Michael Cowell was raised in the town of Kailua, on the island of O’ahu, Hawai’i. Song for the Navigator was the first U.S. play to tour throughout the Micronesian islands. After a performance on the still traditional island of Yap, an elderly, dignified navigator from one of the tiny “outer-islands” approached Michael and asked him, “You do a true thing. How did you know how we are?” This was the highest acknowledgement that the play was faithful to its source and gave Michael, as it’s called in Hawai’i, “chicken-skin.”
