Island Living ‘Islands’ musical captures rich complexity of North Haven

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In the rousing concluding song of “Islands,” a new musical performed over Memorial Day weekend on North Haven island, the 48-member chorus belts out the refrain: “We live on an island – surrounded by water!”

The audience joins in, jubilantly clapping along, surrendering to the joy and energy of this uplifting finale.

But there’s more at work here than just dramatic resolution and a clever song hook. At this point in the show, even an outsider has come to know the depth of what those words mean.

We live on an island – surrounded by water

Alone, yet together. At times lonely, but still profoundly linked. Safe from at least some of the ills of the world.

Cut off from the mainland. Reliant on a ferry that itself depends on the whims of weather. Cut off from many economic and social possibilities.

“Islands” earned that celebratory ending because it is founded in reality, a reality that comes from the words, thoughts and dreams of the islanders themselves.

“Islands” has its genesis at the North Haven Community School, which combines pre-K through grade 12, and Principal Barney Hallowell’s decision to ask John Wulp of Vinalhaven island to come and teach theater.

Wulp landed on Vinalhaven, which is separated from North Haven by a narrow channel, in the early 1990s. He had had a successful career in the New York theater world, earning a Tony Award for his production of “Dracula” and a Tony nomination, Drama Desk Award, Outer Critics’ Circle Award and a Los Angeles Drama Critics’ Award for his set design for “Crucifer of Blood.” He also won an Obie for directing the off-Broadway production of “Red Eye of Love.”

In his early ’70s, Wulp has the refined manner of an earlier time. He speaks in a measured cadence, with an Ivy League accent not unlike the late actor John Houseman’s. But just when you’ve got Wulp pegged, that image is shattered as he tells about being broke and having to work packing frozen lobsters on Vinalhaven some years ago. Or one of his students will make a joke, and Wulp unleashes his high-pitched, boyish laugh.

Asked if he turned his back on the New York theater world to come live a simpler life in Maine, Wulp says, with perfect dramatic timing and inflection, as if it occurs to him for the first time, “It had turned its back on me.”

But with Hallowell’s invitation, Wulp was back in theater, bringing all his skills to bear on students at the North Haven school. Guided by Wulp, students and adult community members have staged Shakespeare’s “A Midsummer’s Night Dream,” “As You Like It” and “The Tempest,” “HMS Pinafore,” “The Importance of Being Earnest,” and challenging works such as “Waiting for Godot.”

The defining feature of Wulp’s personality, students and adults on the island are quick to point out, is his refusal to settle for second-rate. He demands excellence of his actors and backstage staff. As one person put it, “He is egalitarian. He’ll talk to a 5-year-old the same way he’ll talk to a 95-year-old,” which means he’ll chew-out either for missing a cue.

Phil Crosman of Vinalhaven has appeared in a couple of Wulp’s productions. He rolls his eyes, but smiles when asked about the rigors Wulp puts his cast through.

David Cooper, 59, a ninth-generation North Haven resident, is the “star” of “Islands.” In a nod to Thornton Wilder’s “Our Town,” the musical follows Cooper on his rounds as the island’s postal delivery person, a job the real-life Cooper took after a back injury ended his lobster fishing.

“Islands” opens with Cooper – who looks like the Maine version of John Forsyth – addressing the audience, talking about the wonder of spring, and how he starts each day, having coffee with family and friends. His is the only nonsinging part in “Islands.”

“I can’t carry a tune in a bucket,” he jokes.

In Cooper’s narration between the songs of “Islands,” he describes a typical island day and how the seasons pass there.

Wulp asked Cooper to take the part in “Islands,” and wrote his lines. Asked about the director’s reputation for being a bit of a character, Cooper laughs and says, “Oh my God, that’s an understatement.” But like the others – young and old – who keep coming back to act in Wulp’s shows, Cooper tips his hat to the director.

“He’s good – there’s no doubt about it,” he says. “I wouldn’t do it if it wasn’t fun,” he says.

Cooper also gives high marks to Cindy Bullens, who wrote the songs that make up the musical. Bullens is a 25-year veteran of the rock and country music scene, where she has performed and-or recorded with Bob Dylan, Bonnie Raitt, Elton John and Bryan Adams. Her latest album, “Neverland,” recorded with help from Emmylou Harris, Steve Earle and John Hiatt, is due out in September.

“She’s like a homegrown Mainiac,” Cooper says of Bullens, who summered in Maine as a girl, and then bought a house on North Haven with her husband 11 years ago.

“They’re not like typical summer people,” he says. “People around here really like Cindy a lot.”

