Deep Blue Sound: Nine Actors on an Island

Ezekiel Baskin has been in the theater business since he was a little kid. Today he’s directing a new show for Silverthorne Theater, which begins its run on Thursday, July 16. I sat down with Ezekiel to ask him about Deep Blue Sound, the new play being performed at Hampshire College. I asked him what Deep Blue Sound is all about.

“It’s a hilarious and moving play about a community of people who live on an island, and the whales who come every year have gone missing. So they’re searching for the whales, but it’s also really about the people who live there and their relationships with each other. It’s kind of a slice of life play about this island community… and there are nine actors.  

 Wow, that’s good. Nine actors. So it’s not a solo show, thank God. 

No, it’s the opposite of a solo show!  It is the biggest cast that we’ve had at Silverthorne for at least five years.” 

 Wow.. Why, why all of a sudden nine? Why? 

“Well, part of our goal over the last few years has been providing opportunities for local actors and doing new shows with strong ensembles. So, like, if you remember, Amateurs last year had six, and The Comeuppance had five. So we’ve been trying to do some bigger shows, and we just fell in love with this script, and we were like, nine is a lift. It, you know, it’s more expensive the more actors you have. But we love this script so much that we thought it was really worth it.” 

That’s fascinating.  And I’m really glad to hear that because I do … I love the energy of a big show.  Who wrote this play?

It was written by Abe Koogler. He who grew up on an island that the island in the show is based on. So, it’s based on his experiences growing up. And what island was it? Vashon Island off the coast of Seattle. yeah. One of the things I love about this play is that it’s clearly set in the Pacific Northwest, but it feels very here. That island has a lot of similarities to Western Mass and the kind of small town community: everybody knows everybody, everybody is in each other’s business, it feels so accurate.”

Now, the question I have is about Hampshire College, where this play is being produced. Where will Silverthorne be after that with the theater? 

That’s a great question. So we’re, we’re looking at a couple of different options that we feel excited about. We plan to have a new summer home by next summer and continue to do our main stage productions in the summer. We feel very set on that. We hope to remain in Amherst; I mean, it’s worked really well to be at Hampshire. 

This summer, we have the Theater Thursdays down here that kind of roam around. So we’ve been at the Shea the last couple of years doing a reading up there, which has been really fun. And that sort of keeps our Franklin County roots engaged. We’ve been doing readings at Holyoke Media, which has been great, um, to kind of get Hampden County a little more. 

Tell me about some of the characters in this nine-person cast, which I hear each do at least two characters each for a total of around 18. 

“Imani Bibold worked with us before; she played Bull Rusher when we did Bull Rusher a couple of years ago. She plays someone who’s moved back to the island from New York City to help take care of her mom. She also plays a couple of other roles, and she’s fantastic. Gina Kaufman, whom you know, and who has been on our board for a long time and has been directing for us for a long time, is acting this time. It is Gina’s return to the stage after 15 years. She plays the mayor. The symbolic mayor who’s elected and doesn’t really have any powers. 

Well, this is reminding me a little bit of the movie I, the play I just saw at the Majestic Theater, Come from Away, where there’s a mayor, and there are all these frantic people around town. 

Yeah, and nine people. It has, it definitely, like, feels like it’s a cousin to Come from Away. We had somebody who worked for it in our crew.  Dana Harrison plays Ella, um, who is dying of cancer and is sort of in the middle, but she also is really… See, one thing I love about the play is that everybody has multiple roles, and she also is another character who gets some really funny moments.

Is everybody– you have nine actors- does everybody play another role? 

Yeah. So everybody plays at least two characters. One of the things I love about this play, it’s not just that it has nine actors, it’s that they’re all on stage together. So the play has these really big group scenes where they’re all coming together and trying to figure out how they’re gonna find the whales, what are they gonna do?”  

How extensive is the costuming?  What is the set like?

“We’re really doing a lot with lighting. I would say lighting is, like, the key storytelling element in a lot of ways. And sound too. I feel like everybody really feels like they’re from this island. great. Mary Beth Brooker plays Joy Mead, who’s the editor of the newspaper, who may or may not have been involved in a cult at one point. All these characters are really specific. They’re fleshed out.”  

How old is the play? 

“2023. It was off-Broadway. So it started at a sort of indie theater in New York, and then it was at the Public Theater off-Broadway. Um, it hasn’t been produced that much. … to my knowledge. So- So, so it’s not gonna be that familiar.  I think Koogler is one of the most brilliant new playwrights around, and he’s teaching at Bennington right now.

How many plays did you pick from to come up with these two this season?

“This time around, season selection around 35 plays. So only 25 came into consideration? Oh, I think maybe 40. We think of how the two work together. I think these plays, for people who came to see Sanctuary City, are a really nice counterpoint to that. Yeah. I feel like they both, um, yeah, they both speak to sort of how community with each other, what does it mean to be a neighbor, what does it mean to care for the people around you. But this one is much funnier, I would say.  Sanctuary City had some funny parts to it. I would say it doesn’t quite fit in a genre, but I think it’s … I think what I would say is you’ll laugh a lot, and you’ll probably cry. I think both things will happen. It will really cover the range of emotions.” 

Deep Blue Sea, Silverthorne Theater, Emily Dickinson Theater at Hampshire College, Amherst. July 16-26, 2026 Tickets