Anita Stewart News

Portland Stage has been approved for a $20,000 Grants for Arts Projects award to support the Clauder Competition for New England Playwrights. This project will provide exposure, encouragement, and critical feedback to emerging playwrights who typically receive little more than a return postcard for material they send to theaters and producers.

Portland Stage presents The Winnipesaukee Playhouse production of “Or,” by Liz Duffy Adams, both live in theater and digital-on-demand

In joining a small group of Equity theatres given permission to produce live, Portland Stage already has achieved an artistic milestone during the pandemic. But with their well-crafted, emotionally satisfying production of Lanford Wilson’s TALLEY’S FOLLY, they bring a dose of hope to theatre-starved audiences – not only in practical terms but in artistic ones as well.

“I am happy to be able to provide a safe environment for cast, crew, and patrons. I am thrilled to have a way to keep my staff employed For the staff and our artists to be able to work while we are still being responsible and keeping everyone safe feels like a good thing…” Portland Stage’s Executive/Artistic Director Anita Stewart enthuses about the company’s bold new project: producing live professional theatre in the midst of a pandemic! From October 29-November 15, Portland Stage is presenting Lanford Wilson’s two-character play, TALLEY’S FOLLY, at their Forest Avenue theatre venue. Stewart’s company is among a very few nationally to receive approval from Actors Equity Association to produce a live performance indoors with an audience in attendance. The permission comes with a long – even daunting and costly - list of safety protocols, rules and regulations, that Portland Stage has been negotiating, planning, and implementing since the pandemic shuttered theatres across the globe.

Portland Stage Company is planning to present Talley's Folly, featuring a limited number of audience members, in October and November.

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.