May Sarton News

PORTLAND STAGE presents the world premiere of SAINT DAD, a comedic and touching exploration of Maine, class, family, and culture change by playwright Monica Wood.

New Amsterdam Singers (NAS), led by Music Director Clara Longstreth, will present Through the Seasons, featuring Robert Paterson's 'I Go Among Trees' - a World Premiere commissioned by NAS in honor of its 50th anniversary. The three-movement work by the New York-based award-winning composer is written for chorus and marimba on texts by Wendell Berry, May Sarton, and John Freeman; Makoto Nakura is the marimba soloist. The concert will be performed twice: Friday, March 20, 2020, at 8:00 pm at Broadway Presbyterian Church, Broadway at 114th Street, and Sunday, March 22, 2020, at 4:00 pm at The Theater of St. Jean Baptiste, 184 East 76th St.

'Santa Fe Spring' is the literate, hopeful, slyly funny story of a virgin spinster, aloof and delicate against eternity, who is shocked into lifelong love with a firecracker-charismatic phoenix of a young poet.

A chance encounter presents a tantalizing question for a college secretary: Can anyone be trained to see the dead? Her dogged pursuit of an answer leads to a far more earthbound challenge when a colleague is felled by grief. A heartwarming drama about love and purpose that examines the ghosts that live within us all. The Half-Light was developed as part of the 2018 Little Festival of the Unexpected at Portland Stage.

Portland Stage announces two works by Monica Wood.

Portland Stage will celebrate 29 years of nurturing playwrights and new work from May 8-12, 2018 during the Little Festival of the Unexpected. Little Festival is a week-long event dedicated to public readings of new American plays. Each May three playwrights are in residence at Portland Stage throughout the week developing their scripts with input from actors, dramaturgs, and directors.

When Simon and Garfunkel were considering old friends sitting on their park bench like bookends in 1968, I was 18 and devouring Graham Greene's The Quiet American for the first of many times.

Playwrights Theatre is pleased to announce the winners of the 31st Annual New Jersey Young Playwrights Contest. From the 470 plays submitted by young writers throughout the state, a panel of theatre professionals has selected four High School plays, three Junior High School plays and four Elementary Schools plays. In each category, selection was blind; plays were selected without knowledge of playwrights' schools, grade or background. The 31st Annual New Jersey Young Playwrights Contest Festival will be held on June 2 and 3, 2014, as part of a partnership between Playwrights Theatre and Premiere Stages at Kean University. Select plays from this festival may be reprised at Playwrights Theatre's nationally-recognized Forum Reading Series in December 2014. This reading series brings together writers from all over the United States.

Claremont Graduate University (CGU) is pleased to announce that Afaa Michael Weaver of Somerville, Massachusetts, has won the $100,000 Kingsley Tufts Poetry Award for his book The Government of Nature (University of Pittsburgh Press). The award, given annually to a mid-career poet, is one of the largest monetary poetry prizes in the United States.

Mad Horse Theatre Company invites Southern Maine theatergoers to celebrate the New Year with its wildly popular BY LOCAL new play series. Mad Horse will present a staged reading of Monica Wood's play, PAPERMAKER, tonight, January 4, 7:30pm, at the Hutchins School, 24 Mosher Street in South Portland. This event was originally scheduled for December 15, but was postponed due to a snowstorm.

Mad Horse Theatre Company invites Southern Maine theatergoers to celebrate the New Year with its wildly popular BY LOCAL new play series. Mad Horse will present a staged reading of Monica Wood's play, PAPERMAKER, on Saturday, January 4, 7:30pm, at the Hutchins School, 24 Mosher Street in South Portland. This event was originally scheduled for December 15, but was postponed due to a snowstorm.

Mad Horse's December BY LOCAL series will take place this weekend, December 12-15th, Thursday - Saturday at 7:30 and on Sunday at 2:00. All performances will be at the Hutchins School, 24 Mosher St. in South Portland. ALLIGATOR ROAD by Callie Kimball, December 12&14. PAPERMAKER by Monica Wood, December 13&15.

Mad Horse's December BY LOCAL series will take place on the weekend of December 12-15th, 7:30 Thursday - Saturday and 2:00 on Sunday. All performances will be at the Hutchins School, 24 Mosher St. in South Portland. ALLIGATOR ROAD by Callie Kimball, runs December 12&14. PAPERMAKER by Monica Wood, runs December 13&15. Admission is pay what you can at the door, with a suggested donation of $10.00. Please log onto Madhorse.com or check out the Mad Horse Facebook page for more information.

The Fire Dept Artistic Directors Erica Gould and Audrey Rosenberg have announced that the cast for The Minotaur, the first installment of the company's 2009 Salon Series, will be Mario Cantone, Jill Clayburgh, Phoebe Neidhardt, Ethan Peck, Campbell Scott, and Jeremy Webb.