When Penobscot Theatre Company’s next production, “Papermaker,” opens at the Bangor Opera House on March 16, it will have a familiar setting for many Mainers: a paper mill.
Director Dan Burson, who grew up in Orono a few miles down the road from the former James River Mill in Old Town, knows that the play resonates with audiences in Maine.
“It’s a world I’m very familiar with, growing up in that area in the 80s,” said Burson. “Doing this play in Maine at this time in history is very interesting, because even though it’s been a few years now, we’re still in the shadow of mill closures in Bucksport and Old Town and East Millinocket. It’s still pretty fresh. It brings this play into a whole different focus.”
“Papermaker” is set in the late 1980s, and tells the story of two families in the midst of a bitter strike at the paper mill in the fictional western Maine town of Abbott’s Falls. In story and play alike, Ernie Donahue (played in PTC’s production by Portland-based actor James Herrera), is occupying his time outside of the ongoing strike at the mill where he’s worked for decades with an ambitious, confounding project — building a huge wooden ark in his backyard.
Meanwhile, his wife, Marie (AJ Mooney), is battling cancer, and his son, Jake (Daniel Kennedy), is considering crossing the picket line at the mill. The mill’s owner, Henry (Doug Meswarb), emerges as Ernie’s foil, while Henry’s daughter, Emily (New York-based Emily McCoy), is drawn to Jake. Sarcastic but supportive neighbor Nancy (Jen Shepard) rounds out the ensemble.
The ark in question is a major figure in the play — both figuratively and literally, as the ark, designed by set designer Chez Cherry, is a commanding presence on stage.
Written by Maine author Monica Wood, the play is based on her short story “Ernie’s Ark.” The play debuted at Portland Stage in spring 2015.
“I don’t think Ernie himself knows exactly why he’s building an ark,” said Wood, via email. “But the presence of something so large and symbolic, especially in the shadow of a large and symbolic mill, appealed to me even more in the play than in [the original story]. I think the ark means something different to each character. Hope? Folly? Who knows?”
Wood grew up in the real-life mill town of Mexico, a place she explored in her best-selling 2012 memoir, “When We Were the Kennedys,”
The stories of millworking families and mill towns are not only ripe with dramatic possibilities — telling those stories is also, in many ways, a therapeutic tool for the folks living in those towns where the mill has closed.
Bringing to life fictional families and communities that are rooted in real Maine life is challenging for a director. A balance has to be struck between honoring the play itself as a specific piece of theater, and honoring the values and culture of rural Mainers, who will likely make up the vast majority of the audience during the play’s three-week run.
“We talked about that on day one,” said Burson, who directed PTC’s “One Blue Tarp” three years ago. “This isn’t an attempt to replicate the real world. It’s work of fiction, and we want to create the best play possible. It has to be our own thing … but, on the other hand, you have to honor this world and these people. You want to do it justice. You have to do both.”
Burson said that while “Papermaker” is a Maine story about Maine people, it’s also more broadly a story about labor, hard work, and family.
“You so rarely see plays where labor, and organized labor, is central to the plot,” said Burson. “Especially when it hinges on these two families, and this ensemble cast. It’s truly an ensemble. Every character has an important job to do. It’s really powerful.”
Wood was blown away by the response the play received during its initial Portland run.
“People from mill towns came to see it by the hundreds. They had lived some version of this story and wanted to see it on stage,” said Wood. “That was unbelievably gratifying to me. Even more gratifying, though, was that no matter which side a viewer was on — management or labor, so often somewhere in between — that viewer felt the play depicted them with humanity. I was deeply moved by the response.”
Pat Ranzoni, a poet and writer who has lived most of her life in Bucksport, has been working on an anthology of stories and poems from former Bucksport millworkers called “Still Mill,” due out later this spring. She saw “Papermaker” when it premiered in Portland, and plans to see the Penobscot Theatre’s staging of it.
“I found the play deeply moving,” said Ranzoni. “I think a lot of former workers are really proud and grateful that they are being remembered for who they are and what they did, and that they’re not just going to fade away without acknowledgment… I think it’s really important to be able tell your story, and to hear stories like ‘Papermaker.’ It helps you process what’s happened to you and your town. It’s an incredible tribute.”
Penobscot Theatre Company’s production of “Papermaker” opens on Thursday, March 16 and runs Wednesdays through Sundays through April 2 at the Bangor Opera House. Monica Wood will lead a talkback session with the cast and crew and with former millworkers and members of Maine’s lumber industry after the performance at 3 p.m. Sunday, March 19. For tickets and showtimes, visit penobscottheatre.org.
