tcpalm.com: The musical drama, “The Last Ship,” which opened on Broadway a few weeks ago, has received mixed reviews from tough New York critics.
With original music by Sting and inspired by his memories of the shipbuilding town in northeast England where he grew up, the story is of lost love, broken dreams and the grit and determination of a people so closely linked to the sea as they band together to build one final ship and see it set sail.
I saw “The Last Ship” this past summer in Chicago as it was being prepared for its Broadway debut. What struck me about the show and stirred in me something special was the tone and mood of the production, its moments of joy and sadness, the somber fog that seemed to hang over the place and its people.
It reminded me of another musical drama with its tone and mood and the characters of the people whose lives and fortunes are so linked to the ocean. That musical was based on a true story of a school teacher who was hired for a one-room school on the Outer Banks of North Carolina during World War II.
The descendants of shipwreck survivors, the men of the town lived their lives rescuing others from the sea. The women of the town kept the families together and prayed for their husbands and sons as they continued the tradition from generation to generation.
The show was called “Kinnakeet,” the original name for the Outer Banks town now called Avon. I was the author of the script and director of the cast of more than 60 during its premiere at a regional theater in North Carolina. I co-wrote the lyrics with composer Dottie Dickson who had encouraged me to tackle the project.
That was a long time ago. Seeing “The Last Ship” reminded me of the experience. But, it also reminded me of the unique nature of those who have chosen to live by the ocean and how that ocean is so much a part of our lives, our moods, our hopes and our fears.
When the ocean is gray and raging as it was early last week, we are reminded of the power of nature and how we are no match when it becomes angry. We are justly in awe and wary of the danger.
When the sun beams upon the blue water, we are filled with a peace and sense of joy, of freedom, of life being lived to its fullest.
When the sky is clear and filled with sparkling stars on a gentle night, we can sit in the sand and wonder at the vastness of the universe. When we take our troubles there, they often become so small in the scheme of things that our worries can seem inconsequential. We are nurtured and soothed.
And, though we live beside its shores and boat along its surface, this sea that means so much in our lives is very much a mystery that we have not come close to unraveling.
We look to the heavens and send men and women and machines there to explore. We know more about Mars than we know about what lies in our ocean waters. It’s a point ocean explorer Robert Ballard, who I had the privilege of interviewing and introducing earlier this year at the Emerson Center in Vero Beach, often makes. Ballard, famed for discovering the shipwrecked Titanic, was featured last week on a National Geographic special on TV. His excitement for some of his latest scientific discoveries in the ocean depths was evident and inspiring.
Inspiring, too, have been the research and discoveries by Edie Widder, founder of the Fort Pierce-based Ocean Research and Conservation Association. She reminds us constantly that our own survival as humans is dependent on the survival of our oceans.
Both are at the vanguard of our knowledge about the wonders within our oceans that we can barely imagine.
Those of us who live beside the sea love where we live. But, we have so much more to learn, so much more to understand about ourselves and our relationship to that sea.
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