On the weekend of the fifth and sixth of November, myself and five other students took a trip with Keely Felton and Keith Eaton up to Deer Isle to visit the community there and watch a performance of Antigone, put on by the local high school.
Just coming back from a leadership conference in Bar Harbor, turning around and driving back up the coast seemed to take forever, but when we reached our destination we were shown around the Seamark Community Arts Center by Holley Meade and her husband, Bruce. It is an art and wood working studio that had once been the community’s high school, now located elsewhere.
We stopped at a local church on our way to the elementary school, where the performance was being held, and the cast members and their parents held a potluck supper to kick off the start of their performances and welcome us. There we all met our host families and got to talk with the local high school students about where we came from and what it was like living on two very different islands.
Then we all got back into the cars and drove up to the elementary school. We got complimentary tickets as the guests of the cast and were able to get prime seats up near the back of the theater, where we had the best vantage point.
We were amazed at the size and wonderful acoustics of this school theater, and many of us noted that there’s a catwalk up there! The stage, which seemed to have next to zero sets or props, soon captivated us as the florescent red screen in back started changing colors and the lights dimmed and the play was about to begin.
After the lights came up and the elegantly dressed cast took their bows to a standing ovation we all let out a long breath. The play was excellent, the cast well rehearsed and comfortable in their parts. When the audience had left we got to congratulate them, and, even better, take a tour of their stage, catwalk and lighting booth up top. Afterwards, we got to join in on the cast party.
Though later the power went out, we all got home safely with our host families, still discussing the play and our island. The next morning we toured the Stonington Opera House and got to see how another theater works. The experience showed us how different the islands are, and we are all looking forward to hearing back from our friends in Deer Isle and having them visit us in May when we do our spring performance on North Haven.
(Melissa McKenzie is a North Haven Community School sophomore.)