Scene: Kayleigh Brumet, 13, sets a newly printed script at each seat along a configuration of four banquet tables inside the Orr’s Island Schoolhouse. It’s 6 p.m. on Monday, Feb. 3. Her grandfather, Mike Brumet, turns on the lights and sets the thermostat.
Mike Brumet is a founding member of a loosely structured group of Orr’s and Bailey islanders who have named themselves the Island Players and made it their mission to help revitalize community theater in the town of Harpswell.
The door opens and Linda Depres, wearing a red coat and a knit hat against the wintry weather, enters, followed shortly thereafter by additional members of the more established Harpswell Community Theater. Some of the Island Players, including Mike Brumet and Alfred Martorelli, are members of both groups.
Harpswell Community Theater has been an institution in the town for more than 20 years, staging summer and holiday productions at Centennial Hall in Harpswell Neck. But in 2024 there was only one production.
Mike Brumet said the company has “done some great things,” and when he first got involved, it had adequate volunteers to stage two annual performances.
“Each production since has been a little more of a struggle until finally, at Christmas, we weren’t able to do it all,” he said. “It’s like a train that has been slowly stopping.”
The Feb. 3 meeting was the second for the two symbiotic groups. It was a chance to further define their intertwined roles and figure out how to get theater in Harpswell back on track.
Since their inception in May 2024, the Island Players have envisioned their role as supportive of Harpswell Community Theater. At a meeting in January, the two groups agreed to cement that relationship in order to move forward toward shared goals.
Tom Vurgason, speaking for Harpswell Community Theater, said the original group’s vision is fairly simple: to put on plays. A secondary goal is to improve Centennial Hall to make it a better venue for productions.
The Island Players are less production-focused, favoring more of a workshop approach. Their mission is to share their passion for the dramatic arts through discussion and table reads, to explore topics like stagecraft and playwriting, to act as a sounding board for the greater community’s interest in local theater, and to serve as a potential talent conduit for Harpswell Community Theater productions.
The Island Players want to foster the excitement and opportunity inherent in planning and performing a play while pairing it with a more laid-back approach focused on sharing a love of theater without always requiring the time commitment or audience pressure of a formal production.
“I want to make sure that we do both,” Mike Brumet said. “I want to have the regular monthly meeting and I want to have some structure to it so that when people show up they have some expectations.”
While the goal of revitalizing community theater in Harpswell is a shared one, it doesn’t mean there are no friendly disagreements.
Martorelli, eager to get started, lobbies for a spring production.
Jean Calderwood warns against being too ambitious, preferring the traditional two-production schedule.
Martorelli wants to pick a play at the next meeting, start casting.
Calderwood has three graduations to attend in May. “I really find that the spring is so blooming busy,” she says. Others nod in agreement.
Martorelli feels an aggressive timeline is critical to gaining visibility and generating more participation.
“Even if we see it as a trial … I think it pulls us together,” he says. “And it’s fun! I mean, that’s why we’re here — to do a performance.”
What type of performance to start with is the topic of another lively discussion.
Joanne Rogers likes the idea of quick skits that involve everyone. “Let’s face it: It’s not fun if you have a walk-on that gives you a couple of sentences. We all want to have a part in it.”
Calderwood, fresh from an in-costume recruitment effort at the monthly Merriconeag Grange pancake breakfast, said the most common response to her vintage sequined gown and fancy black fascinator was “When are you having the show?”
“They love to come,” she says. “They love comedy. … That’s what the public is looking for — a little chance to laugh.”
Despres and Calderwood advocate for works that would include children in the cast.
Molly Tannatt, new to Harpswell but eager to contribute her experience and talent, mentions one-act plays as an option. She also makes a case for including music and seeking out multigenerational pieces.
Kayleigh Brumet suggests “Anne of Green Gables,” having just read the play based on the classic novel.
Mike Brumet nods. The play’s setting of Prince Edward Island, Canada, has a coastal culture similar to Harpswell’s. He talks about the sound of lobster boats and seagulls, about neighbors’ stories of Harpswell’s past. “That’s what I want to be part of. That’s the culture,” he says.
Tapping into that maritime aspect is important to Joe Goldman, another founding member of the Island Players. Goldman missed the Feb. 3 meeting, but in December, he had expressed a desire to capture something of Harpswell’s spirit in at least some of the material chosen.
“If you were to sit in the (Bailey Island) General Store and listen to some of the fishermen and people from the island, there’s a cadence and rhythm very natural to this place,” he said.
Goldman pointed to the Dylan Thomas play “Under Milk Wood” as a work that captures that sense of place in its language and setting.
“Something about being by the sea has a universal connection,” he said.
The Island Players’ approach to local theater is open-ended. There’s room to breathe. The usual model of setting a date and then scrambling to meet it is not the plan.
For them, the first step is to find the right piece. Next comes workshopping the script, followed by the nuts and bolts of venue, costumes and cast. Only when all the pieces are in place would they schedule an actual production, whether that takes two months or six months.
Despite differences in approach, the Island Players and Harpswell Community Theater serve complementary purposes.
There are the experienced players who have nurtured the flame of community theater in Harpswell for the last two decades. And there’s plenty of room for newcomers, eager for growth and opportunity, looking to find their own way into the tradition of theater.
“I’m looking around and seeing most everybody smiling,” Rogers says. “(I’m) thinking this is good. … We’re here. We’re going to do something. And we’re going to have fun doing it.”
End scene.
The next meeting of the Island Players is at 6 p.m. on Monday, March 3. For more information, join the Island Players group on Facebook or drop by the Orr’s Island Schoolhouse at 6 p.m. on the first Monday of any month.
