Deep in the heart of the Great Lakes, where Lake Michigan waters intersect with Green Bay, a lighthouse stands watch over the narrow, treacherous passage known to those in her reach as Porte des Morts, or Death’s Door. Hailed as a haven by some and posed as a prison by others, Pilot Island hosts a number of faithful and reluctant keepers alike. As the only checkpoint standing between a ship’s safe passage and an unknown alternative, the island and its light play a vital role in the lives of both the passersby beholden to its reaches, and its inhabitants–saviors to those whose brush with death is close and indelible.

Where once carefully crafted routines guided by human hands give way to automated processes, there lives an impression. Each soul Pilot Island hosts treads a deeper footpath and leaves behind a new story to haunt her shores–a young pair of immigrants with no lighthouse keeping experience and the mercurial second assistant burrowing under their skins; a beloved pet becoming an unlikely martyr; a Keeper who saved enough lives to create a legacy, and more.

In a kaleidoscope of new, imaginative storytelling colliding with factual records of life on Pilot Island between the 1880s-1910s, Pilot Island & Her Keepers holds a beveled pane of glass over the meeting of fact & fiction–where memory passes down to legacy, and history transforms into lore.

The Artists

Director Stefan Roseen
Playwright Kayla Belec

The Cast