Anita Stewart News

Portland Stage has announced they have received Equity's approval to mount the 1980 Pulitzer Prize for Drama, Talley's Folly by Lanford Wilson.

Portland Stage announces its 2020-21 season lineup including a segment on the State of the Theater during the times of the pandemic.

Portland Stage and Maine State Music Theatre (MSMT) have canceled their August 2020 co-production of Ring of Fire in consideration of the safety and comfort of our patrons, artists, staff, and volunteers due to the Covid-19 emergency.

When Portland Staged halted mid-way through its four-week live run of Native Gardens on March 12 in response to the threat of coronavirus, its four actors, three from New York City, were poised to return home early, but first it mounted one last private performance on March 14, playing to a small audience of staff.

In the midst of a dark and anxious time for all theatres, Portland Stage has managed to navigate the rights issues to live stream its production of Karen Zacarias' NATIVE GARDENS, which had begun its run when the pandemic closed everything down. The resulting performance proves a welcome ray of light for Maine's theatre goers: a comedy that uses laser-sharp wit, colorfully contrasting characters, and a measured look at a number of topical issues which are provoked by a timeless conflict.

Portland Stage transforms into a blooming garden for its Mainstage comedy that challenges audiences to look beyond our differences and find our common decency: Native Gardens by Karen Zacarías.

Portland Stage's revival of John Cariani's ALMOST, MAINE, a play which premiered with the company in 2004, represents some of the very best work this theatre can produce. The exquisitely poetic series of vignettes about love and loss framed within the uniqueness of the Maine context, offers an evening of virtually pure perfection and unlimited delight.

In remounting playwright Joe Landry's live radio play version of the beloved classic IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE, Portland Stage serves up a family friendly show filled with all the sweetness and nostalgia that make the holidays memorable. The production, directed and designed by Anita Stewart, tells the tale of George Bailey with warmth and humor, underscoring effectively the messages of kindness, gratitude, and integrity without ever becoming saccharine.

As evidenced by the breadth of nominations for Broadway World's Annual Audience Choice Awards, Maine's theatrical landscape seems to grow and flourish with each new season. For a state as remote as we are, we boast two prestigious regional theatres now in their second half centuries a?" Maine State Music Theatre and Ogunquit Playhouse a?" which are leaders on the national regional scene and which have become destinations for travellers from far flung places. Add to these an array of countless other companies of every size and philosophic bent, and you have a colorful, rich artistic arena that grows more interesting each year. I am privileged to get to sample these performances as Broadway World's Maine editor and to be able to compare many of them favorably with shows I see across the country, in New York and London. These are my personal choices of the best in Maine for 2019, grouped by theatre company and show.

Back by popular demand, this family-friendly, holiday classic returns to the Portland Stage 's Mainstage after its 2017 opening. In addition to returning Director and Set Designer Anita Stewart, Portland Stage's current Executive and Artistic Director, the production also sees the return of several members from the 2017 cast, including Dustin Tucker and Courtney Moors, members of the Actors' Equity Association. Music Director Shane Van Vliet, Costume Designer Kathleen P. Brown, and Lighting Designer Gregg Carville also return for this holiday remount.

Portland Stage presented the world premiere of a work they brought though their prestigious Clauder New Work Competition, READ TO ME. The play, selected among 170 scripts, is written by Brendon Pelsue and directed by his brother Rory - both Yale Drama School Graduates. The result9ng work is ambitious and fully in keeping with Portland Stage a?oemagical realism a?oe them for the season. The subject of READ TRO ME is potentially well chosen a?' filled with deeply searing drama- a child dying in a children's hospital with adults trying to make sense 0f this absurdity. The subject matter is dense with possibility, which, regrettably in tis production is never fully realized.

Portland Stage presents the first full reading of Perseverance, by Callie Kimball, commissioned by Portland Stage and the Maine Suffrage Centennial Collaborative.

Read to Me by Brendan Pelsue is open for reviewers Friday, October 25 at 7:30 pm. Read to Me is a poignant story about a child with a terminal illness who connects delicate moments in unusual ways. Discovering the mysterious a?oePostal Service,a?? he sends messages to the world and awaits a response. This poetic play, created through magical realism, reveals the quiet ways in which we connect. 

For the next month Portland Stage will be transformed into the Fats Waller Harlem Club where five performers and four musicians rock the stage each night recreating the sounds and sensations of the Harlem Renaissance era in music. The spectacular, soul-gripping show is AIN'T MISBEHAVIN', the musical dedicated to the work of the legendary Fats Waller, presented in a powerful co-production by Maine State Music Theatre and Portland Stage at the Portland venue. Directed by E. Faye Butler and choreographed by Kenny Ingram, this fourth collaboration between these two leading Maine theatres is an entertaining, moving, and enlightening theatrical experience.

Portland Stage presents 30th Annual Little Festival of the Unexpected Tuesday, May 7 - Saturday, May 11. Sponsored by Coffee By Design. The festival will feature works by the 2018 Clauder Competition Winners Laura Edmondson, John Minigan, and Brendan Pelsue (see more on playwrights below). Anita Stewart, Executive and Artistic Director elaborates "Little Festival is an opportunity for our audience to engage directly with writers and directors working on new plays.  I love that we can all participate together in the new play development process.'  

Geffen Playhouse will present the West Coast premiere of The Niceties, it was announced today, written by Eleanor Burgess (Chill, Start Down) and directed by Kimberly Senior (Disgraced, Career Suicide). This world premiere production of The Niceties is currently running at McCarter Theatre Center in New Jersey, and replaces Antigone on the Geffen Playhouse 2018/2019 season lineup.

The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde begins Jan 22 through Feb 17, opens for reviewers Friday Jan 25, 2019. What's in a name? Wilde's masterful comedy follows a young man and his friend on a journey that leads to an unexpected discovery.

Anita Stewart's staging of Dickens' A Christmas Carol has been a beloved fixture on Portland's Christmas scene for quite some time now, and, indeed, despite changing casts, much of its appeal resides in its familiarity to audiences. On the December 23rd matinee, the venerable production got a fresh new uplift in the performance of Dustin Tucker as Scrooge.

Richard Strauss' twisted psychodrama, Elektra, returns to the COC stage with commanding star soprano Christine Goerke in the title role. Rooted in classic Greek tragedy, the one-act opera is an expressionist take on the ultimate tale of family dysfunction: Elektra's lust to avenge her father's murder at the hands of her mother and her mother's lover. Fury and obsession spiral into horrific consequence as Elektra careens down a path of total destruction, all set to an unrelenting modern score. Elektra runs for seven performances on January 26, 31, February 6, 10, 12, 16, 22, 2019.