Pontine Theatre to Stage THE FLAT IRON LOT in Portsmouth This March
Performances are offered Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays at 2pm from March 20 through the 29th.
Pontine Theatre will present an original stage adaptation of The Flat Iron Lot, written in 1899 by Hampton Falls NH author Alice Brown. Performances are offered Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays at 2pm from March 20 through the 29th at Pontine's 1845 Plains Schoolhouse theatre located at #1Plains Avenue in Portsmouth NH.
Set in the fictional town of Tiverton — based on Brown's home town of Hampton Falls, NH — the story chronicles a rural New England community's celebration of its 250th birthday. With fits and starts, contention and compromise, the residents organize historical reenactments, a grand parade, and speeches from civic leaders and the town's beloved, unofficial historian.
In the end, the townspeople enjoy a freshly reinvigorated sense of civic pride and appreciation for the shared heritage which binds them as a community. The story is an apt microcosm of the ambitions, struggles and ideals of our upcoming national observance of the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence.
Alice Brown (1857 - 1948) was born on a farm in Hampton Falls, New Hampshire. She attended Robinson Female Seminary in Exeter, where she displayed a talent for writing at a young age. After graduating in 1876 she moved to Boston to serve on the staff of The Christian Register. It was during her early years in Boston that Brown published her first novel Stratford By the Sea (1884), set in a small coastal community; it was this novel, with her rich descriptions and candid characters, that established Brown as a regional color writer. Alice Brown was best known for her popular New England tales. Collected into volumes, her stories of idyllic New England life portray the traditional simplicity and bounteous goodness of country life. Alice Brown's Tiverton Tales (1899), The Country Road (1906), Meadow Grass (1886), and Country Neighbors (1910) are collections of stories that first saw print in the Atlantic Monthly, Harper's Monthly, and Harper's Bazaar.
The production is performed by Pontine Co-Artistic Directors, Greg Gathers and Marguerite Mathews and features a cast of “toy theatre” figures and scenery, created by Mr. Gathers. This production is suitable for adult audiences.
Marguerite Mathews, Founder and Co-Artistic Director of Pontine Theatre, holds a degree in theatre from Michigan State University. She studied with the great French actor, Etienne Decroux at his L'Ecole du Mime Corporeal in Paris, France. She also worked with Decroux's protege, Thomas Leabhart, at the University of Arkansas and at the Valley Studio in Spring Green, Wisconsin, before founding Pontine Theatre in 1977. She has served as President of the National Movement Theatre Association and as editor of its publication, Movement Theatre Quarterly. Ms. Mathews has served as a panelist at the National Endowment for the Arts and as an on-site reporter for the endowment. She has served on numerous state and local panels and is a two-term New Hampshire Artist Laureate Emerita. Ms. Mathews was presented with the Lotte Jacobi Living Treasure Award at the 2013 New Hampshire Governor's Arts Awards.
Gregory Gathers, Co-Artistic Director of Pontine Theatre, holds a BFA from the Cleveland Institute of Art. He learned theatrical design working at Theatre by the Sea in Portsmouth, New Hampshire and at Tracy Costumes, in Boston, Massachusetts. He has been designing and constructing Pontine Theatre's costumes, sets, puppets and props since 1982, and has collaborated with Ms. Mathews on the development and performance of Pontine's original works since 1984. Mr. Gathers has served as an onsite reporter for the National Endowment for the Arts, as design director for the Movement Theatre Quarterly, and on several panels at the New Hampshire State Council on the Arts. Mr. Gathers was presented with the Lotte Jacobi Living Treasure Award at the 2023 New Hampshire Governor's Arts Awards.
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