When the stage lights come up ...
OK, so it’s kind of early to start planning next year’s gardens barely into January, but it’s the perfect time to peruse theater calendars in southern and Midcoast Maine.
Here’s a preview of what will be behind the curtains as they rise and the footlights shine.
The Portland Players Theater
420 Cottage Road, South Portland, ME 04106 I -207-799-7337
www.portlandplayers.org/#!this-season/c1fpb
“Born Yesterday” - directed by Michael Rafter - Jan. 29 and runs through Feb. 14. Born Yesterday is a deliciously witty screwball comedy about a corrupt millionaire businessman, Harry Brock. He hunkers down in a lavishly decorated hotel room in Washington with his brassy chorus girl girlfriend Billie Dawn in tow. He hopes to influence a senator in some personal business dealings.
“The Crucible,” the Arthur Miller classic, directed by Michael Donovan - March 25 - April 10. This exciting drama tells the story about the Puritan purge of witchcraft in old Salem. The story focuses upon a young farmer, his wife, and a young servant-girl who maliciously causes the wife's arrest for witchcraft.
“The Wild Party” by Andrew Lippa, directed by Ray Dumont. May 20 - June 5. Set in the Roaring Twenties, The Wild Party tells the story of one wild evening in the Manhattan apartment shared by Queenie and Burrs, a vaudeville dancer and a vaudeville clown. In a relationship marked by vicious behavior and recklessness (mirroring the time in which they live), they decide to throw a party to end all parties.
Heartwood Regional Theater Company
81 Academy Hill Road, Nobleboro – 207-563-1373
“Three Blue Tales - “East of the Sun, West of the Moon,” “Twelve Dancing Princesses,” and “The Brave Little Tailor,” - adapted by Artistic Director Griff Braley – January 29-30.
The Thornton Wilder classic “Our Town” - April 29 & 30, May 1, 4-7
Shakespeare's “The Tempest” - July 15-17, 20-23
Maine State MusicTheatre
Brunswick – 207-725-8769
Ghost, the Musical” - the east coast regional premiere! - June 8
The east coast regional premiere adapted from the hit film opens the 58th season. The musical follows Sam and Molly, a tech wizard and a gifted potter, whose connection takes a shocking turn after Sam’s death. Trapped between two worlds, Sam refuses to leave Molly when he learns she is in grave danger.
“Evita,” by Andrew Lloyd Webber – June 29
As an illegitimate 15-year-old, Eva escaped her dirt-poor existence for the bright lights of Buenos Aires, Argentina. Driven by ambition and blessed with charisma, she was a starlet at 22, the President’s mistress at 24, First Lady at 27, and dead at 33. Eva Peron was “saint to the working class, reviled by the aristocracy and mistrusted by the military.” Told through a compelling score that fuses haunting chorales with exuberant Latin, pop and jazz influences.
“Fiddler On the Roof,” opens July 20
Set in the little village of Anatevka, Tevye, is a poor dairyman with five daughters. With the help of a colorful and tight-knit Jewish community, Tevye tries to protect his daughters and instill them with traditional values in the face of changing social mores and the growing anti-Semitism of Czarist Russia. “Fiddler on the Roof” cuts across barriers of race, class, nationality and religion and features iconic songs including - “Sunrise, Sunset,” and “If I Were A Rich Man.”
“Mama Mia” opening August 10
A daughter. Three possible dads. This tale full of sun and fun unfolds on a Greek island paradise when, on the eve of her wedding, a daughter’s quest to discover the identity of her father brings three men from her mother’s past back tot he island they last visited 20 years before. The story-telling magic of ABBA’s timeless songs propels this enchanting tale of love, laughter and friendship.
Midcoast Actors' Studio
The Playhouse, Church Street, Belfast- 207-370-7592
“A Lie of the Mind” - March
Written by Sam Shepard, first staged at the off-Broadway Promenade Theater on Dec. 5, 1985. The play was directed by Shepard himself with starred Harvey Keitel as Jake, Amanda Plummer as Beth, Aidan Quinn as Frankie, Geraldine Page as Lorraine, and Will Patton as Mike. The music was composed and played by the North Carolina bluegrass group the Red Clay Ramblers.
“Circle Mirror Transformation” - May
In an artsy small town, an unlikely collection of strangers sign up for Marty's "Adult Creative Drama" class: a recently divorced carpenter, a high school junior, a former actress, and Marty's husband. Unfolding like a charmingly funny indie film, the group plays Marty's imaginative (and sometimes awkward) theatre games. But as their relationships develop over the course of the summer, the seemingly silly games generate some real-life drama.
George Bernard Scott's “Arms and the Man”- September
The play was first produced on April 21, 1894. “Arms and the Man” is a humorous play that shows the futility of war and deals comically with the hypocrisies of human nature and was one of Shaw's first commercial successes.
“4,000 Miles” - November
After suffering a major loss while he was on a cross-country bike trip, 21-year-old Leo seeks solace from his feisty 91-year-old grandmother Vera in her West Village apartment. Over the course of a single month, these unlikely roommates infuriate, bewilder, and ultimately reach each other. 4000 MILES looks at how two outsiders find their way in today's world.
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