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Portland Stage is bringing back the timeless tale of love, family, and the spirit of goodwill this holiday season with A CHRISTMAS CAROL, directed by Michael Dix Thomas, the Education Director at Portland Stage.
Brent Askari’s new play, set on an isolated island in Maine, explores the secrets , insecurities, and yearnings of a handful of quirky characters brought together by a murder investigation. DIRTY DEEDS DOWNEAST is an amusing and touching portrayal of small town life, the secrets the townsfolk keep, the iconoclastic barriers they erect around themselves, and the bumbling, yet uncannily accurate instincts of the island’s only policeman, who himself harbors a history of mental struggle and deep insecurity.
In his well-wrought new comedy/mystery/romance, homegrown playwright Brent Askari seeks to scratch the surface and look a little deeper into the soul of a seemingly placid island community off the coast of Maine.
Portland Stage will present Dirty Deeds Downeast written by local Maine playwright, Brent Askari on its mainstage this fall season. Enjoy a small town murder mystery comedy set off the the coast of Maine.
Portland’s Good Theater newest production is a side-splittingly funny, perfectly timed farce with ancient roots in Italy’s Commedia dell’Arte, Richard Bean’s ONE MAN TWO GUVNORS.
Good Theater will kick off the new year with the side-splitting comedy ONE MAN, TWO GUVNORS by Richard Bean, starring local favorite Dustin Tucker in his Good Theater debut. We have all of the details on the production!
Portland Stage Company is bringing back a locally adapted holiday classic paired with a winter clothing drive to benefit Maine Needs.
Following a successful 20th anniversary season in 2022 and early 2023, Good Theater has announced the schedule for the 2023/2024 season, as well as an updated rush ticket policy to help make live theater more accessible for all.
Following a successful 20th anniversary season in 2022 and early 2023, Good Theater has announced the schedule for the 2023/2024 season.
The premiere of Richard Blanco and Vanessa Garcia’s SWEET GOATS and BLUBERRY SEÑORITAS at Portland Stage heralds the magical debut of a haunting new dramatic voice. Poet Blanco and his collaborator Garcia have created a delicate, sad-sweet memory play, inhabited by six memorable and widely disparate characters, whose shards of reminiscence come together in the cold winter landscape of a small Maine town.
Forced to cancel its holiday production of Dickens’ A CHRISTMAS CAROL because of Covid issues, Portland Stage has forged ahead and created a digital-on-demand version to bring some cheer to audiences. The streamlined and re-imagined production, directed by Sally Wood. is captured effectively in Mical Huston’s video editing and serves to keep the Christmas message of this perennial favorite alive.
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.
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's Dramatic Repertory Company chose the intimate black box environment of Portland Stage's Studio Theatre to present the Maine premiere of Annie Baker's Pulitzer Prize winning play, THE FLICK, in a production that is filled with dark humor, poignant moments, and almost excruciating intensity. THE FLICK, clocking in at three hours, ten minutes, is a work that requires patience and commitment to mine its many riveting theatrical moments, but if the audience invests itself in the conceit of real time and unvarnished dialogue, there are many rewards.
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.
Maine seems to be enjoying a theatrical renaissance with large and small companies vigorously engaged in producing a wide range of repertoire throughout the state. Several of the leading professional theatres have become destinations in and of themselves - (witness the inclusion of Maine State Music Theatre and Ogunquit Playhouse in Scott Andrews' upcoming book, Vacationland) - while venerable community groups continue to raise the bar for their work. 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 2018, grouped by theatre company and show. MAINE STATE MUSIC THEATRE delivered a 60th anniversary season that redefined the meaning and substance of 'gala.'
Dustin Tucker's THE HAUNTING 2.0, presented in the Studio Series at Portland Stage, proves to be a sophisticated and fascinating sequel to last season's inaugural Halloween event. Shaping six horror stories by Maine writers into an imaginative, often chilling dramatic sequence, Tucker's piece explores the psychological dimensions of terror with a combination of visceral fear and dark humor.
It's Baaaaack! Portland Stage announces the return of an original Studio Series Production Haunting Hour 2.0 curated by Dustin Tucker and featuring Maine authors: Joe Hill, Monica Wood, Callie Kimball, H.W. Longfellow, Ian Carlsen, and Rick Hautala.
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