912, and had served on a number of other ships, including the Adriatic, Cedric and Olympic, from which she was transferred to the Titanic. When first informed of the collision, she and her bunkmate were convinced it was a practical joke and remained in bed until personally roused by Thomas Andrews, the ship's designer. After the sinking, she returned to England on the Lapland and gave several interviews, subsequent to which her trail has been lost.

A native Minnesotan, Melanie Wehrmacher has just returned to the Midwest after spending nearly a decade in New York City. Credits include: Over the Moon (Eugene O'Neill Theater Center), Animal Farm: The Puppet Musical (Synapse Productions, National Tour), Twentyone (Spring Theatreworks), Manfest Cabaret (New Georges), and her solo play, Trip (Provincetown Playhouse, winner of the Jig Cook Award). She has also written and performed countless productions with Science Theatre at the New York Hall of Science and Wildlife Theatre at the Central Park Zoo. Melanie is a graduate of Drake University and the National Theater Institute, and is a member of the Dramatists Guild of America.

Violet Jessop (Amanda Whisner)

Miss Violet Constance Jessop was born in Argentina in 1887, the first child of Irish emigrants William and Katherine Jessop. After a difficult childhood riddled with illness (tuberculosis) and death (her father and several siblings), Miss Jessop, her mother and four remaining brothers and sisters moved to England where she cared for her siblings and went to convent school while her mother began work as a stewardess. When her mother's health declined in 1908, Miss Jessop gave up school to become a stewardess herself, first with the Royal Mail Line, and then with the White Star Line. At age 24 (one of the younger members of the victualling department) and single, Miss Jessop boarded the Titanic in Southampton, England, on April 10, 1912, to fulfill her duties as a first class stewardess.

The consummate survivor, Violet had the distinction of being aboard all three Olympic Class White Star Liners (Olympic, Titanic and Britannic) when they were involved in collisions or sank. After the Titanic, Miss Jessop served as a nurse with the British Red Cross during World War I and was on-board the former White Star liner Britannic when that vessel was sunk in the Aegean in 1916. Miss Jessop retired to a sixteenth-century thatched cottage in Great Ashfield, Suffolk. She filled her home with mementoes of her forty two years at sea and looked after laying hens and her garden. She died in 1971 and her memoir (Titanic Survivor) was posthumously discovered and published in 1997.

Since moving to Minnesota in 2004, Amanda Whisner has been seen at the Gremlin Theatre, Illusion Theatre, Commonweal Theatre Company, Workhaus Collective, Minnesota Shakespeare Project and Walking Shadow Theater Co., as well as being active in the voice over and commercial market. She has also worked across the country with theaters including Missouri Repertory Theater, Kennedy Center, Coterie Theatre, National Shakespeare Company, New Jersey Shakespeare Festival and Shakespeare Santa Cruz. She received her MFA from the University of Missouri, Kansas City. Look for Amanda in July in Skin of Our Teeth (Girl Friday Productions).

William E. McMurray (E.J. Subkoviak)

First-class bedroom steward William McMurray is a husband and father of three from Liverpool who died rescuing passengers from the ill-fated Titanic two days before his anniversary, when his wife got word of his fate. McMurray had previously been awarded a medal of gallantry in helping rescue 1,700 souls from the sinking ship Republic in 1909, and a letter from one of his daughters (that never reached him before Titanic set sail) can be seen at the Merseyside Maritime Museum in Liverpool.

E.J. Subkoviak has been a working Twin Cities actor since moving to Minneapolis in 1997 from his hometown of Madison, WI. A 1993 graduate of the theater arts program at Minnesota State University, Mankato, E.J. has appeared at such venues as the Jungle Theater, Hey City Theater, Park Square Theater, and the Children's Theater of Minneapolis. He has been working fairly steadily at the Actors Theater of Minnesota in St. Paul since 2005.

Hugh McElroy (Steven Flamm)

Titanic's chief purser, was so popular with some first class passengers that they would only travel on liners on which he was purser. He was Captain Smith's closest friend. The chief purser oversaw all the crew that serviced the passengers.

On the night of the tragedy, McElroy demonstrated his courage by getting a large number of women and children safely into lifeboats, holding back men who tried to get into the lifeboats ahead of them. McElroy himself did not survive, leaving a wife of two years and no children.

Steven Flamm has been associated with the Science Museum of Minnesota since 1984. First as a playwright for such works as "Madame Curie" and "Sherlock Chromosomes" and later as an actor performing roles such as Nikola Tesla and Charles Darwin.

Athol Broome (Michael Ritchie)

Not much is known of verandah steward Athol Broome. Most of the information available about his life can be found in the employment records of the White Star Line. According to these, he was married, signed on to the Titanic on April 4, 1912, and was born in the "third quarter of 1881," making him 30 during the Ship's maiden voyage. These records also show that before joining the Titanic's crew, he worked aboard the Oceanic, a ship that suffered its own troubles. In the space of ten years, she hit another ship and sank it; was struck by lightning, sending her wireless mast crashing calamitously to the deck; and was the only White Star ship to undergo a mutiny. Two years after Titanic's sinking, the Oceanic ran aground and had to be scrapped.

