Addicted to Love
by Wade Lawrence Hollomon
The first day I came to Ocracoke Island was the day that I graduated high school. I was in the back seat with my roommate Emmet Temple, being driven by the esteemed editor of this publication, veritably stunned from the events of the day. My relationship with Ocracoke began as I’m sure so many others have: with a ferry ride, mine through the night, and running barefoot on the beach as soon as we hit land, still in my grey suit from the ceremony mere hours earlier.
The island is a gorgeous place, a hot place, a kind place full of hard-working and passionate people. I found a place to stay and a job at the Pony Island Restaurant, and Emmet and I began work on the reason I came to the island: Romeo and Juliet. Emmet’s, Warren Weber’s (who arrived on the island a few weeks later), and my theatrical interests had all combined the previous year to form the company Moore 213 Productions, and though we had put on several plays at our high school, this was our first foray out into the world, out into a new community. I was blown away by the response: partnering with Ocracoke Alive, partnering with the Ocracoke Theatre Company, finding incredible actors, producers, and designers who were all willing to donate their time and efforts towards turning our labor of love into a reality.
Romeo and Juliet was a success beyond my expectations: watching Emmet learn how to work as a director, watching so many of the actors come into their own, being a part of Warren’s awe-inspiring sword fights, and hearing so many kind words of support and appreciation from the community. When I left the island and went away to college in Scotland, these times stuck with me and grew in my soul – I found that the island was there in the work I made, in the way I wrote, in how I told other people what the last year of my life had meant to me. And in April 2014, following a tumultuous and harrowing year full of growth and trials, I found myself riding a ferry to move back to Ocracoke.
I’ve been moving around near-constantly for the last two years, I’ve lived across the world, and it’s been a while since a place has felt like home. And yet, it seems like Ocracoke feels more and more like that to me every day. It is unlike anywhere else I have ever been. I learn something new about the area every single day, about what has happened in the island’s past and where it is headed for the future. I talk to someone and they can shift my entire way of thinking about some part of island life. And through it all I have felt so rejoicingly accepted, so effortlessly inducted as a part of this steadfast place full of tradition and full of people who love what they do and where they live.
Now for the past six weeks Emmet and I have been back at work, and that feels incredible. I’ve been telling everyone I talk to about how excited I am for them to see this show, and I really mean it- the play this incredible cast has pieced together is absolutely hilarious and bristling with experimental energy. Emmet wrote and directed Addicted To Love, a comedic sequel-of-sorts to William Shakespeare’s A Midsummer’s Night Dream and Twelfth Night, and the cast has thrown themselves in headfirst from the table reads up to the dress rehearsals. The play follows the story of Violet, played with comedic chemistry and quiet rage by Caroline Temple, as she navigates a new city while dealing with her dumbfounded twin brother, her potentially divine feminist landlord, her depressed poet would-be boyfriend and his obsessed groupie follower, not to mention a lacrosse player sworn to revenge and a mischievous force passing out doses of powerful love potions. It is simultaneously a situational comedy not unlike a Shakespearean episode of Friends, a riotous send-up of and riff on youth hook-up culture, and a surprisingly heartfelt commentary on growing up and not being able to see our own potential. It is, if nothing else, a very fun piece of work that I am honored to be a part of, in this community that has grown to mean the world to me.
That is my thank you, and here is my invitation: come see Addicted To Love later this week. It is a hilarious play that has had a lot of hard work put into it to make it a reality. This has been an incredibly exciting week for arts on Ocracoke already, with the astounding Ocrafolk Festival last weekend and A Tale of Blackbeard beginning its summer run this Monday. And with art funding currently being called into question in a major way on the island, not to mention recurring issues with ferries and lifeguards, now is one of the most important times to come out and support new work being created on Ocracoke. Especially when you might just get a few laughs from it.
“Addicted To Love” is showing Thursday June 12th and Friday June 13th at 8:00pm in the Ocracoke Community Center. It is being produced by Moore 213 Productions, in conjunction with Ocracoke Alive.
