Fire and Ice: Antenna Theater’s Piece About a Tugboat Fire in a Sausalito Hail Storm (2006)
In March 2006 a fire swept through the Liberty, the historic tugboat that Chris Hardman and Annette Rose had made their home in Sausalito’s Galilee Harbor. The same night, snow and hail fell on a narrow strip of the town. Antenna Theater later turned those hours into Fire and Ice, a short site-specific piece staged off the Bay Model with the recorded voices of the people who were there.
The piece itself is documented in only a few sentences. The rest of this account comes from the company’s 2006 press release and benefit pages, local press and the Floating Homes Association newsletter.
Quick answer
What was Fire and Ice by Antenna Theater?
Fire and Ice was a 2006 Antenna Theater piece about a real night in Sausalito: a fire that gutted the tugboat home of founder Chris Hardman and Annette Rose during a freak snow and hail storm. A tugboat was anchored off the Bay Model, and recorded voices of those involved played to the audience on shore.
March 2006: a fire in a snowstorm
The company’s notice that spring gave the facts plainly: “Just after midnight on Friday, March 10th, a fire swept through the tugboat, LIBERTY, the home of Annette Rose and Chris Hardman. The couple, including their dog, Velvet, survived.” After a night in the hospital, they stayed with friends until longer-term housing could be found.
Further down, the same release speaks of “the March 11 fire that gutted their water home.” The storm that came with it struck in the early hours of Saturday, March 11, so the safest way to put it is the night of March 10 to 11, 2006. Floating Times, the Floating Homes Association newsletter, later reported that the boat was “burned beyond repair after an electrical short in 2006.”
Rose said: “As it happened, we were fortunate to escape without serious injuries.” The release added that the couple “was not able to insure the boat due to its age, material make up and former commercial status.”
The Liberty and Galilee Harbor
The release called the Liberty “a historic tug boat,” and Rose spoke of it with affection: “We loved the Liberty and took the kind of calculated risk others take when they fall in love with a place.” She added: “We did all we could to make her safe as well as beautiful.”
Bob’s Boatyard, at Napa Street, was incorporated “in 1980 as Galilee Harbor,” according to Floating Times, and the 2006 release noted that the couple “was active in gaining legitimate status for the Galilee Harbor live-aboard community in which they have lived for more than 20 years.” Before Galilee, Floating Times recalled, Hardman had “lived in an abandoned shipbuilding shed on the waterfront.”
Rose thanked the town: “We are deeply appreciative of our neighbors, our friends, and the people Chris and I have met through our work.” The release added that the couple was “already planning a new boat at Galilee Harbor that will be metal-hulled.”
A storm Sausalito had never seen
Antenna’s chronology calls it an “unprecedented ice storm,” and the release explained the name the company gave that night: “‘The Night of Fire and Ice’ refers to the strange circumstances of March 11, when a narrow swath of Sausalito from the hills to the Bay received several inches of snow and hail, causing a major highway accident, and complicating the work of fire fighters dousing the Liberty fire.”
The Press Democrat’s report of March 12, 2006, on the Waldo Grade pile-up described 28 cars colliding on the grade above the town: “It was hailing and snow was on the ground.” Two people died, more than a dozen others were hurt, and the highway’s four northbound lanes stayed closed for more than 12 hours. A Caltrans supervisor said: “This was a one-time freak dump of snow.”
From benefit to performance
“Momentum for the benefit party built quickly as news of the fire spread through the community, with offers of help coming from as far away as New York,” the company wrote. Friends organised A Night of Fire and Ice, a “Boat-raising” benefit held on the evening of Thursday, May 18, 2006, at the Bay Model Visitor Center on Bridgeway.
The honorary chair was Marin County Supervisor Charles McGlashan, and the Friends of Fire and Ice included Stewart Brand and the cartoonist Phil Frank. The evening promised “silent and live auctions of donated goods, services, restaurant, and vacation packages,” and “a theatrical spectacle, the likes of which could only be created by Chris Hardman and ANTENNA Theater.”
The release said the couple themselves would “provide May 18th’s entertainment and a special ‘flaming dessert.’” No source gives a performance date for Fire and Ice, but it was staged, by every indication, at the May 18 benefit. The company’s own page also records a Marin County Board of Supervisors resolution, adopted May 16, 2006.
| Date | Event | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Night of March 10 to 11 | Fire on the tug Liberty at Galilee Harbor; the couple and their dog escape | Antenna press release |
| Early March 11 | Snow and hail on Sausalito and the Waldo Grade; a 28-car pile-up | Antenna press release; Press Democrat |
| March to May | Friends organise a benefit | Antenna press release |
| May 16 | Marin County Board of Supervisors resolution | Antenna’s 2014 production page |
| May 18 | A Night of Fire and Ice at the Bay Model Visitor Center, where Fire and Ice was by every indication staged | Antenna benefit pages |
How the piece worked: a tugboat, a broadcast, real voices
Antenna’s chronology gives the only description: “A site-specific dramatization of an overnight tugboat fire and unprecedented ice storm that occurred on the Sausalito waterfront in March, 2006.” It continues: “For the event, the tugboat was anchored off the Army Corps Bay Model Gallery where the pre-recorded audio was broadcast to the shore-bound audience.”
“The soundtrack featured the actual voices of those involved in the real event,” the entry goes on, and “Actors and dancers added to the performance, bringing the story to life.” The company’s 2012 and 2014 pages give the same text without the actors and dancers.
None of the sources says whether the boat anchored off the Bay Model was the Liberty itself or another tugboat, so this account does not guess. No review and no production photograph of the piece is known to survive.
Why it fits Antenna’s method
The 2006 release described Hardman’s company as “best known to Bay Area audiences for its innovative use of portable sound recordings that allow theatergoers to move into and through the scenes of his plays.” Fire and Ice turned that around: the audience stayed on shore while the scene sat on the water. What it kept was the recorded voice of real people, the material behind Antenna’s Walkmanology and walk-through mazes.
The town had been Antenna’s stage before. The company showed Transforming Art at the Bay Model Gallery in 2004, and in 1993 it walked an audience through On Sight in Sausalito, its town-wide history show. The wider tradition is traced in site-specific theater in the Bay Area, with its roots in San Francisco performance art history.
Frequently asked questions
What was Fire and Ice?
A 2006 Antenna Theater piece that dramatized the night a fire swept the tugboat home of Chris Hardman and Annette Rose during a freak snow and hail storm, staged with a tugboat anchored off the Bay Model and a soundtrack of real voices.
Did it really snow in Sausalito?
Yes. Early on March 11, 2006, snow and hail fell on a narrow strip of Sausalito and on the Waldo Grade, where a 28-car pile-up followed.
What caused the fire?
An electrical short, according to Floating Times, the Floating Homes Association newsletter.
Was the tugboat in the performance the Liberty?
The sources do not say. Antenna’s chronology says only that “the tugboat was anchored off the Army Corps Bay Model Gallery.”
Fire and Ice has a short entry in Antenna Theater’s full production chronology, and the company’s people are listed on Antenna Theater’s board and staff page.