Best of Maine 2023

SPOTLIGHT: FIRST TIMER

ISLE Theater Company

Marvin Merritt IV read Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner” in high school English, growing up on Deer Isle. He didn’t love it, but it’s crept up on him since. “It was definitely a hard piece to navigate,” says Merritt, a cofounder of ISLE Theater Company, “but a lot of people here connected with it because it’s a seafaring story.” Helping audiences forge connections through storytelling is at the heart of the mission of the Deer Isle–based company that Merritt and Harvard pal Anna Fitzgerald founded just after graduation, three years ago. ISLE has since produced an eclectic mix of site-specific shows, using professional actors and crew, at spots that include a Deer Isle quarry and a Penobscot farm. This summer’s Water, Water Everywhere, August 10–20, is a contemporary retelling of “Ancient Mariner,” staged at Brooklin’s WoodenBoat School. During a month of rehearsals, visiting artists stayed with local volunteer hosts. “It’s immensely fulfilling,” Merritt says, “to see a small island community pull together and make this theater company possible.”