Secrets Of The Hackmatack, Revealed

As the Hackmatack Playhouse of Berwick comes back to life for the 37th summer season, so do the questions. What’s with the different color theater seats? Why is The Playhouse called “Hackmatack?” What’s playing this year?

Most of the answers originate with Hackmatack Playhouse’s founder, the late S. Carlton Guptill. It was in his honor, when The Playhouse needed new seating, that the colors of the upholstered seats were arranged so that, from the stage, one can read Guptill’s initials, “SCG,” “HP” (Hackmatack Playhouse), and “72” as in 1972, the first season. It can only be identified from the stage, however, and before the show, during intermission, or after the show, audience members occasionally get escorted up on stage to take a look.

Mr. Guptill named The Playhouse, now considered one of New England’s most charming and quaint summer theatres, “Hackmatack” after the tree. The Hackmatack tree is a coniferous tree with slender deciduous leaves. Most coniferous trees keep their leaves (or spills) in the winter but the Hackmatack tree, a member of the larch family, will lose its spills in the winter as if looking dead. So the Hackmatack Playhouse, like the tree, comes back to life every summer.

The 2009 summer Hackmatack Playhouse schedule includes Our Town, Anything Goes, The Mystery of Edwin Drood, The Producers, and special pre and post season musical nights.

Specific dates are as follows. Maine’s award winning women’s chorus, Royal River Chorus stops at Hackmatack on June 13 on their way to a national competition. The star of Hackmatack’s Annie Get Your Gun, The Irish Music Guy Kevin Farley takes to the stage June 19. Contemporary a cappella “Tuckermans at 9” returns to pack the house on June 20. Thornton Wilder’s classic story of a New England town, Our Town, runs June 24 through July 4. Music, dance, and hijinks on the original Love Boat, Anything Goes, runs July 8 – 25. The audience decides the ending in the musical mystery The Mystery of Edwin Drood running July 29 through August 8. August 12 through 29 will feature Mel Brooks’ madcap musical, The Producers. The season wraps at The Hackmatack on September 4th and 5th as Richard Conrad and The Bostonians present: Masters of American Operetta.

Tickets are now available. Hackmatack Playhouse continues a tradition of affordable ticket prices with student, senior, and group discounts. Tickets and more information is available on-line at www.Hackmatack.org or by phone, 207-698-1807.

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