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“As You Like It” at the amphitheater B1

Thursday, July 16, 2026

Icons: Brooke Adams and Tony Shalhoub B6

THE MARTHA’S VINEYARD TIMES

Volume 43, Issue No. 28

2 Sections

Father and son in electric dirt-bike accident remain in critical condition

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Airlifted to Boston; fundraiser launched by family member to ease medical costs. BY EUNKI SEONWOO, NICHOLAS VUKOTA, AND SARAH SHAW DAWSON

CHACE LEWIS

ABOARD THE VINEYARD CUP

father and his 6-year-old son riding an electric dirt bike were seriously injured in a collision with a pickup truck on Sea View Avenue in Oak Bluffs. The two were medevaced to a Boston trauma center on July 9, and remain in critical condition. The father and son, named on Saturday as Michael Ellis and his child, Nolan Ellis, are at Mass General Hospital in Boston for treatment. New details about the status of the father and son emerged after a GoFundMe was posted on Saturday by Dolores Borza, Michael Ellis’ mother and Nolan Ellis’ grandmother. According to Borza’s post, 6-year-old Nolan is in a medically induced coma with a brain bleed and two skull fractures. On the day of the accident, dispatchers advised police who were en route that CPR was being performed on Nolan, according to a press release from Oak Bluffs Police Chief Jonathan M. Searle issued Friday. “Upon arrival, officers located two severely injured patients on the shared-use path that parallels Sea View Avenue. Lifesaving measures, which had been initiated by an off-duty nurse and bystanders at the scene, were immediately taken over and continued by arriving Police, Fire, and EMS personnel,” Searle said in the release. Nolan’s father, Michael, 38, is in critical condition after sustaining injuries in the crash, such as a broken wrist, ribs, arm, sternum, and upper jaw, along with liver and pancreas lacerations, a head injury, and a knee injury. As of Sunday, he’s in a medically induced coma as well, Borza said. Borza posted to social media Tuesday Continued on A9

The Island Cup Regatta, photographed by Chace Lewis who sailed on the schooner Juno. Lewis’s photograph features Tabasco, which is captained by Zoli Clarke, just after she almost her rig off West Chop in the first leg of the race on day one of the regatta. The annual race, which raises money for youth sailing programs on-Island, celebrated 20 years last weekend. The weather held out as local sailors packed the Vineyard Sound, and from the shore, where passersby saw white sails across the horizon all weekend. See coverage on A16.

Shelter proposed Across an inner universe to heal residents A partnership of creative filmmaking with Julie Taymor and Elliot Goldenthal. through indigenous traditions W BY SARAH SHAW DAWSON

The campus would be the first native-run domestic shelter in Massachusetts. BY EUNKI SEONWOO

quinnah, the ancestral home of the Wampanoag Tribe of Gay Head, may become the host of the first native-run shelter in the state for indigenous women who are victims of domestic and sexual violence. The Martha’s Vineyard Commission opened the hearing for Aquinnah Headwaters, a campus on 7.76 acres that would house a program to support indigenous women who have suffered from abuse. There will be a continued hearing on the proposal next week, Continued on A7

hen Julie Taymor was asked to direct the film “Across the Universe” two decades ago, she looked at the script, and knew she wanted to create a movie that was larger than a love story. Now the culmination of that initial vision is scheduled to be shown on the Island on July 22 and August 11. The screenings land in a summer when two other highly acclaimed films by Taymor and her life partner and composer, Elliot Goldenthal, are also being shown. The couple’s work is in high demand, with sold-out screenings that include “Frida” and “The Glorias.” The Times sat down with Taymor and Goldenthal to discuss their films, the accompanying music and how they are woven together. The script for “Across the Universe” is set in the 1960s at the start of the Vietnam War, when 2.2 million American men were drafted into the war; many

Americans back home protested the conflict. There was a fog that blanketed the era, as a generation questioned what they were being asked to fight for. It was a moment of social change and political unrest. And many Americans who might have otherwise followed a traditional path, mainly young, white college students, demanded answers from their government instead. At the same time, a wealth of musicians, artists, and creatives rose from the tumult and passion, and created some of the most celebrated works of the 20th century. The Beatles in many ways helped define the era as they experimented with psychedelic sound and visuals during the decade as a response to the changing attitudes of their audience. “Across the Universe” features 34 Beatles songs that are covered by actors in the film, with Continued on A8

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