Curt Dale Clark News

As a sequel to the first gala concert last week featuring some of the company’s most celebrated and beloved performers, MSMT presents two more special performances of its STARS #2 Concert on August 8-9. This second gala, directed once again by Curt Dale Clark with Ben McNaboe as Music Director, features four other nationally prominent artists who have been closely associated with the theatre - Felicia P. Fields, Heidi Kettenring, David Girolmo, and Gregg Goodbrod – in a program of story and song that dazzles and delights with its brilliance, humor, and warmth. One of Artistic Director Curt Dale Clark’s many talents is his ability to discover, retain, and nurture talent – from young artists to seasoned performers – and to create performances that tap into each individual artist’s best selves. This gala (as in the first) has been proof of that, as each artist is showcased in musical theatre numbers that have defined his/her careers. The evening is fast-paced, witty, and poignant by turns, allowing the audience to revel in the emotional ride that fine theatre provides.

As part of a summer series of concerts to welcome the arts, artists and audiences back to Brunswick, MSMT mounted the first of two gala concerts featuring four of the company’s most storied performers, Charis Leos, Lauren Blackman, Kingsley Leggs and Robert Creighton with a cameo appearance by Curt Dale Clark in a rousing, heart healing, and heartwarming evening that is playing for just two performances (July 28-29). Conceived and directed by MSMT’s Artist Director, Curt Dale Clark, STARS 1 allows these incomparable artists with resumes filled with Broadway, national tour, and leading regional theatre credits, to reprise some of their biggest hits and favorite moments and to reminisce about their careers and their experiences here in Maine. The cast creates the perfect ensemble, spinning a musical and narrative thread that is by turns comic, poignant, stirring, and inspiring.

“This has been a tough year and a half for so many, and the arts can help us rediscover our joy,” says actress Charis Leos, speaking enthusiastically about her upcoming appearance in one of Maine State Music Theatre Stars Concerts scheduled to celebrate the theatre’s return to live performing this summer. “It is a special gift for me to be able to perform again at a theatre that holds such a special place in my heart. To me it signals a return to the joy of the shared experience of live performance,” Leos adds. Leos is one of eight stars, chosen by Artistic Director Curt Dale Clark, to perform two gala concerts, each with different repertoire and cast at the Pickard Theater in Brunswick in July and August 2021. The first runs from July 28-August 1 and features Charis Leos, Lauren Blackman, Robert Creighton, and Kingsley Leggs. The second runs from August 4-8 with Felicia P. Fields, Heidi Kettenring, David Girolmo, and Gregg Goodbrod. Both programs are directed by Curt Dale Clark, who says the concerts will “offer audiences a chance to revel in the songs and stories that have kept audiences flocking to the Pickard for decades.”

A year ago, it was “The Impossible Dream,” now, the nationally regarded Fulton Theatre is proud to announce a marquee season in the theatre's 169th year. The Fulton invites audiences to “Return to LIVE,” beginning this summer with a concert series that will ease back into full audiences.

There is nothing like Celtic music to bring a lift to the step and a smile to the heart, and SONGS OF IRELAND, a new benefit concert streaming on the Fulton Theatre’s virtual platform, Fulton HD, delivers an hour of irresistible tunes performed with impeccable style, charm, and emotional depth by a stellar ensemble, who have a strong bond with Maine theatre. Directed and choreographed by Marc Robin, this beautifully crafted musical revue brings together Curt Dale Clark, Charis Leos, David Girolmo, Cary Michele Miller, Jay Poff, and Gillian Hassert, all of whom are favorites at Maine State Music and most veterans of either the 2016 THE IRISH AND HOW THEY GOT THAT WAY co-production with Portland Stage or Robin’s restaging at the Fulton Theatre in 2018.

“Cooking is theatre,” says MUMBAI TO MAINE culinary celebrity Cherie Scott. “Creative cooking is like doing live improv – engaging, exciting, something that keeps you on the tips of your toes. The common goal of the actor and the cook is to take the audience on an unpredictable journey with a rewarding outcome a delicious meal with diverse flavors and a dynamic, nuanced performance to talk about for days.” Scott, together with Artistic Director Curt Dale Clark, recently served up this heady, delightful combination of culinary prowess and theatrical performance in an online benefit for Maine State Music Theatre, as the organization continues to battle the challenges of being shuttered by the pandemic. Scott, raised in Mumbai India, has created a very successful business, MUMBAI TO MAINE, with her blog, website, cooking classes, and delectable line of products for home cooking. Clark says the idea for the fundraiser came from Scott. “It was a pretty special offer on her part. She donated her talents to create this show, and all the proceeds from the sold out event have gone to benefit MSMT’s Lifeline Fund.”

