Experimental Theater> Their first production is called “The Fool”. The directors are not. Producing a play in Eastport, on a boat, with the audience on a pier – it’s a daring move.

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A life in the theater. Let’s say you want that. And you want to live in Maine, too. What do you do?

Some might say, “Go south young man and seek your fortune in Portland.”

Reasonable advice, for sure.

But let’s say you’re not reasonable. Let’s say you’re adventurous. Then what?

Here’s an idea. Choose a play. Gather together some performers. And go north. Way north. In fact, as far Down East as possible. Up in the corner where the land and the water meet for the last time in northeast United States, where the sun hits first in the morning and every building that isn’t vacant and boarded up has a view of the ocean.

Say, Eastport.

Now you’ve got a real city — some 2,000 people strong — on your hands. And your work, like the work of the fishermen who leave the Eastport harbor every morning before first light, is cut out for you.

Since May, Acadia Annex Theater Company, a professional acting troupe based in Machias, has been organizing a major theatrical production on the Eastport pier that has sparked controversy as well as charity in this city which was colonized in the late 1700s under the name Moose Island.

Against many odds, “The Fool,” written by Bangor native and Pembroke resident Michael Dorn Moody, opened under clement skies last weekend. The cast took its place on a raked-stage version of a schooner built on the very edge of the block-long municipal pier.

As the sun went down, the lights came up on this epic story of the English admiral, Sir Francis Drake, who circumnavigated the globe in the late 1500s and was the most renowned seaman of the Elizabethan age.

If you ask Moody, he’ll tell you that Drake’s travails at sea are not so very different from those he and the administrators of Acadia Annex have had to face to get this production mounted in a public, outdoor setting. At least Drake had the Queen behind him. Acadia Annex has a budget of zero.

“We’re doing this because it’s impossible,” says Moody, who worked in professional theater in New York and Los Angeles but eventually shunned both places for his home state. “I’m at a point in my life where I don’t want to do anything unless it’s impossible. We just get a kick out of doing the impossible.”

The stages of impossibility have been many for Moody, and for Robert Savina, who conceived the project and has directed it with Amy Waquespack. Savina and Waquespack, both of whom fled the fast lane in New York City, founded Acadia Annex last year together as a “pipeline” between Down East Maine and the national theater scene. Their mission, according to the production program, is to “take risks, experiment, and educate the theatrically deprived” right in their own neighborhood.

In this case, the neighborhood is actually all of Washington County. Covering 2,528 square miles and named after the country’s first president, Washington County is Maine’s poorest region, and the second poorest county in the country. Last count, its population was around 35,000, roughly the head count of Bangor. It contains two cities (Eastport and Calais), 40 towns, and a whole lot of land and craggy coastline. And, right now, one professional theater company and about a dozen community theaters.

If you look at the process Acadia Annex has been through to achieve this production, then it does appear as if all the county pulled together to lend a hand or to wag a finger. Cedar posts the size of telephone poles were donated for the set, which imaginatively suggests the bow of Drake’s ship. Everyone in the cast doubled as a stage hand helping to load and unload the set during rehearsals and then again at the end of each four-day run. When the septic system broke at the group house, even the New York actors helped dig up the yard. And one kind-hearted cast member regularly passes out muffins and apples at the end of each evening.

The city and surrounding towns have been greatly involved — from the Chamber of Commerce to the harbor master to the port authority to the motels, restaurants, marinas and churches. There have been arguments and acceptances. Eyebrows have been raised (at naughty parts of the script) and hands have been lifted to applaud the success of the show.

The only tricky accomplishment, according to city officials and residents, was the acquisition of the working pier, which creates a stunning backdrop for a sea adventures. Just try to approximate that in a theater — especially when there is no financial backing.

Despite a new port built on the other side of town, ocean freighters still show up at the municipal pier, and that’s one fact of Eastport life that is not adjustable. Another is the possibility of cold, harsh weather even in August and September.

“Our biggest hurdle was getting over the general attitude that this couldn’t be done,” says Savina, who has worked in theater and film, mostly in New York, for more than 20 years. “Everyone would ask: `Why do you want to do a play on a pier? It’s ludicrous.’ It’s about pushing the envelope a bit. I’m not afraid of that. I sort of like putting myself in situations that I’m not really supposed to be in.”

Savina held open auditions for actors in New York, and cast all the leads from that lineup. His big question to them was: “How do you feel about working on the edge of a pier?”

For Waguespack (pronounced “WAG as pack”), the production is a centering device for performing artists — those brought up the “pipeline” from New York and the supporting cast from the general area. While Savina worked with actors in New York, she readied the local performers.

“There probably aren’t too many places in the country where we could do this on a municipal pier,” says Waguespack, a dance instructor at the University of Maine at Machias. “I travel to Bangor to see productions that aren’t as good as this one. It’s a curious event. Real theater people — whether they are advocates or professionals — will be amazed to see what’s happening in this little itty bitty spot.”

Some Eastporters take a less passionate view. A waiter in a local restaurant said he’d like to see “The Fool,” but chances are, he won’t. Merchants downtown are in the same boat. Same with the clerk at the sparkling new gas station and convenience store on the edge of town. August is a busy month in Eastport, they all say.

