Acorn Productions & MCMA to Host Mechanics Hall Ballroom Showcase, 3/6

Acorn Productions and the Maine Charitable Mechanic Association (MCMA), owners and operators of Mechanics Hall in downtown Portland, announce that they will hold a celebratory showcase in the third floor ballroom during First Friday on March 6, 2015. This event marks the first public performance in the space, made possible by the acquisition of a public assembly license that allows individuals and groups to begin holding classes, workshops and performances in the historic and elegant space. Members of the public are invited to tour the space and enjoy complimentary food and beverages, as well as and live musical entertainment from 6 to 7pm. After this drop-in event, a more formal variety performance takes place at 7pm, featuring many of the groups slated to use the group over the next few months, including Acorn's Naked Shakespeare group who will be presenting free Shakespeare during First Fridays beginning in April. The project collaborators plan to announce the details of the next Phase of their renovations work at this event.

Over the past few months, Acorn and MCMA have raised over $14,000 towards renovations of the Mechanics Hall ballroom. Built in 1857, Mechanics' Hall is listed on the National Register of Historic Places; the Ballroom, redesigned by John Calvin Stevens at the turn of the 20th century, is a beautiful and elegant space that has been out of the public eye for over 50 years. The room possesses unique historical features, almost 3,000 square feet of floor space, a refinished wood floor suitable for dancers, high ceilings, and nicely restored architectural details. Once renovations are complete at the end of Phase II of the campaign, the ballroom will become a cultural, social, and educational center for its members and the community, and its location in the heart of the Arts District will make it a hub of activity for a variety of groups, including theater and dance companies, educational institutions, individual instructors, and other community groups

The March 6th Mechanics Hall Showcase features short performances by the following groups and individuals:

Appartus Dance Theater
Dark Follies vaudeville
Hidden Ladder Collective
Improvised Puppet Project
Michael Trautman
Naked Shakespeare
Running with Scissors Improv Comedy Group
STAGES Academy

There will also be paintings and sculpures by Abbeth Russell in the ballroom as well during the event.

Founded in 1815, the Maine Charitable Mechanic Association was part of a movement to set up mechanics' institutes, which operated as craft guilds to promote and support the "mechanic arts," practiced at that time by anyone using tools to ply a trade. Mechanics' institutes also housed lending libraries intended to broaden the education of their members-the MCMA's library is the eighth oldest membership library in the country.

Acorn Productions' mission is to invigorate the community of performing artists in Southern Maine. Acorn seeks to nurture new performance pieces, develop artist collaborations, train new talent, and make the arts accessible to a wide spectrum of the general public. Acorn accomplishes these goals by mounting annual festivals that are open to a variety of artists as well as professional performances by local actors in both traditional and non-traditional venues. The company is best known for its Naked Shakespeare series of performances as well as the annual Maine Playwrights Festival.

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