North to Maine

North to Maine: A Journey on the Appalachian Trail
Original Production Poster
Written by	Brenton Lengel
Characters	Kevin Nick/Creature Man Adam/Frodo Alice/Juice Box Rockstabber
Date premiered	June 2013
Place premiered	The Living Theatre New York, New York
Original language	English
Genre	Drama
Setting	Appalachian Trail, May to August, 2008

North to Maine is a 2009 play by American playwright Brenton Lengel. It is the first play ever written about the Appalachian Trail and the thru-hikers who walk it.^[1][2][3] The play is sprawling and epic, with scenes taking place over the course of several months and many states, culminating with the ascent of Katahdin, the northern terminus of the Appalachian Trail. The work has received several awards, honors, and sponsorships and is supported by the Appalachian Trail Conservancy and the New York–New Jersey Trail Conference.^[4]

Plot

Set entirely on the Appalachian Trail, sometime during the second Gulf War, the play follows the journey of Adam, aka "Frodo," a young college graduate lacking purpose and searching for adventure along with several other thru-hikers, all of whom are similarly unmoored. Together this impromptu fellowship struggles with nature, each other, and themselves as they make the journey from Georgia north to Maine.

As the play progresses, these disparate individuals pull together and slowly reveal more of themselves to each other and the audience. Each character's story builds upon the others, and several experience moments of crisis which are solved by building human connections between them. This eventually culminates in a mad dash through the woods at night to save a hallucinating member, who is dying of an untreated spider bite, and ultimately in Adam/Frodo's ascent of Katahdin.^[5]

The plot of North to Maine is somewhat unique in the fact that it lacks traditional protagonists and antagonists; as one critic puts it:^[6]

"...there are no traditional heroes or villains in this play: these people are not doing battle or even trying to master nature but rather simply become at one with it, and they are likewise never antagonists to each other, except in the heat of random particular moments; they must finally only collaborate to climb these mountains and reach the end of their journey. Their only true battles are within themselves..."

— Martin Denton, Nytheatre.com

Characters

Adam/Frodo: A young man running from a world which he perceives as forcing him into a soulless career, preferring instead the romance and high adventure contained within the work of J.R.R. Tolkien.

Nick/Creature Man: An intense and judgmental entrepreneur who lost his business and maybe some of his mind in the process.

Kevin: A sagacious former Marine looking for a way to make peace with his violent past.

Alice/Juice-box: A young woman hiking by herself, who as a result finds herself highly sought after as one of the few single women on the trail.

Rock-Stabber: A socially stunted former Marine/jazz singer/gear tester with several odd habits, including a refusal to wear trousers and the almost compulsive need to sing everywhere he goes.

Factuality

A 2000-Miler himself, playwright Brenton Lengel crafted North to Maine to be "The True Story of the Appalachian Trail and the Thru-Hikers who walk it." Lengel maintains that the story, while fiction, is "90% fact" based largely upon his own experiences. The characters are not real people, but composites of many hikers, and though all events in the play took place, they may not have happened to the character in question nor in the order which they appear.^[4]

Like the many literary memoirs published by other hikers, North to Maine is full of "insider information" about the trail and thru-hiking, including specific topography, gear, and hiker lingo. As such, the play provides keen insight into the 2000-Miler experience.^[2]

Philosophic and Literary Allusions

Throughout the play, Lengel continually references J.R.R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings in both its literary and cinematic incarnations. The main character's Trail Name is "Frodo," he carries a copy of The Fellowship of the Ring, and he wears a replica of The One Ring around his neck, which at the end is left hanging from the sign on top of Katahdin. During the second act, the characters remark that "The Lord of the Rings is basically a thru-hike," and Nick/Creature Man refers to the band of hikers as "the Fellowship."

Before the climax of the first act, the philosophy of Friedrich Nietzsche is referenced in a monologue comparing Adam/Frodo's Romantically inspired journey with Nietzsche's philosophy of aestheticism: living one's life as a work of art.^[7]

The play's title is taken from the final line of a poem^[8] by Earl Shaffer, the first person ever to walk the Appalachian Trail in its entirety:

"The flowers bloom, the songbirds sing, and though it be sun or rain,
I walk the mountaintops with spring from Georgia north to Maine."

— Earl Schaffer, 1948

Production History

Staged readings:

(2009) Antipants Productions in Louisville, Ky.^[9]

(2010) ArtEffects Theatre Company, New York, NY.^[10]

(2010) Eastern Mountain Sports, Soho, New York, NY.

(2010) Autonomous Collective and The Appalachian Trail Conservancy at Trail Days National Thru-Hiker Festival, Damascus, VA ^[11]

(2012) State of Play Productions, Inc. New York, NY.^[12]

Full Productions:

North to Maine's world premier was produced by State of Play Productions Inc. at The C.O.W. Theater (Formerly The Living Theatre), New York, NY, on June 5, 2013. It was directed by Eric Parness of Resonance Ensemble and ran for two weeks. The following year, the play was revived by The American Theatre of Actors and ran for three weeks in The Beckmann Theatre at 314 West 54th Street, New York, NY.^[1][11]

Press & Critical Reception

North to Maine's World Premier was covered by both Backpacker^[13] and Outside Magazine^[2] as well as The Leader,^[14] the internal magazine published by NOLS-WMI. The Play's development was covered by AT Journeys Magazine.^[15]

Martin Denton of NyTheatre.com called it:^[6]

"a stunning and emotionally involving work of theater."

Gina Femia of New York Theatre Review wrote that it was:^[16]

"A carefully crafted and incredibly moving story...that digs deep into the heart [and] encapsulates the human condition...Lengel has written a timeless story that reaches out and grabs all who long for an adventure."

A review by Marti Sichel of Woman Around Town remarked:^[12]

“Playwright Brenton Lengel has crafted a loving and more importantly likeable portrait of the Appalachian Trail and her transitory inhabitants...solid, three-dimensional characters that we grow to love…"

Reaction from the AT Community:

In addition to the Trail Club sponsorships, the reaction from the AT Community has been overwhelmingly positive, as one poster on Whiteblaze.net put it:^[17]

"Well, I saw it tonight with my non-hiker wife - it was great! Highly recommended for all hikers and their families, as well as anyone who wants to understand more about the trail. Playwright Brenton Lengel and all the actors did a fantastic job. It's a long play and never a dull moment or wasted dialogue. You'll enjoy seeing the gear we know and depend on used on the stage. Somehow Brenton captured the look and feel of the trail and translated it expertly to the stage. If you have any possibility of getting to NYC to see this production during its very short run, don't miss it!"

— Big Toe, Whiteblaze.net

Awards and Honors

North to Maine won first runner-up in the 2010 James L. Rodger's American Playwright's Competition and was solicited for the 2010 Humana Festival of New American Plays reading cycle at Actor's Theatre of Louisville. Two monologues from the show were selected to be published in "Best Men's Monologues of 2014" by Smith & Kraus. Its' productions and readings were sponsored by several major corporations including Eastern Mountain Sports, REI, Gregory, Osprey, Superfeet, Leki, Wholefoods Markets, The Brooklyn Brewery, and Gear to Go Outfitters.^[1][10][18]

Playwright Brenton Lengel was the official Keynote Speaker at the 2013 New York-New Jersey Trail Conference's Summer Meeting, where part of North to Maine was performed.^[19]

References