Thought I would give you all the update on Titanic progress. I'm still struggling, but I have high hopes.

Most lifting devices I found would not work because of the constraints of the space. The dock door is too low for a forklift. The ceiling will not support a lift motor.

I called a wrecker service about the air bag. They rent them out to upright overturned deisels, but they rent them for 25,000 a day. A little out of my budget and the company was not willing to set it up and take it down every day.

Then someone told me I was basically building a dump truck and connected me with a hydraulics company and a dump truck manufacturer. I've gotten a lot of use out of the lines "I'm looking for someone to sink a ship" and "I hate to give away the end of the show, but..."

I'm still meeting with them, but I'm gathering up supplies from craigslist and trying to find welders with an interest in theater (not a lot of those). We DID have entries from local university engineering students. And the grant came through ($2200--which will pay for the project--fingers crossed.) We should also get some publicity for it. But it looks like things are coming together--and not a minute too soon.