Maine Native Opens Theatre Festival

Daisey grew up in Fort Kent and Etna, and graduated from Colby College. He now lives in New York City and is a world-renowned monologist.

He is opening the 10-day festival with his monologue "The Last Cargo Cult." It's an hour and a half story about the two weeks in February when he lived on an island in the South Pacific.

Daisey explains during World War Two, soldiers came to this island and built military bases, and then when the war was over they left. The people on the island, who until that point had never had contact with Americans, then started to worship Americans. Daisey said they carve the names of American cities into their arms and legs, and they are infatuated with items such as refrigerators.

Daisey learned much of this on the internet and decided to go there during the island's annual festival in which they celebrate America's history; which he says is drastically different than what people in the states have been taught as American history.

From those two weeks, Daisey put together this monologue, which has no script, but rather just an outline. The performance at the festival is the second showing.

"It's sort of about our belief systems in money and in finance and their belief systems in sympathetic magic and trust. And how the two things are not as far apart as they might appear," said Daisey.

Daisey said as he grew up in Fort Kent, he had a lot of great storytellers around him. He said they would tell long, funny, meandering tales that would come back to a point. "That tradition of storytelling you don't realize how powerful until you leave and travel the country and the world," he said. "It's very vibrant in New England and especially in Maine."

He hopes when people see his show they'll not only come away having seen a well-told story, but that they think about society.

"What the monologues are best at is opening doors," he said. "So my hope is they'll hear the show and they'll get a chance to hear about this very far away place that sounds so alien from us and in the process of telling them about it, I'll be able to use it kind of like a lens to see ourselves more clearly when we're all talking about money constantly. That we'll talk about another place where they worship very different things, but in some ways the same things."

The Northern Writes Third Annual New Play Festival opens Wednesday with Daisey's show. Over ten days there are 19 shows by 19 playwrights. You can buy a day pass for $5 or a pass for the entire festival for $35.

For information on tickets, click here.