Winners have been announced for the 2020 BroadwayWorld Central Pennsylvania Awards - which were back bigger than ever, celebrating the best in local theatre of the past decade!

Maine playwrights - and those from across the United States – will have an opportunity to submit their work to the Fulton Theatre’s first National Festival of New Plays, which will debut May 21-23, 2021 in Lancaster, PA. Entitled “Stories of Diversity: Reflections of Community,’ the festival is dedicated to works – comedies, dramas, or musical, that “celebrate perspectives from the spectrum of diversity, including voices from Black, Indigenous, and other peoples of color, LGBTQ communities as well as voices from different religious and economic viewpoints. The initiative was launched this year as part of the theatre’s commitment to what Director of Community Engagement, Steph Jo Wise calls “theatre’s commitment to be an agent of change though the stories we tell” and to make a positive difference in the ongoing struggle for equity and inclusion.

“At Good Theater we have put ourselves in mothballs, declares Executive/Artistic Director Brian P. Allen. Maine State Music Theatre’s Artistic Director Curt Dale Clark concurs, “ For me the hardest part is the feeling of treading water.” “My Grandfather taught me that life was a staircase,” Clark recounts. “He would say,’ Always make sure you are moving forward; if you have to stay on a step for a while, no big deal. Try not to take a step backwards, but if you have to, figure out why, fix it, and keep moving forward.’ Right now,” Clark says sadly, “it does not feel possible to keep climbing. Everything is stacked against us and all the people we need to help us.”” On a brisk fall day nine months into the pandemic the two are taking a moment to share their experiences in this unprecedented time of crisis – a crisis that has shuttered their theatres and forced them to engage all their energies in survival of the institutions and the art form they love.

Jeffrey Coon, the Fulton's annual fund and foundation manager and one of the hosts of the telethon, announced the final fundraising total for the 'This is Our Home' campaign to be $331,841.59.

The Fulton Theatre, in partnership with WGAL 8 in Lancaster, announces a fundraising telethon event. The telethon titled a?oeThis is Our Home,a?? sponsored by Fulton Bank, will air live on WGAL 8 on Saturday, July 25 from 7:00 pm a?" 8:00 pm.

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

Maine State Music Theatre is responding to meet the needs of the local community during the Covid-19 crisis by sewing fabric face masks.

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.

News Center Maine has reported on the local theaters that have been forced to cancel their productions due to the health crisis, and the consequences that have come along with the decision to cancel.

Porchlight Music Theatre's 25th Anniversary season continues with a new free virtual series a?oeSondheim @ 90 Roundtablea?? with host Michael Weber, debuting Saturday, April 25 at 7 p.m. CST on Porchlight's Facebook page, www.facebook.com/PorchlightMusicTheatre.

After much consideration and taking direction from the Federal CDC, Maine CDC, Bowdoin College, and the Town of Brunswick in regard to the Covid-19 crisis, Maine State Music Theatre (MSMT) is saddened to announce the cancellation of its 2020 summer season.

Though theatre seasons around the country were cut short, we wanted to celebrate the theatre that our critics did get to see before things shut down. We asked them for their favorite show they saw this season. Check out their replies below!

Fulton Theatre presents the regional premiere of the Tony Award-winning Kinky Boots! This dazzling musical will lift audiences' spirits when it opens on Thursday, March 5, 2020, with preview performances on March 3rd and 4th. The Broadway smash hit has a book by Harvey Fierstein and a Grammy Award-winning score by pop sensation Cyndi Lauper has been HELD OVER for an additional week, now set to close on Saturday, April 4th.

'Hear ye, hear ye...Prince Wellington is seeking a bride.' The classic fairy tale by Hans Christian Andersen comes to life in a new musical THE PRINCESS AND THE PEA at Marriott Theatre for Young Audiences, 10 Marriott Drive in Lincolnshire, from February 8 to April 19, 2019, with a press opening on Saturday, February 15 at 10 a.m. This new spin on the classic tale features music by Marc Robin, book and lyrics by Rick Boynton, and additional lyrics by Curt Dale Clark and Marc Robin. THE PRINCESS AND THE PEA is directed and choreographed by Artistic Director Aaron Thielen, with musical direction by Patti Garwood.