Max Waszak

FairShakes' springtime production of Romeo and Juliet will be performed outdoors in various New York City parks between Thursday, May 30th and Saturday, June 1st. Directed by Max Waszak, the show will be the culmination of five actors' exploration of Shakespeare's undying portrayal of true love, honor, heartbreak, miscommunication, and reconciliation. This spare telling of Romeo and Juliet aims to be clear, honest, and to the point. The performers will drive the text and invite you to bring your imaginations along for the ride.

In 2015 Theater at Monmouth continues its long tradition of arts education for young people with two programs: Page to Stage and the Write On! Student Playwriting Project. Each program provides students hands-on opportunities to explore their creative voices with professional artists. For grades pre-k to 8, TAM's Page to Stage Tour brings a world premiere adaptation of the classic The True Story of Little Red to schools across the state. The third annual Write On! Student Playwriting Project invites students in grades 5 through 12 to make their voices heard by submitting their own original plays for an opportunity to be presented in TAM's 2015 Summer Season.

Once again 2014 was a year to revel in the diversity and accomplishments of the theatrical scene in Maine. The summer and winter seasons yielded a nice balance between adventurous programming and classics. Here is my personal list for 2014, grouped by theatre company and show. 1. MAINE STATE MUSIC THEATRE once again receives my vote for the finest company in the region. Their 2014 season offered four dazzling main stage productions, including the remarkable revival of Chamberlain: A Civil War Romance, a daring and moving music theatre piece, beautifully realized by director-choreographer Marc Robin together with stars James Patterson and Kathy Voytko.

Portland's Good Theater opened its thirteenth season with a radiant revival of N. Richard Nash's 1954 play, The Rainmaker. The production, perfectly cast, sensitively directed and acted, and capped by an attractive physical production, speaks volumes about the virtues of this little company. Nash's play, set in a western ranching town crippled by drought, is a bitter sweet tale of a young woman imprisoned in her self-image of plainness and of the charismatic con man who brings not only rain, but also the healing power of dreams.

Good Theater, the professional theater company in residence at the St. Lawrence Arts Center, 76 Congress Street, Portland, has announced the start of its 13th season. Opening tonight, October 1 and running through October 19 will be N. Richard Nash's acclaimed classic, THE RAINMAKER.

Good Theater's production of THE RAINMAKER by N. Richard Nash, directed by Brian P. Allen, runs October 1-19 at Good Theater's home, the St. Lawrence Arts Center, 76 Congress Street, Portland. BroadwayWorld has a first look at the cast in action below!

Good Theater, the professional theater company in residence at the St. Lawrence Arts Center, 76 Congress Street, Portland, has announced the start of its 13th season. Opening October 1 and running through October 19 will be N. Richard Nash's acclaimed classic, THE RAINMAKER.

Doing justice to Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet, one of the most beloved and most often quoted plays in the repertoire, can be a daunting task, but the Theater at Monmouth has assembled a youthful cast and given the Bard's tragedy an honest reading - one which compensates for what it may lack in passion and abandon with sincerity and moments of striking originality.

Joe Orton's frenetic farce, What the Butler Saw, opens at Theater at Monmouth tonight, August 1 at 7:30 p.m.

Joe Orton's frenetic farce, What the Butler Saw, opens at Theater at Monmouth on Friday, August 1 at 7:30 p.m. The perfect blend of Oscar Wilde's wit, Monty Python's physical comedy, and Benny Hill's lewdness, What the Butler Saw bursts with mistaken identities, catastrophic complications, and rapid-fire dialogue. Orton's ribald examination of societal attitudes toward sexuality is a rampaging celebration of licentiousness and free-will.

William Shakespeare's pastoral comedy, As You Like It, opens at Theater at Monmouth on Friday, July 11 at 7:30 p.m. Set in the 1940s, As You Like It explores the ups and downs of love and courtship. Filled with mistaken identities and misplaced devotion, As You Like It lampoons the often puzzling, yet utterly gratifying, labor of love.

William Shakespeare's pastoral comedy, As You Like It, opens at Theater at Monmouth on Friday, July 11 at 7:30 p.m. Set in the 1940s, As You Like It explores the ups and downs of love and courtship. Filled with mistaken identities and misplaced devotion, As You Like It lampoons the often puzzling, yet utterly gratifying, labor of love.

Theater at Monmouth will celebrate 45 years of arts education for young people throughout Maine with two arts learning programs: Page to Stage and the Write On! Student Playwriting Project. Each program provides students hands-on opportunities to explore their creative voices with professional artists. For grades pre-k to 8, TAM's Page to Stage Tour brings a world premiere adaptation of Ruth Stiles Gannett's My Father's Dragon to schools across the state. The second annual Write On! Student Playwriting Project invites students in grades 5 through 12 to make their voices heard by submitting their own original plays for a opportunity to be presented in TAM's 2014 Summer Season.

Maine's Shakespeare Theater at Monmouth staged a vigorous, youthful adaptation of Shakespeare's 'joyous comedy,' Twelfth Night, this weekend at the historic Cumston Hall. The production will tour communities and schools in Maine as a apart of an NEA grant.

William Shakespeare's comic romp of disguise and devotion comes to Theater at Monmouth! Filled with mistaken identities, silly pranks, and romantic entanglements, Twelfth Night will run for one weekend only in Cumston Hall October 10-13 before heading out on the road as part of the theatre's Shakespeare in Maine Communities education tour. Twelfth Night will tour for three weeks to schools and community centers across the state. This production is part of Shakespeare for a New Generation, a national program of the National Endowment for the Arts in partnership with Arts Midwest. TAM is one of 40 theatre companies selected from across the country to participate in this initiative.

When Thornton Wilder premiered his new play OUR TOWN in 1938, I would wager that more than one person left the theatre asking why anyone would want to watch the lives of "ordinary" people on stage. Fast forward to present day where millions of people the world over tune in to reality tv shows, following the lives of "ordinary" people. The difference is, that there is nothing "brilliant" about the lives of the so-called stars of reality TV. However, Wilder's OUR TOWN is light years ahead of it's time, and the talented cast of his well-known play bring out it's brilliance at the Theater At Monmouth.

Season 44 continues at Theater at Monmouth with Thornton Wilder's Pulitzer Prize-winning drama, Our Town, starting tonight, July 18. Our Town presents a timeless tale of everyday life in the fictional Grover's Corners, New Hampshire. Teenagers George and Emily meet, fall in love, and marry; enduring both the joys and sorrows of everyday life. Wilder transforms their ordinary story into a poignant and captivating exploration of mortality and the wonder of living.

Disguises, mistaken identity, lies that beget other lies; these are the calling cards of modern television sitcoms, and farce on stage. But these conventions have been around long before the likes of Ken Ludwig's brand of farce or the inception of the moving picture. Shakespeare's comedies have long been a source of inspiration for burgeoning playwrights and screenwriters. Though written centuries ago his comedy still rings true in theatres the world over, and The Theater at Monmouth's cast of THE TAMING OF THE SHREW presents a veritable masterclass of comedic acting.