Michael Ritchie is an actor and improvisor who has worked at numerous theatres around the region including the Children's Theatre, The Jungle, and The Old Log. He has a BA in Theatre from the University of Minnesota - Twin Cities, and has studied at the Upright Citizen's Brigade Theatre, New York. Michael can also be seen performing with the improv comedy troupe "Splendid Things," of which he is a founding member.

Evelyn Marsden (Leigha Horton)

Evelyn Marsden, 28 years old and engaged to be married, served on the Titanic as a First Class Stewardess and Nurse to the First Class passengers. Born and raised in Stockyard Creek, a small town 80km north of Adelaide, Australia, Miss Marsden spent family vacations of her youth with friends in Murray Bridge. There she learned to row a boat against the tide and Murray River currents. Evelyn was rescued from lifeboat #16, which she helped row due to being launched with an inadequate number of men to properly maneuver the boat. Miss Marsden retired from the sea after the Titanic sinking, and returned to the family in Murray Bridge to thank them for teaching her in her youth how to handle a boat. Thereafter she ultimately settled with her husband, Dr. William Abel James, in Bondi, Australia, where she died at the age of 55.

Having moved to Minneapolis from San Diego in the fall of 1996 for undergraduate studies at the College of St. Catherine, Leigha Horton was certain that her stay in the Twin Cities would come to an end upon graduation in 2000. During those four years, she became increasingly aware of the vibrant performing arts community and performing arts opportunities, and she ultimately fell in love with the possibilities of a career in the arts—so much so that she couldn't leave. Prior to having her present "go" as a full-time stage, screen, and voice-over performer, she served five years as the Assistant to the Senior Curator of Performing Arts at the Walker Art Center. Her exposure to international performing artists, the artistic grant-seeking process, the inner-workings of local performing arts presenters and producers, and the plight of local artists was invaluable to her understanding of the arts macrocosm, and the strong need for arts advocacy.

John E. Hart (Gregory Parks)

Born in London, third class steward John Hart was a three year veteran of the Boer War in the Transvaal region of South Africa. Some years after his return, Hart eventually found employment on the City of New York, a steamer owned by White Star Line rivals Cunard, Guion and Inman Lines. After becoming employed aboard the Titanic, it wouldn't be long before Hart would see the New York again, courtesy of a near-miss while leaving port in Southampton. Hart survived the sinking of the Titanic and was involved in the rescue of 58 third class passengers.

Gregory Parks was born and raised in West Des Moines, Iowa, and in his life thus far has proven to be the tallest, goofiest and most nomadic member of his family. A veteran of the Twin Cities' own Brave New Institute and National Theatre for Children, Gregory left Minneapolis at the turn of the millennium to perform as a clown with Ringling Brothers & Barnum and Bailey for four years. His next touring experience took him around the world for three years. He is more than pleased to have returned to the Twin Cities to hatch the next stage of his performing plans.

Harold Bride (David Beukema)

Harold Bride was born near London in 1890. As a child, Harold exhibited a fascination with technology, and with telegraphy in particular. As a boy, he built his own amateur radio antenna in his family's garden and began saving up money working in the family business so he could go to school for telegraphy. By the time he was hired to be Titanic's junior wireless operator at age 22, he had already served on many ships, including the Lusitania. He survived the Titanic disaster and went on to serve aboard other ships during World War I, until he moved to Scotland with his family and became a salesman. He died there in 1956, at age 66.

David Beukema recently relocated back to his hometown of Minneapolis after eight years out east. While out east, he worked with theatres in Ohio, New Hampshire, and New York. Since returning to the Twin Cities, he has worked with Cromulent Shakespeare, Theatre In the Round, and the Minneapolis Fringe Festival. He earned a BFA in Acting from Otterbein College in Westerville, OH.

Ernest F. Allen (Damian Johnson)

Mr. Ernest Frederick Allen, 24, was born in London on March 10, 1888.  He signed-on to the Titanic on April 6, 1912. He normally worked as a fireman but on the Titanic he was employed as a trimmer. He had previously served on the Olympic.

He nearly drowned trying to save his brother Fred Allen, who died in the sinking. Allen survived by standing, along with a number of others, on the overturned bottom of Collapsible Lifeboat B. Initially Ernest Allen was also reported lost. He died in December 1968.

Damian Johnson is an improviser and actor. He has been a regular performer with Comedy Sportz and participated in numerous independent improv projects, most notably, The Survivors of the Undead Plague, an improvised zombie film. He has worked with a number of local theaters, including Hardcover Theater, The Center for Hmong Arts and Talent, Stage Children's Theatre, CLIMB Theater, and the Ronin Theater Company. Damian has a BA in Theater from Saint Mary's University of Minnesota and has studied improv at the Brave New Workshop and iO Chicago.

Sarah Gioia, Director

Sarah Gioia is really pleased to be back at the Science Museum of Minnesota. She has directed and dramaturged over 80 productions/readings/workshops at theaters such as the Cincinnati Playhouse, The Guthrie Theater, The Children's Theatre Company, The Playwrights' Center, The History Theater, Gremlin Theatre, Eye of the Storm Theatre, Pillsbury House Theater's Chicago Avenue Project, and the Center for Hmong Arts and Talent. Her work has been seen in New York, Seattle and Jacksonville as well. Sarah just finished being a note taker for Tony Kushner at the Guthrie. She is currently working on another show for the Science Museum, as well as directing the world-premiere of Buyer's Remorse for the Minnesota Fringe Festival.