The fact is, though, the residents like having theater in town, even if they aren’t part of the audience. They particularly like “whole family shows,” says Michaelynn Cecire, a public health nurse and volunteer at Stage East, a community theater in town that has produced musicals, comedies and will try Shakespeare for the first time this fall with a production of “The Tempest.”

Eastport audiences are supportive, people in the arts agree, but conservative. “The Fool” ruffled a few feathers with what Eastporters might call risque language and situations. Nevertheless, the city gave its OK to the show.

“Eastport has a rich heritage of supporting the arts,” says city manager George “Bud” Finch, who was born in Eastport, left, and returned three years ago to take this job. “Scheduling to tie up the pier was an issue. And there was the liability insurance. We had tremendous concerns with the location. The biggest thing I’ve found from the people who have lived here a long time is that they were worried about the ability to draw a crowd to sit on the pier in August or September. You want to come with a cushion and wear plenty of warm clothes.”

Finch has not been among the crowd drawn and has no plans to see the show. “What few plays I go to, I prefer to be indoors and warm,” he says. Although audiences for “The Fool” have not been large, they have nevertheless been enthusiastic. “I thought it was tremendous,” says Joyce Weber, who runs a bed and breakfast called The Milliken House.

Unexpected groups have found the show entertaining and even curious. Local kids show up on their bikes just before show time, wait until the first act is underway and then sneak in without paying. Older kids wait on the other side of the breakwater and heckle the actors with catcalls during the show. Weeks ago at rehearsals, people would drive onto the pier in their cars and watch the production as if it were a drive-in movie.

“It’s like the whole community of Washington County is producing this thing,” Moody says with jocular pride. “This is pure chutzpah.”

But Eastporters are no strangers to chutzpah. Or to theater. Nearly 10 years ago, Cornerstone Theater Company, a traveling troupe which does residencies in rural areas, set up shop in Eastport for several months and put on an adaptation of “Peer Gynt.” The whole community got involved, and the memory of it all, for the most part, is a good one. As a result, Stage East was founded and reliably puts on three shows a year.

“We have a nice tradition of theater in Eastport now,” Weber says. “Cornerstone left a lot of interest and enthusiasm for theater. The community is very receptive.”

Acadia Annex presents a different challenge, however. Its goals go beyond merely putting up a show on the pier and enlightening the “theatrically deprived.” The company and local fans would like its productions on the pier to be a centerpiece for summers in the city. It would like to be the night life for cruise ships that might come into the harbor. It would like to attract crowds which, naturally, would need places to shop and eat and sleep.

But before Acadia Annex begins to look exclusively philanthropic in its goals, consider this. Everyone on the artistic team knows “The Fool” is an experiment. If it flies in Eastport, then it could possibly be accepted at the Edinburgh Festival that Scotland holds each summer. If it gets accepted there, then there’s always New York, where, back in 1985, a small-scale production of “The Fool” was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize. (Stephen Sondheim’s “Sunday in the Park with George” won that year.)

Of course, there is some skepticism about just how realistic larger goals are.

“I think there have been a lot of mixed feelings,” says Jett Peterson, president of the all-volunteer Chamber of Commerce and a supporter of “The Fool.” “This has been a trial balloon for everyone. And we’ve never been faced with something so ambitious. It’s hard to get Eastporters to heave-ho. They’re very independent and territorial.”

Even Savina, at the very least, hopes for a change that is merely subtle: That locals will look at the pier in a new way. “Certainly” he says, “with this production, Acadia Annex has landed in Washington County.”

Some of the locals say that Eastport will never be a booming spot — of cultural activity or of any other kind. There are, however, more new faces in town than just those of Acadia Annex.

“Things are changing and I recognize that,” says Stage East’s Cecire. “Whether you like it or not, the big city will come here eventually. Apparently, Acadia Annex thinks it might put Eastport on the map by doing the show here first. I don’t know if I really want Eastport on the map.

“People think things end in Bar Harbor,” she says, “and that’s fine with me.”

Review

So now you want to know: Is it worth the 150-mile drive from Bangor to see Acadia Annex Theater Company’s production of the Pulitzer-nominated play “The Fool”? If you’re talking about the story, then the answer is yes. Michael Dorn Moody’s script is Shakespearean in its scope and, albeit didactic in places, he tells a fascinating and blustery tale of friendship, hardship and passion. His writing has the texture of tapestry and the suspense of government scandal. At its best, “The Fool” is both about history and about us. The setting, a recreation of Drake’s ship on the edge of Eastport’s pier, is crisply spectacular with water, water everywhere. Costumes are rugged and rich. The actors are rugged, too, particularly because the principals are so young. Adam Lang is sweetly compelling as Drake, but Jason Pugatch force feeds the co-adventurer Thomas Doughty. Jennifer Summerfield plays all three female roles with a wild stamina. The cast of mariners is bawdy and blithe, but the stand-out is Doug Casement whose Moone is as radiant as a poet’s eye. There’s no shortage of poetry in Stephen McLaughlin’s chaplain either. The journey of this show takes about three hours, and, yes, it’s worth the trip because the project itself is a phenomenal testament to the vision of directors Robert Savina and Amy Waguespack. But bring a pillow and a blanket and sit as close to the stage as possible. When the actors aren’t screaming, their voices sometimes head out to sea.

“The Fool” will be performed 7 p.m. Thursday-Sunday through Sept. 13 at the Municipal Pier in Eastport. Tickets are available at the site, or may be reserved by calling 853-2330.