Behind the Lines: A 9/11 Story is a play that combines live storytelling, music, theater, and multimedia to connect the experiences of New York City firefighter Bill Spade, the sole survivor from FDNY Rescue Company 5 on Sep. 11, 2001, and Jaymes Poling, an Afghanistan combat veteran who served three tours with the 82nd Airborne Division.
The production was created by Poling and internationally acclaimed jazz musician Dominick Farinacci, who recently joined told NTX Now's Ron Corning and Miranda Suarez to talk about why revisiting 9/11 means looking beyond the scale of the historic event to the individual stories inside it.
“If you're old enough, you have your own memory of where you were on 9-11,” Farinacci said. “One of the greatest tragedies, but one of the greatest moments of bringing out the best in the human condition in these extraordinary people.”
The production grew out of Farinacci's earlier collaboration with Poling.
The two met in Cleveland when Farinacci was preparing to record a Tom Waits song about a soldier returning from war. Farinacci wanted to better understand that experience and turned to Poling, whose story quickly challenged his assumptions about veterans returning to civilian life.
Their conversations eventually became "Modern Warrior Live," which combined Poling's own words with Farinacci's music and theatrical elements. They toured the production around the country for several years.
As the 25th anniversary of 9/11 approached, Farinacci and Poling began thinking about the event that had ultimately sent Poling to Afghanistan.
Farinacci connected with Spade, who responded to the World Trade Center on September 11 and has spent years sharing his story while honoring the firefighters and others who were killed. He said bringing Spade and Poling together allowed the production to follow a line from the attacks to one of the wars that followed, told through two people who experienced very different parts of that history.
Turning experience into music
Music isn't simply an accompaniment to the stories in Behind the Lines. Farinacci describes it as something created from them.
“Every aspect of the music that I wrote and arranged and collaborated with comes from every word of their story,” he said.
“It's a process that requires an unusual degree of trust.”
Farinacci said Poling and Spade were being asked not only to revisit extraordinarily difficult moments, but to articulate those experiences precisely enough that music, visuals and theater could reflect what they actually felt. At times, that meant Farinacci's interpretation wasn't right.
He recalled composing music around Poling's description of being in a firefight in Afghanistan and sending it to him. Poling told him the music didn't reflect what he had actually been feeling. That sent Poling back into the experience to find better words for the emotion, and Farinacci back to the music for a rewrite.
Farinacci said, over time, the collaboration helped the men dig deeper into experiences they may not have fully addressed before. Farinacci was careful not to describe the process as music therapy, but said there can be a therapeutic element in confronting an experience and figuring out how to put it into words.
He said Spade and Poling are presented not simply as a 9/11 survivor and a combat veteran, but as people whose lives extend well beyond those experiences and that allows the show to move through a much broader range of emotions.
“People are going to cry, they're going to laugh, they're gonna be hopeful, they are going to learn something,” Farinacci said. “The aspect of resiliency is kind of a through line throughout this piece.”
Show information:
"Behind the Lines: A 9/11 Story" will be performed at the Coppell Arts Center located at 505 Travis Street Friday, Sep. 11 at 8 p.m. and Saturday Sep. 12 at 7:30 p.m.
The live score, led by Dominick Farinacci and a full ensemble, includes original compositions as well as reimagined music by Leonard Cohen, Gnarls Barkley, Tom Waits and others.
Tickets are available through the Coppell Arts Center.
Miranda Suarez and Ron Corning are the hosts of KERA's NTX Now. Got a tip? Email Miranda at msuarez@kera.org or Ron at rcorning@kera.org.
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