Bullens and her husband lost their 11-year-old daughter Jessie to cancer five years ago, and retreated to the island to try and heal. Out of the experience, Bullens wrote and recorded “Between Heaven and Earth,” a CD, which received critical kudos for its exploration of the powerful emotions of a grieving mother.

Just as Bullens drew from the depth of her feelings to write the songs on the album, her compositions that make up “Islands” are also grounded in reality. Almost two years ago, she and Wulp interviewed island residents about their lives 15 miles from the mainland.

Just before the show starts on opening night, Bullens talked about “Islands,” and how it is her gift to the island residents who helped her through her mourning.

“They are my family,” she says. During the difficult months after Jessie’s death, being on island “was like having arms around you,” she says.

Before she began her music career, Bullens had a love of theater, and in fact graduated from the American Academy of Dramatic Arts. So when Wulp asked her to create a show about island life, she was able to bring both her song writing and dramatic skills to bear.

While some might expect “Islands” to be a quaint depiction created by outsiders, this is clearly not the case.

“We agreed we wanted it to be a truthful view of island life,” Bullens says. “And sometimes it’s not pretty.”

The songs reflect the deft touch of an experienced songwriter – catchy melodies and bouncy rhythms with lyrical refrains that stick in the head. But they also pull no punches in dealing with topics like loneliness, isolation and missed opportunities.

“My objective was to be absolutely honest. I was the channel for what their experiences of living on an island were,” she says.

“I feel like this is the place where my heart and soul live,” Bullens continues, sitting on a rock outside the school, as people file past her and into the gym, most stopping to smile and say hello, some touching her on the shoulder as they pass.

“I’m as proud of this as I am of anything I’ve ever done,” she says of the show.

Eric Hopkins, a North Haven native, known throughout Maine and beyond for his paintings of Maine islands from the air, provides the visuals for “Islands.” Hopkins photographed island life in images that match the words to Bullens’ songs. The photos are projected on a huge screen behind the chorus during the show.

“On This Island,” the song which opens the show, establishes the theme: Life here is in some ways like being in paradise, but it has its cost.

Over a brisk tempo, the chorus sings: “Everybody looks/everybody sees/everybody hears/everybody knows/What everybody says/what everybody does/what everybody thinks/where everybody goes.”

The younger children, at one end of the stage, sing: “For a little kid/there’s so much to do/we can run free …” while at the other end of the stage the teens reply: “Driving all around/nothing else to see/nothing new to do/it’s all a big bore …”

“Six mothers, 350 Baby Sitters” is a song whose title and chorus came directly from the interviews. One of the teen-age boys said living on an island was “like having six mothers, and 350 baby sitters,” meaning that he couldn’t get away with much mischief.

In the show, the song is performed in rap-style, with half a dozen teen boys angrily shouting out the refrain. On opening night, the song drew knowing laughs from the audience.

“Lobster Girls” features six teen girls who sing about working on their grandfathers’ lobster boats: “Peeing in a bucket/bait in our hair/our hands full of calluses/but we don’t care …”

As the girls perform some dance moves with bait bags dangling from their back pockets, it all seems so cute. But as they sing, Hopkins’ photos of these same girls actually working on the boats appear on the screen, and one realizes that this isn’t dramatic invention, this is art capturing real life.

“The Long Haul” covers the phenomenon of married couples splitting, and pairing up with new mates, with everyone staying on the same small island. As is the case in small Maine towns, the song implies, they’re the better for having to make peace with their ex.

“The Boat” describes the relationship islanders have with the ferry, and suggests what it means “when the boat won’t go,” due to weather or mechanical problems.

“Lonely Room” is a moving duet sung by a man and a woman, each struggling with the deeper loneliness that growing old alone on an island brings.

A poignant moment late in the show is Emma Donahue’s solo, “Lucky Star,” in which the precocious sixth-grader thanks her lucky stars for the life she has on an island.

The wistful “Somewhere I’ve Never Been,” sung by three girls, is about the yearning for everything that is not on the island: “Some people think because I am dreaming of leaving/I don’t love my home./How could I turn my back on the people who love me?/I just need to know … /’bout this great big world/I know someday I’ll go.”

It’s a profound moment, as one can feel the conflicting emotions of the anchor of idyllic island life and the tug of what the “great big world” has to offer.

Members of the audience on opening night laughed out loud at many of the insider references, but also responded to the deeper statements the songs make about island life.

Wulp and the others hope to stage “Islands” during the last two weeks in August. And there is some talk of bringing it to the mainland. The case can be made that “Islands” has cultural significance for all of Maine; island life is probably not that different from living in an isolated small town in rural parts of the state.